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Travis Ford Leaves UMass for Oklahoma State

Posted Apr 16th 2008 12:29PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Oklahoma State Basketball, Umass Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches, Breaking News

Travis Ford is leaving UMass to take the head-coaching job at Oklahoma State, ESPN's Doug Gottlieb is reporting:

That's an awfully quick change of mind for Ford, who less than a week ago said he was sticking with UMass. But Oklahoma State has the backing of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, which means the Cowboys can give coaches financial offers that make the six-figure deals of UMass look like chump change.

Ford, who previously turned down LSU, reportedly will meet with his players today to tell them he's leaving. Ford has a 62-35 record in three seasons at UMass and led them to a loss in the NIT title game this year. He replaces Sean Sutton, who resigned after failing to reach the NCAA tournament in 2007 and 2008.

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Bill Self Turns Down Oklahoma State Money, Will Stay at Kansas

Posted Apr 10th 2008 5:46PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches, Breaking News

The deep pockets of T. Boone Pickens and the desire to return to his alma mater weren't enough to convince Bill Self to leave the school where he's won the national championship.

Self, whose Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship on Monday, has announced he will not go to Oklahoma State and will be back at Kansas next season.

Ordinarily, it wouldn't even be an issue: Kansas just won the national championship and is a better program than Oklahoma State. Why would Self even think of leaving? But Oklahoma State is no ordinary school.

For one thing, it's the school that Self and his wife attended, and it's closer to his family than Kansas. There could have been personal reasons for him to head to Stillwater. And perhaps more importantly, there's Pickens, the billionaire who practically owns the Oklahoma State athletic department and opens up his wallet any time he thinks he can improve it. He would have made Self by far the highest-paid coach in college basketball history.

As it is, Self will turn down a few million but still be highly paid with a new contract and a pay raise at Kansas. Jayhawks Athletic Director Lew Perkins says the details of a new contract for Self "will be finalized in the next few weeks."

Said Self at his news conference today, "I don't know what the big deal is. ... There was never serious interest in leaving the University of Kansas. " Well, coach, the big deal is that you're the most sought-after coach in college basketball, and you're staying put.

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Kansas Shouldn't Fight Too Hard to Keep Bill Self on Their Bench

Posted Apr 9th 2008 10:20AM by Josh Alper
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches

If there was a dark lining to the silver cloud that's parked over Lawrence, Kansas this week, it's the possibility that Bill Self could take a massive offer from another Big 12 school and leave the Jayhawks. If rumors are true, Oklahoma State wants to make him a fabulously wealthy man as opposed to merely the wealthy man he is today. He's an OSU alum and money is money so it wouldn't be a surprise if he jumped ship.

After saying a move could happen in a postgame interview Monday, Self addressed the situation again yesterday. He said he was "positively not interested" in the Oklahoma State job but then turned around and said that he was sure he'd be meeting with Kansas soon to "iron things out." He's certainly mastered playing both sides of the fence and even managed to make it seem like the money didn't matter.

"What I'd like to have is like everybody'd like to have. I'd like to have some security. I don't know what even Kansas would remotely be talking (about). We haven't even talked about that. When I say security, I mean years, so hopefully that'll happen."

Here's the thing, Kansas gave him a five-year extension before this season. That's an awful lot of security.

Continue Reading Kansas Shouldn't Fight Too Hard to Keep Bill Self on Their Bench

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Sean Sutton $2.7 Million From Oklahoma St. to Go Away

Posted Apr 8th 2008 9:27AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches

When Oklahoma State forced the resignation of Sean Sutton, he still had 3 years left on his contract at $750,000 per year ($2.25 million total). The school, even with the deep pockets of T. Boone Pickens, really didn't want to have to pay that much each year to Sutton while paying for a new coach. Instead they reached an extended settlement.

Sutton will get $2.7 million over the next 10 years. He'll get $300,000 this month, and then starting in July he gets $20,000 per month for the 10 year period.

