Andrea Cohen
Coaching changes in the
Oklahoma State basketball program might be imminent, regardless of whether or not athletic director
Mike Holder chooses to honor
Sean Sutton's contract.
While Sutton declined to address specific questions about his staff, the second-year coach said he plans to take a long, serious look at the program.
"I plan on evaluating everything within our program from myself to our staff to the way we do everything to see if we're doing everything possible to put ourselves in the best position for our student-athletes to succeed,” Sutton said Sunday. "Everything from the way we structure our practices to our scouting reports to the things we run on offense.”
Sutton said he plans to visit some coaches he respects to watch their practices and see how their programs function. He specifically mentioned Michigan State coach
Tom Izzo,
Gonzaga coach
Mark Few, Texas coach
Rick Barnes, North Carolina
coach Roy Williams and
Duke coach
Mike Krzyzewski as coaches whose brains he'd like to pick.
"I'd like to sit down with them and go over some stuff,” Sutton said, adding that he'd like to discuss full-court pressure with Arkansas coach
John Pelphrey and Tennessee coach
Bruce Pearl.
"I've done some of this in the past, but I think as a coach, you've always got to critique yourself and continue to want to improve,” Sutton said. "The best coaches out there don't sit and think they know everything.”
While Sutton might choose to make any number of changes, it's highly likely that staff changes will be among them.
What those changes might be remains unclear. Top assistant
James Dickey, who was the head coach at
Texas Tech for a decade before being let go in 2001, has said for years that he wants to be a head coach again. Dickey won't leave for just any head job — he has turned down offers in his five years as an assistant at
OSU — but if the right opening came along, he would likely jump at the opportunity, thus creating an opening at
OSU.
Chris Ferguson, the most recent addition to the staff, seems likely to stay on so long as Sutton does.
Ferguson arrived from
East Carolina just before the season started.
The third assistant position, however, is more muddled. In the middle of the season, Sutton switched
Mike Hatch from director of student-athlete development to the assistant job previously held by
Kyle Keller. Sutton made
Keller the director of student-athlete development. It is unclear whether Sutton would retain Hatch in that position or hire from the outside.
