Someone officially connected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame should muster the guts to explain why Eddie Sutton has not been selected for induction.
The problem is, from whom would you request a statement? The Hall of Fame doesn’t divulge the identities of its voters.
In 2016, there was this great Washington Post headline: “Want to know who votes for Basketball Hall of Fame? None of your business.”
Post columnist John Feinstein described the Naismith Hall of Fame as “perhaps the least transparent organization in sports.”
Most Heisman Trophy voters reveal their choices after the fact, but there is no such accountability with the basketball Hall of Fame. No explanation why Sutton remains the only men’s college coach with at least 800 victories, but without Hall of Fame membership.
With 806, Sutton is one of only eight coaches to have reached the 800-win mark. There were three Final Four appearances (one at Arkansas and two at Oklahoma State). At four different schools, there were a total of 26 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Go to the Naismith Hall of Fame website and do searches on the names Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Jim Calhoun, Adolph Rupp and Roy Williams. Those are the other seven coaches with at least 800 wins, and each is a Hall of Fame member.
Try a search on the name Eddie Sutton. This is the response: “We’re sorry, but we could not find any hall of famers related to the keyword eddie sutton.”
Sutton was a Hall of Fame finalist five times — most recently in 2016 — but failed on each occasion to get the minimum number of votes. From a top-secret panel of 24 selectors, a candidate must get at least 18 votes. Sutton is not a finalist this year.
Presumably, Sutton’s Hall of Fame candidacy is damaged because, during the late ’80s, the Kentucky program got into trouble under his watch.
A Wildcat assistant coach was accused of having mailed cash to the father of a recruit. Sutton himself was not implicated in the NCAA’s decision to punish Kentucky with a three-year probation.
Imagine the reaction in 1989 if NCAA investigators were told that in 2017-18, FBI agents would be involved in the attempted clean-up of college basketball.
Cheating is not a fresh phenomenon.
With 876 victories, Rupp is in the Hall of Fame. He was the Kentucky coach for 42 years, but actually coached 41 seasons. Because of NCAA sanctions that resulted from three players having been implicated in a point-shaving scandal, the Wildcat program was inactive during the 1952-53 season. Didn’t play a single game.
Sixty-five years ago, there was a one-season death penalty of sorts for Kentucky, but Rupp is a celebrated figure in the Hall of Fame. Rupp surely wasn’t aware that his players were associating with gamblers, just like the NCAA determined that Sutton apparently wasn’t aware that an assistant was a dirty recruiter.
More recently, because of violations, the 1996 UMass and 2008 Memphis teams aren’t formally recognized by the NCAA as having made Final Four appearances. Both squads were coached by John Calipari, who now is at Kentucky — and in the Hall of Fame.
Rick Pitino also is in the Hall of Fame. He was inducted in September 2013 — six months after the Cardinals captured the national title, and during a period when, it was later determined by the NCAA, a Louisville assistant provided prostitutes and strippers to players and recruits.
After it was alleged that he had knowledge of a planned $100,000 payment to the family of a recruit, Pitino was fired in October.
Last week, Louisville’s 2013 championship was erased from the NCAA record book.
Today, 81-year-old Eddie Sutton still is not a member of the basketball Hall of Fame. It’s an inexplicable insult to him and his body of work, and you have to presume that there is an anti-Sutton agenda within the Hall of Fame culture.
If you’re waiting for clarity from someone involved in the voting process, don’t hold your breath.
Tulsa World Link
The problem is, from whom would you request a statement? The Hall of Fame doesn’t divulge the identities of its voters.
In 2016, there was this great Washington Post headline: “Want to know who votes for Basketball Hall of Fame? None of your business.”
Post columnist John Feinstein described the Naismith Hall of Fame as “perhaps the least transparent organization in sports.”
Most Heisman Trophy voters reveal their choices after the fact, but there is no such accountability with the basketball Hall of Fame. No explanation why Sutton remains the only men’s college coach with at least 800 victories, but without Hall of Fame membership.
With 806, Sutton is one of only eight coaches to have reached the 800-win mark. There were three Final Four appearances (one at Arkansas and two at Oklahoma State). At four different schools, there were a total of 26 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Go to the Naismith Hall of Fame website and do searches on the names Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Jim Calhoun, Adolph Rupp and Roy Williams. Those are the other seven coaches with at least 800 wins, and each is a Hall of Fame member.
Try a search on the name Eddie Sutton. This is the response: “We’re sorry, but we could not find any hall of famers related to the keyword eddie sutton.”
Sutton was a Hall of Fame finalist five times — most recently in 2016 — but failed on each occasion to get the minimum number of votes. From a top-secret panel of 24 selectors, a candidate must get at least 18 votes. Sutton is not a finalist this year.
Presumably, Sutton’s Hall of Fame candidacy is damaged because, during the late ’80s, the Kentucky program got into trouble under his watch.
A Wildcat assistant coach was accused of having mailed cash to the father of a recruit. Sutton himself was not implicated in the NCAA’s decision to punish Kentucky with a three-year probation.
Imagine the reaction in 1989 if NCAA investigators were told that in 2017-18, FBI agents would be involved in the attempted clean-up of college basketball.
Cheating is not a fresh phenomenon.
With 876 victories, Rupp is in the Hall of Fame. He was the Kentucky coach for 42 years, but actually coached 41 seasons. Because of NCAA sanctions that resulted from three players having been implicated in a point-shaving scandal, the Wildcat program was inactive during the 1952-53 season. Didn’t play a single game.
Sixty-five years ago, there was a one-season death penalty of sorts for Kentucky, but Rupp is a celebrated figure in the Hall of Fame. Rupp surely wasn’t aware that his players were associating with gamblers, just like the NCAA determined that Sutton apparently wasn’t aware that an assistant was a dirty recruiter.
More recently, because of violations, the 1996 UMass and 2008 Memphis teams aren’t formally recognized by the NCAA as having made Final Four appearances. Both squads were coached by John Calipari, who now is at Kentucky — and in the Hall of Fame.
Rick Pitino also is in the Hall of Fame. He was inducted in September 2013 — six months after the Cardinals captured the national title, and during a period when, it was later determined by the NCAA, a Louisville assistant provided prostitutes and strippers to players and recruits.
After it was alleged that he had knowledge of a planned $100,000 payment to the family of a recruit, Pitino was fired in October.
Last week, Louisville’s 2013 championship was erased from the NCAA record book.
Today, 81-year-old Eddie Sutton still is not a member of the basketball Hall of Fame. It’s an inexplicable insult to him and his body of work, and you have to presume that there is an anti-Sutton agenda within the Hall of Fame culture.
If you’re waiting for clarity from someone involved in the voting process, don’t hold your breath.
Tulsa World Link