Choice based solely on Sutton
However some say that athletic director wants to talk to coaches whose teams are still playing
Choice based solely on Sutton
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18
By Andrea Cohen
Published: March 31, 2008
Oklahoma State men's basketball has been playing the waiting game for nearly two weeks now.
It's kind of like a post-post season for those following the situation of Sean Sutton's job status. Only the waiting game, which started when OSU ceased playing in the NIT on March 18, isn't much fun for anybody involved.
Make no mistake: OSU athletic director Mike Holder is making a decision. And he's taking his time with that decision. So naturally, the question has become: What's taking so long?
Given the length of time that has passed between the end of the season and an announcement of some kind — and an announcement should be made either way at this point — media and fans have speculated that Holder's decision includes a third party (or multiple third parties). More than one media outlet has suggested that the 13-day limbo is dragging on because coaches Holder wants to speak with about the job are still coaching. The reasoning goes: If Holder definitely wanted to keep Sutton, he would have said so by now. If he definitely wanted to fire him, he would have done that by now as well.
The athletic director said Sunday afternoon that is not the case.
"That's wrong,” Holder said. "I haven't talked to any coach, any agent, any search firms. Anybody saying any of that is absolutely false.”
When asked if his decision would be based 100 percent on Sutton, Holder said yes.
"And we haven't talked yet,” Holder said, adding that he has been out of town traveling with the women's basketball team and Sutton has been on the road recruiting. "I think we'll get together this week, sit down and talk about it.”
Holder, then, would dispute opinions like that of CBSsportsline.com national basketball writer Gary Parrish, who compared the situation in Stillwater to the way Arkansas fired Stan Heath last year. Arkansas, he said, waited more than a week to fire Heath — the longest any BCS school waited between the end of a season and a firing — because it thought it was wrapping up a deal with Billy Gillipsie behind the scenes.
Of course, that didn't work out, and Arkansas then had a highly-publicized (and somewhat messy) search before hiring John Pelphrey.
"I think Sean's in a similar situation,” Parrish said. "I don't think they're going to move him just to move him and open up a search.
"It's a tough situation to be in, because you're just sort of sitting there at the mercy of a (Kansas coach) Bill Self, a (Kentucky coach) Billy Gillispie, an Anthony Grant (Virginia Commonwealth's coach). If those guys want your job, they can have it. If not, maybe you can keep it. That's a tough spot to be in.”
Holder says that's not the situation Sutton is in, and he's the man who would know. But until something gets resolved this week, speculating season will drag on and on.
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2. Did Sean kick 22% of his starters off the team even BEFORE coaching his FIRST GAME?
3. Did Sean switch offensive schemes from Iba style to Billy Tubbs style BEFORE coaching his FIRST GAME?
Put things in perspective and it's easy to see why Sean may not get an extension, raise, or maybe even another year.
Essentially Sean has little excuse to not be in the top-5 of the big 12 which should give us an at-large bid to the dance. This would be similar to, but greater than, the improvement that Gundy made with the football team in his third season.
On a personal note I hate the favoritism given to Gundy. Sean is die-hard OSU just like Gundy. Both coaches inherited the program from great coaches that improved the standing of the team but then ruined the program with the manner in which they left (Eddie took us to the final four and Les got us close to the BCS, i.e. 9 win season, then Les Miles told recruits not to come to OSU and Eddie's drinking was just as much of a black eye). However, Sean has put us in tournament discussion in each of his first two seasons and Gundy is the only one of the two to has posted a losing record, not only a losing record but 4-7 and 1-7 in the big 12 which would be the equivalent to only winning two big 12 games in basketball. Yet, Gundy gets extensions and raises undeservedly and Sean gets nothing.
Well of course not Holder, no one thinks that YOU would actually talk to anyone. But is SOMEONE ELSE doing the talking?
Holder didn't say that NO ONE associated with the Athletic Department has officially or unofficially spoken to anyone about the job.