Unlike a lot of agreements, he gets the money regardless of whether he takes another job or not. Usually, there is some agreement to offset part of the money when a coach takes another job. Sean Sutton gets this regardless of whether he takes an assistant coaching job or another head coaching job.

Unsurprisingly, there is also a clause for both parties not to speak ill of the other.

According to the settlement document, OSU ''agrees to make no adverse comments or disparaging remarks . . . about Sean P. Sutton.'' And Sutton, ''for himself and members of his immediate family, similarly agrees to make no adverse comments or disparaging remarks (about OSU).''

Eddie Sutton, Sean Sutton's father who coached at OSU from 1990 to 2006, is not defined in the settlement as a member of Sean Sutton's ''immediate family.''

Eddie Sutton, is obviously not very happy about the firing of his son. Even to the point where he is at least making noise about not being sure he wants his name to remain on the court at Gallagher-Iba Arena (though, that just seems like some posturing).

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Bob Knight's Advice to Bill Self: Lie

Posted Apr 8th 2008 7:02AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches, NCAA Basketball Media Watch

Bob Knight has been great on ESPN. Not because he's lost his cool at any point on the ESPN set. (darn). No, he's been great because he has been refreshingly candid about things. On the day of the NCAA Tournament Championship, the rumors of Oklahoma State pursuing Bill Self were everywhere. The discussion turned to how it should be handled.

Bob Knight compared it to the situation in the 1996 Superbowl with Bill Parcells, the New England Patriots and the New York Jets job. He had the simple and effective suggestion. Lie about it. (Plus, I just get a kick out of Knight calling the Patriots, "Pay-tree-aughts.")

There is no good way to handle it. If he admitted he would listen, it would just be a mess in Lawrence. If he turned Oklahoma State down, cold; he loses bargaining leverage with Kansas on his raise. Plus, no one knows just how interested he is in the job or not.

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Bill Self Facing the Money Question

Posted Apr 7th 2008 9:18AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, March Madness, NCAA Basketball Coaches, Featured Stories

The rumored numbers that Oklahoma State-T. Boone Pickens are wiling to offer Bill Self to come home to Stillwater are eye-popping. A $6 million signing bonus in addition to a $4 million per year salary. You have to imagine that at that point, the Cowboys would probably throw in whatever it takes to buy out his Kansas contract as well.

Bill Self is doing what is expected at this point. Trying to deflect all the questions that have swirled around him and the Oklahoma State job since Sean Sutton was fired. There was no secret that Pickens and Oklahoma State were targeting Self -- an Oklahoma State graduate.

There is no question that Kansas is the better job. From a historic perspective, it is probably one of the 5 most storied and "name" college basketball programs out there (no particular order -- Kentucky, UNC, UCLA and Indiana). Recruits want to come there, and the talent is rarely in question. Oklahoma State is a good program with nice history, but not near Kansas.

On the other side, Self is an alum. The money is the kind that Kansas cannot and will not match that kind of money, according the Kansas Athletic Director Lew Perkins. Self has shown he can coach, win, and recruit anywhere. It's how he finally landed the Kansas job.

The talent he had assembled at Illinois, especially, showed that he could recruit the talent to compete for a national championship at a program comparable to Oklahoma State. Whether he could do that every year like at Kansas may be a different issue.

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Bill Self Is About To Get Paid

Posted Apr 1st 2008 9:22PM by Nathan Fowler
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches

Not only did Bill Self win his 4th Big XII Championship this year, match the school record for wins at Kansas and get to his first Final Four (all of which already meant he was looking at a hefty contract extension in the offseason) ... but today news broke that Sean Sutton is out at Oklahoma State. Both Self and his wife are OSU alumni, and in case you haven't heard - OSU has a booster who's willing to write checks for outrageous sums of money for OSU athletics. There's no doubt that OSU will contact Self to gauge his interest, they would be almost irresponsible to not reach out to an alumni who's one of the best coaches in the country.

