STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -Oklahoma State basketball coach Sean Sutton resigned under pressure Tuesday following a 17-16 season.
Athletic director Mike Holder met with Sutton on Monday to discuss the state of the program. The move comes almost two weeks after Sutton completed his second season.
In a statement released by the university, Holder called this a “sad day for me personally and this university.” He said he and Sutton agreed on the decision and a national search for a successor will begin.
A news conference was scheduled for later in the day.
Sutton served as an assistant under father Eddie Sutton before taking the top job. His status has been a subject of speculation for much of the second half of the season, beginning when the Cowboys lost six in a row, the program’s longest skid in more than two decades.
“It has been a great experience and I have loved every minute of my time here at OSU,” Sean Sutton said.
Sutton was less than halfway through a five-year contract worth $750,000 a year that he had agreed to when he was still an assistant on his father’s staff. It called for him to be the head coach-designate, meaning he would take over when his father left.
The Cowboys, who started 1-6 in Big 12 Conference play, regrouped to win five straight games, including an upset of then-No. 4 Kansas, which has made the Final Four. But Oklahoma State lost its final two regular-season games to finish 7-9 in league play.
Oklahoma State beat Texas Tech and lost to Texas in the Big 12 tournament before losing 69-53 at Southern Illinois in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. It was the third straight season in which the Cowboys lost a first-round NIT game.
Sutton was 39-29 in two full seasons, but his relationship with the program dates much further. After transferring from Kentucky, he was a guard on his father’s Oklahoma State teams for two years before serving as an assistant for 13 years, including Final Four appearances in 1995 and 2004.
Four years later, both Suttons are gone.
“We cannot overlook the contributions Sean has made to OSU as a player, assistant coach and head coach,” Holder said. “OSU is deeply appreciative and grateful to Sean as well as his father, Eddie, who together revived OSU basketball and made the program a consistent contender for conference, tournament and national championships.”
Before Eddie Sutton took over the program at his alma mater in 1990, Oklahoma State had made the NCAA tournament only once in the previous 25 years.
Sean Sutton, 39, first served as the head coach of the Cowboys for the final 10 games of the 2005-06 season when his father took a leave following a drunken-driving crash on his way to the airport for a road game.
Oklahoma State went 4-6 in those games, and Sean Sutton got his chance at the helm when Eddie Sutton retired that May.
The Cowboys got off to a 15-1 start in the younger Sutton’s first full season as coach, reaching as high as No. 9 before struggling once reserve guard Obi Muonelo was lost with a leg injury. Oklahoma State lost to Marist in the first round of the NIT to complete a 22-13 season.
Guard JamesOn Curry skipped his senior season to enter the NBA draft, and a turbulent offseason followed. In a three-month span, three Cowboys players were arrested. Immediately before the school year began, projected starter Kenny Cooper decided to transfer.
The struggles continued on the court, with early losses to North Texas and Oral Roberts in nonconference play and the slow start in league play.
The Cowboys have made the postseason each of the past 11 years, including a run of seven straight NCAA tournament berths that preceded the NIT streak.
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