Eddie's done pretty well at OSU, too

It's hard to believe, but Eddie Sutton has been Oklahoma State's basketball coach nearly as long as he was Arkansas' coach.
Sutton coached the Razorbacks for 11 seasons from 1974-85 and is in his 11th season at Oklahoma State, his alma mater.
While Oklahoma State has a rich basketball tradition, including national championships in 1945 and 1946 under legendary coach Henry Iba, the program was down when Sutton took over for the 1990-91 season.
Oklahoma State had been to the NCAA Tournament only three times in the previous 22 years but has gone eight times in the first 10 years of Sutton's regime, including a Final Four trip in 1995.
"If someone had told me 11 years ago what our record would be here, I think I would have been surprised," Sutton said. "I wasn't sure we'd be able to accomplish as much as we have, but things have worked out well.
"We've had good players and good assistant coaches."
If Oklahoma State, which was 4-1 going into Saturday's game against Northwestern (La.) State, makes the NCAA Tournament this year, that will be nine appearances in Sutton's 11 seasons.
Sutton also took Arkansas to the NCAA Tournament nine times in 11 seasons.
When Sutton took over at Arkansas, the Razorbacks hadn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1958, when they lost to Oklahoma State 65-40 in a first-round game.
Sutton was a senior guard on that Cowboys team.

RENOVATIONS READY FOR EDDIE
When UALR plays at Oklahoma State on Tuesday night, it will mark the first game in the Cowboys' renovated Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The arena, which was built in 1938, has had its seating capacity expanded from 6,381 to 13,611 and has luxury suites that also will afford a view of football games at adjacent Lewis Field.
"It's really going to be a nice facility," Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton said. "I'm not sure it's going to be as nice as [Arkansas'] Walton Arena, because I think that's probably the nicest campus facility in the country.
"But Gallagher-Iba Arena is going to be a very good facility for us, and I think it will help our basketball program and other sports as well [with increased revenue]."
While waiting for the renovation to be completed, the Cowboys have been splitting their home games between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

DO YOU KNOW HOW COLD IT IS?
Arkansas linebackers coach Bobby Allen wore shorts last week at practice when the Razorbacks were finishing up on-campus workouts for the Las Vegas Bowl.
Granted, the Razorbacks were practicing inside the warmth of the Walker Pavilion. But to get to and from practice, Allen had to walk more than 250 yards over the frozen tundra of Razorback Stadium and Arkansas' outdoor practice fields.
"I knew we were going to be indoors, so I can bare it for the few minutes I've got to walk outdoors," Allen said of wearing shorts. "I'm just trying to get mentally tough, because I know we're going to Vegas and it's going to be warm."

SEC HAS THREE OF FINAL FOUR
Going into this weekend's games, there were four NCAA Division I schools that had both undefeated men's and women's basketball teams, and three were SEC schools.
The final four included Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee of the SEC and Baylor of the Big 12.

This article was published on Sunday, December 17, 2000

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