USF and Eddie Sutton an Ugly Stunt
By Larry Brown January 4, 2008 - Posted in College Basketball

It doesn’t seem like this story has received enough attention and exposure for what it is — a fraud. A few weeks ago it was announced that USF would hire Eddie Sutton as their interim head coach so he could reach the 800 career win milestone. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was just reported by the San Francisco Chronicle that Eddie Sutton would coach only this season and be done after the year. Excuse me for expressing curiosity at the moment, but wasn’t there a previous head coach who was fired in order to make room for Sutton? And isn’t it pretty cheap of Sutton to parachute in for a few months, reach his milestone, and then bail?

Think about the type of criticism Brett Favre received for laying down to give Michael Strahan the sack record. Yeah, that went against the spirit of competition, but that has nothing on this move by USF. Sutton will tell you that he’s leaving the program in a better condition than when he took it over, but how much can he be helping if he’s just out after March? If he wanted 800 wins so badly, maybe he should have worked harder at Oklahoma State and held that job in higher regard. In my eyes preserving integrity is much more important than reaching a numeric milestone. After all, is a round number worth the price of dignity?

About Larry Brown:
Larry Brown has over nine years of professional sports media experience, working in online, radio, and TV capacities. He recently was a nationally syndicated sports radio host. Follow him on twitter @LBSports
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  • joejoejoe

    The team was 13-18 in ’07 & 11-17 in ’06. The USF kids are lucky to be exposed to a winning coach for even one year. You don’t always have the same boss or teacher from year to year. At least these kids know in advance to make the most of this one year opportunity.

  • guy

    i went to the usf/holy cross game today (sat). sutton looked drunk on the sidelines and did nothing. the assistants coached the game. the guy’s prime passed long ago.

  • http://www.richardbizick.com rich

    sounds like a publicity stunt by USF to me