Asked to define the essence of what made Eddie Sutton a hall of fame coach, James Dickey quoted the late Charlie Spoonhour.
Spoonhour, a Rogers High School graduate, fielded a call from Dickey, then an assistant for Sutton at Arkansas in the early 1980s. Dickey was instructed to try to get Spoonhour’s new school, Southwest Missouri State, on the UA schedule.
“I think Charlie had just gotten there and Coach Sutton wanted to know if they would consider coming down to play us in a series,” Dickey said. “I called him and it wasn’t going well. He didn’t want to play us.
“Finally, Charlie just said, ‘Why would we want to play anybody who won’t let you catch and pass?’ That was clever and profound.”
It captured the way Sutton coached defense, the key to winning 806 games at Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State and San Francisco. He became the first coach to take four schools to the NCAA Tournament. He was named to the 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class Saturday.
Sutton’s system that denied the passing lanes to make it tough to catch and pass was at the root of phone conversations with Pat Foster and Dickey, two Sutton protégés who became successful Division I head coaches. Foster also revealed how Sutton got the Arkansas job.
Both were thrilled with Sutton’s selection to the hall and delighted in discussing their former boss Saturday afternoon. Foster lives in Fayetteville, Dickey in his hometown of Valley Springs.
“It was great,” Foster said. “I got a call real early this morning from Gene Keady. He was so glad, as am I. Gene calls from time to time, but he woke me up this morning, real early and was real happy.”
After Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles brought Sutton from Creighton in 1974, Sutton hired Foster and Keady as his assistants. Both would become terrific head coaches.
Keady, likely a future hall of famer himself, won 550 games at Western Kentucky and Purdue. The Boilermakers won seven Big Ten titles under Keady. Foster won 366 games at Lamar, Houston and Nevada.
Combined, teams coached by Keady and Foster went to postseason play in 36 seasons.
Dickey won 226 games at Texas Tech and Houston. The Red Raiders (30-2) won the SWC title in 1996.
He joined Sutton’s staff at Arkansas in 1981, followed him to Kentucky in 1985, then rejoined him at Oklahoma State in 2002 between his head coaching stops at Lubbock and Houston. No one worked longer for Sutton. He served as his assistant coach for 17 seasons.
“I idolized Coach Sutton,” Dickey said. “When I was a head coach at Harding Academy, I’d sit up on Sunday night with a notebook to watch his TV show. I started writing him letters trying to get on his staff. Oh, he was so smart at everything he did. I wanted to learn from him.”
Dickey’s father, long-time Valley Springs coach JB Dickey, encouraged him to consider moving up a level to college coaching.
“My dad had worked Coach (Henry) Iba’s camps and when Coach Sutton got the Arkansas job, he started to suggest that I think about trying to work for him. I wrote him letters (asking for a job) for five years and worked his camps. I credit (former Sutton player and assistant) Jim Counce for helping me get a job on Coach Sutton’s staff.”
The start was as a volunteer. He shared a small dorm room with football assistant Larry Dixon and later Doc Sadler. There were lessons learned every day. Dickey called Sutton “an unbelievable psychologist” along with a great coach.
“It was the way he conducted himself with the press, just the entire way he worked,” Dickey said. “He knew how to handle players, delegate to his staff, administrative help and even the managers. He could delegate and get maximum results from everyone.
“But his greatest strength was the way he treated his players. He knew when to put his thumb down and when to put his arm around them.
“Whether it was his players or anyone who worked for him, no one wanted to let him down.”
Foster echoed those thoughts, especially on delegation to assistants.
“Once you gained his trust, then he would give you more and more,” Foster said. “Gene Keady and I talked this morning on the delegation and the detail in that.
“The way assistants watched practices and games was delegated. There were exact spots to watch on how our defense provided help and play the passing lanes. As a coach, you couldn’t watch all five men on defense. Eddie could watch maybe two and that would be on the ball side. He’d ask us to watch the other defenders.
“So maybe Gene would watch the weakside post defense and I’d watch the other two on the weakside. That’s what we did in games and that way Eddie would know if everyone was in the exact right spot and could make corrections.
“The deal was not just guarding your man, it was denial of passes, playing the passing lanes. It was perfected by the inch.”
It was incredible detail, as learned from Sutton’s mentor, Henry Iba at Oklahoma State.
“Really, Eddie was the best coach, better than Iba,” Foster said. “I can say that because I played against Iba when I was at Arkansas. Iba was wonderful and had a great system, but Eddie learned it then enlarged it, perfected it.
“No one had the detail in his defense like Eddie. And, he taught how to set a screen and knew it when someone was 6 inches off. It was how to set angles, broken down by the inch. I never saw anyone break it down by inches like Eddie did.
“At all times, Eddie had the game under control. By the time I joined him in 1974, Eddie had mastered game management.”
Foster recalled the first realization of Sutton’s game management perfection.
“At that time, staffs had not grown in college basketball, and you didn’t travel everyone, either,” Foster said. “Our second game of that first season we went to Mississippi State. Gene had gone recruiting, so it was just me and Eddie on the bench.”
The Hogs beat the Bulldogs, 75-72.
“I learned a real lesson in game management, second by second, minute by minute, just such detail,” Foster said. “I was amazed. I’d never known anything like it.
“What we eventually all learned under Eddie was time and score. He managed a 40-minute game in one-minute segments.”
Foster is a great resource for almost anything Sutton, including how he got the Arkansas job. For some reason, Foster has incredible insight into Broyles, as well as Sutton. Foster was a star player for the Arkansas basketball team in 1959-61, the same time as Broyles was winning SWC football titles.
