COOKEVILLE, Tenn. ? Mike Sutton, currently in his fifth season as the men’s head basketball coach at Tennessee Tech University, has been given a contract extension that will last through the 2010-11 season.
“Coach Sutton is a man of integrity and has done an outstanding job of coaching and leading the student-athletes in the men’s basketball program. His performance has earned him this contract extension,” said Mark Wilson, TTU Director of Athletics.
Sutton was named in April, 2002, as Tech’s 11th men’s basketball head coach., He has compiled a 75-55 record with the Golden Eagles and was named the 2005 Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year after leading Tech to the OVC regular season championship.
“I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to continue this relationship with Tennessee Tech, and to have the support of Mark Wilson and Dr. Bell,” Sutton said. “Karen and I love it here. It’s a great family at Tennessee Tech, and we love the community.”
Sutton, 50, went through one of the most difficult years of his life during the 2005-06 season, but it didn’t diminish his enthusiasm, intensity or drive. Stricken with Guillain-Barre’ Syndrome in April of 2005 -- just months after capturing the OVC title -- Sutton spent much of that summer paralyzed and clinging to life. With the support of his wife Karen and family, he fought through the first harrowing months and eventually found his way back to heading up the Golden Eagles program.
Relying on his staff -- and associate head coach Steve Payne -- to run the program on a day-to-day basis for the first several months, Sutton worked hard through a rehab program, moved into a motorized wheelchair, and by mid-December was back on the sidelines. Despite his weakened condition, he guided the Golden Eagles through the season, posting a 19-12 overall record and claiming third place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings.
This season, his Golden Eagles are facing another difficult schedule, and on Tuesday posted a one-point win over Northwestern University at the San Juan Shootout. Tech has also posted back-to-back wins on the road at UW-Milwaukee and at home over Bradley, a team that last year advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
“It means a great deal to me to have the support and confidence of Mark Wilson, Dr. Bell, and the entire Tennessee Tech faculty,” Sutton said. “One of the things you hope for in coaching is to find a place where you’re a good fit, and I feel like Tennessee Tech is a good fit,” he said. “Based on what the university represents and what we want to achieve, and the outstanding young men we’re able to recruit. We have the type of student-athlete who can help accomplish the high goals and aspirations that we want to achieve.
“We want to continue to improve the Tennessee Tech basketball program;” he said.
Sutton came to Tennessee Tech after serving as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky. In his first season, he guided the 2002-03 Golden Eagles to a 20-12 overall record and a third place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference regular season before falling in the league’s championship game, one step short of reaching the NCAA Tournament field. With that performance, Sutton was the most successful first-year coach in Golden Eagle history. The team’s 20 wins marked the second-most wins in a season, his 13-3 OVC record was the best league mark by a first-year Tech coach, and his .625 winning percentage was also the best of any first-year Golden Eagle mentor.
In 2004-05, the Golden Eagles rolled to the OVC regular season title, an 18-11 overall record and 12-4 league worksheet, and Sutton was named the OVC Coach of the Year.
Last year, after posting a 19-12 record, Sutton was presented with the Most Courageous Award by the United States Basketball Writers’ Association.
Among all coaches who have directed the Golden Eagle program more than one year, Sutton ranks second for average wins per season at 17.5.
Sutton began coaching as an assistant at his high school alma mater, D.H. Conley High School, while attending East Carolina University. After spending the 1978-79 season as an assistant coach at Lees-McRae (N.C.) Junior College, he was hired by Tubby Smith as an assistant for the 1979-80 season at Hoke County High School in Raeford, N.C. Before the season began, Smith left for an assistant coaching position at Virginia Commonwealth University, leaving Sutton behind but only temporarily. The next year, the two were reunited as assistants at VCU, helping the Rams advance to the 1981 NCAA Tournament.
Sutton then left the college ranks and became head coach at Meadowbrook High School in Richmond, Va., taking over a downtrodden program that had tallied a 1-19 record the previous season. He turned the program around during his 13-year career from 1981-94, leading the team to the Class AAA State Championship in his final season. His coaching efforts earned him The Associated Press Coach of the Year award for 1993-94. He compiled a 176-122 record at Meadowbrook before rejoining Smith at Tulsa. Including Kentucky, he has had five coaching stops with Smith.
While coaching the Wildcats, Sutton helped lead Kentucky to three Southeastern Conference regular season championships and three SEC tournament titles. The team played in the NCAA tournament all five seasons he was with the Wildcats, claiming the national title in 1998 with a 35-4 overall record.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education from East Carolina University in 1978, and his master’s degree in Health and Physical Education from Appalachian State University in 1979.