Eddie Sutton has never been celebrated for being a classy guy. After
wrecking Kentucky's program, and blaming everyone but himself, he went home to
Oklahoma State, where he has built an impressive program. Apparently it's
not enough to recover a career which nearly ended in disgrace, or to overcome a
drinking problem, as was widely reported after his Kentucky fiasco. No,
Sutton has to take a cheap shot at Coach K and a dead man, suggesting that
since his team is lame, he might "come down with some ailment here,"
might "pull a Krzyzewski."
Anyone who pays any attention to Krzyzewski at all knows this is a crock of
dung. But for a guy whose career is most noted for an Emery envelope
stuffed with cash, and who is a recovering alcoholic, to say such a thing
is really pathetic.Â
It's worth noting that a lot of those games lost that season were extremely
close - two games to Maryland, the big UVa comeback, the UNC game in
Cameron among them. If you think Krzyzewski would have allowed Duke
to lose all those games you just don't understand the man well. They might have
lost, but not the way they lost. And with Parks, Meek, Langdon,
Wojo, Price, and Capel, while it wasn't among Duke's most talented teams, it was
not pathetic either.Â
Anyway, the best news out of this is that if Duke and Oklahoma State meet in
the tournament, Krzyzewski will more than likely teach Sutton what "pulling
a Krzyzewski" means. And while Duke fans have been pretty good about
invoking the "Woods Rule," which they use when an opponent doesn't
need to be harassed (so named for Loren Woods, who resumed his career after
being suspended for his own mental well being by Dave Odom), since Sutton
clearly lacks taste and perspective, boozer jokes are well within the bounds he
himself has set. We're not advocating making them, but he's certainly left
himself open to almost anything, given his own track record and foibles.Â
As far as we're concerned, Emery Eddie has given up any redemption he earned.
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