“I can tell you how Frank hired Eddie,” Foster said. “Bill Connors was the sports editor of the Tulsa World, a great man and very close to both Eddie and Frank. Bill and Eddie went to school together at Oklahoma State. Bill kept telling Frank about Eddie when he was at Creighton and that’s why Frank hired him.”
That didn’t surprise Dickey, who also noted the close bond between Sutton, Connors and Broyles.
“Coach Sutton and Bill were really tight,” Dickey said. “They talked a lot and probably because of that relationship, Coach Sutton really understood the importance of the press. He wanted to communicate his style to the fans.”
Those are among the lessons Dickey said Sutton taught to assistants.
Dickey and Foster both heard the stories of the Iba days at Oklahoma State, including the stall game that could be inserted in any game.
Dickey recalled a major lesson of its value soon after joining the Sutton staff in 1981. The Hogs clinched the second of back-to-back SWC titles with a 54-53 victory over SMU and Jon Koncak in 1982.
“We had the lead with 15 minutes left and Coach Sutton put us in dead control,” Dickey said. “Basically, dead control was Mr. Iba’s four corners. Dead control means you only take a layup or a free throw, no jump shots. We won the championship.”
The understanding of offense was sophisticated. Yes, there were often restrictions on what was an open shot, even with the likes of sharpshooter Marvin Delph. But, there was a plan to break down the defense.
“If you didn’t guard, you didn’t play,” Dickey said. “But you’d learn to play defense and then the offense revolved around shot selection. His coaching started with defense, but he had a great offensive mind.
“The idea on offense was to flatten the defense. You did that by getting the ball to the baseline to great players like Sidney Moncrief, Darrell Walker and Alvin Robertson. All those guys made their living on the baseline.
“The idea on offense was to reverse the ball, penetrate and get it to the baseline. I can still hear him yell it, ‘Reverse it, penetrate, pitch.’ I can still hear him say it over and over.”
Sometimes assistant coaches would beat Sutton to the coaching points.
“We were allowed to coach, but he wanted our voices to sound exactly the same as his,” Dickey said. “He coached us on that. He was a stickler, use the same phrases, the same voice.”
Most of it was defensive phrasing.
“He’d always tell our players, ‘We believe in pressure, man and help defense,’” Dickey said. “Providing help was crucial. But, he’d say it over and over, ‘There is going to be a time in the game when it’s going to be you and your guy and there is no help. You better contain him.’
“What we always coached, hang your hat on defense. It was just the way the program was built.”
It was as simple as that Spoonhour phone call, not allowing a catch or a pass. And, Sutton had a simple phrase to define it.
“Coach Sutton would say, ‘Make them turn their butt to the glass and not let them pass,’” Dickey said, adding that a rhyming word was substituted for butt.
“It’s the same as football. You put enough heat on the quarterback, he can’t see where to throw the football.
“But the key was to pressure and still contain the ball. Of course, it’s one thing to say it and another thing to do it. He did it.”
Foster loved hearing the Spoonhour comment.
“Charlie coached under Moe Iba at Nebraska and understood what Eddie was doing,” Foster said. “Not allowing a catch or a pass was denial defense.
“That’s what we had in 1978 with the Final Four team. You had great defense, at all positions.”
Center Steve Schall, a gangly 6-11, was quick enough to deny entry to the post. Perimeter defenders Counce, Ron Brewer, Moncrief and Delph did not allow open passing lanes.
“Our goal was to run the ball out of the middle of the floor as they brought it up,” Foster said. “You forced the dribble to one side and then didn’t let them off that side.
“We had two guys in Moncrief and Brewer who wouldn’t let them reverse the ball. Brewer intercepted more guard-to-guard passes than anyone in college basketball. In those days, most used a two-guard offensive front.
“Eventually, people realized that a forward was needed to reverse the ball, but we took advantage of teams with guard-to-guard passing and that was almost all that people were doing then. Brewer would show them a passing lane, then had the wing span to intercept.
“The defense was sophisticated. Eddie had all the bases covered. It was more detailed than anybody. The detail to the designated spots was tremendous and it changed on every pass. The positioning was perfect to change immediately with every pass.”
The toughness of the practices cannot be overstated.
“Gene Keady and I talked many times about the grueling nature of the practices,” Foster said. “It was beyond intense.”
Sutton was demanding, but not demeaning.
“First, he never questioned any coach in front of a player,” Foster said. “I’ve heard of many coaches – in almost any sport – who would blast an assistant in front of the players. Eddie never did that.
“And, the way he corrected players was unique. It might be loud, but not a yelling voice. He would correct strongly and if a player resisted, he’d explain it again in a calm voice.
“If the player didn’t understand, he’d do it again. I don’t recall too many players talking back because no one did in those days. But if they seemed to be concerned that it was criticism, Eddie would just say, ‘Listen to my message and do not focus on how I’m saying it, but what I’m saying.’
“He could get it done with tremendous compassion.”
The intensity was brought up when many former players returned to honor Counce at his recent induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. Sutton, Foster, Moncrief and Delph are also members.
“I sat for a long time at a table with Sidney, Ron and Marvin,” Foster said. “It’s incredible to watch those three around our Razorback fans. They are like movie stars and handle it so well.”
In between signing autographs and shaking hands, talk of Sutton’s practices surfaced.
“Sidney and Ron both played in the NBA a long time and they say nothing they ever experienced compared to the intensity of Eddie’s practices,” Foster said. “I never saw anything like it either.”
That was the Sutton way, to make sure no one could catch or pass.