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Scott Sutton's decison no shocker
Published: 4/12/2007 10:42 AM
Last Modified: 4/12/2007 10:42 AM

Scott Sutton made the right decision in staying at Oral Roberts.
Just an opinion, but some jobs are set up for a guy to be a hero (it's preferable to take the place of a guy who just failed) and some jobs are sort of a no-win deal.
Wichita State, though a nice job, is sort of a no-win deal.
The Missouri Valley Conference is so much tougher in basketball than Joe Public realizes. Big 12 teams, believe it not, would have a very difficult time winning road games at Valley sites.
A bigger problem is that the Valley doesn't get its due respect from the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, which should know better. The RPI says that the MVC is a big-time basketball league, but the committee chooses to ignore the RPI when it comes time to decide whether or not to put Valley teams in the bracket. Missouri State has been left out two years in a row despite a tournament-worthy RPI. If the jerseys of Barry Hinson's team said "Power League" rather than "Missouri State" the Bears would quite literally be dancing Bears.
If, tops, the MVC is only going to get three schools per year in the tournament, pencil in Creighton for one spot and Southern Illinois for another. That leaves the rest of the league to jockey for one more spot and that's tough odds.
Congratulations Scott Sutton for sticking around to be the big fish in a small (Mid-Con) pond rather than jumping into the shark tank with other Valley schools.




Reader Comments 1 Total
Joe Schmoe (6 years ago)
Jimmie, seriously. You talk about how the MVC will get at most 3 teams into the tournament. Well, the Mid-CON will get at most ONE team, and they have to win the conference tournament. That's what coaching is about, getting a gig in a good conference with a good chance to go to post-season. This was Sutton's best chance to move up, as ORU won't be nearly as good next season...I don't care who tells you differently.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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