That being said, Self already stated today in a press conference that, "If they were to ask me what they should do, I would suggest they go a different direction. I'm not being remotely disrespectful to my alma mater ... My intentions are to be here at Kansas, period." That doesn't sound too good for OSU's chances at luring him away from Kansas. Even more telling though, Self added this comment "I'm sure that when this week is over, Lew and I will iron everything out." Yep, he's going to get paid. Lew Perkins is one of the best AD's in the country and there's no way he didn't see the shambles down in Stillwater this season and not already have the money in place to keep Self right where he was. I bet Kansas announces a large extension for Self immediately after the Final Four - and I wouldn't be surprised if they announced it even earlier.

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Sean Sutton Out at Oklahoma State

Posted Apr 1st 2008 1:31PM by Sportz Assassin
Filed under: Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, NCAA Basketball Coaches

A source told ESPN's Doug Gottlieb that Sean Sutton is out as the head coach of Oklahoma State.

Sutton was just in his 2nd year as the head coach. He took over in February of 2006 when the coach at the time ... his father Eddie Sutton ... took a leave of absence following an arrest for drunk driving. Eddie never coached at the school again and Sean took over permanently.

In his two full seasons, Sean Sutton was 39-29 with both campaigns ending in first round losses in the N.I.T.

Sean Sutton was groomed for the job by his dad, which makes this a very interesting case. With "succession plans" being the rage around sports nowadays (Pat Knight at Texas Tech; Mike Hopkins at Syracuse; Jim Mora for the Seahawks, etc.), the fact that Sean got just two years means those plans can be cancelled rather quickly. Many people feel that since these legendary coaches hand pick their successors, those newbies will be given some slack.

Apparently not.

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Big 12 2007-08 Awards

Posted Mar 13th 2008 9:00AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Texas Basketball, Oklahoma Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, Kansas State Basketball

The Big 12 Conference named their all-Big 12 teams and handed out their awards. Not a lot to disagree, but I still feel compelled to offer my own version.

All-Big 12 team:

Aleks Maric, Nebraska, C
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma, F
Michael Beasley, Kansas State, F
D.J. Augustin, Texas, G
Mario Chalmers, Kansas, G
Darrell Arthur, Kansas, F

As for the individual awards.

Player of the Year:
Michael Beasley, Kansas State

D.J. Augustin, Texas

Not really much of a doubt on this one.

Continue Reading Big 12 2007-08 Awards

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Oklahoma St. Slows Then Stops Kansas

Posted Feb 23rd 2008 7:38PM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Oklahoma State Basketball, Big 12 Basketball

Once is a blip. Twice means something.

Kansas lost to Texas when the Longhorns took control of the tempo and forced the Jayhawks to play a slower pace. Sean Sutton and the Oklahoma State Cowboys took detailed notes and followed the blueprint to a 61-60 win over Kansas.

Oklahoma St. kept the pace slow and played inspired defense. Kansas was especially careless with the ball in the first half as they vainly tried to increase the tempo of the game. The Cowboys spent the entire game doing whatever they could to run clock and make every possession a slog. It has become increasingly clear that if a team can force Kansas to play at a slower pace, the Jayhawks do more than just struggle. They get frustrated, make mistakes and lose.

Byron Eaton was a one-man wrecking crew against Kansas. He continually attacked the Jayhawks to get to the line and put Kansas players in foul trouble. Of his 26 points, 16 came from the free throw line.

For Sean Sutton this may be a big pressure release win. The rumors have abounded that the Oklahoma State benefactor -- T. Boone Pickens -- has been less than enamored with Sean Sutton's performance as head coach. Kansas coach Bill Self is an Oklahoma St. alum. While it would be hard to envision Self leaving the Jayhawks for the Cowboys, it couldn't be dismissed out of hand when there was the possibility of Pickens paying the way.

Oklahoma State after a 6 game losing streak has won 4 of their last 5. Including wins over Baylor and at Texas A&M. The Cowboys aren't going to the NCAA unless they win the Big 12 Tournament, but they are putting themselves into the discussion for the NIT.