Former UK coach Eddie Sutton reportedly a Naismith Hall of Fame inductee

Eddie Sutton will be inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, an exciting development for the 84-year-old. Sutton will enter the Hall of Fame after six times of being a finalist and missing the induction.

An official announcement is slated to be held on ESPN at Saturday a.m., but the early report was brought to the public by the Tulsa World. Other notable finalists like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett will be among the eight elected.

This brought great happiness for UK legend Rex Chapman, as the two helped lead the Wildcats to a 32-4 record (17-1 in SEC) and Elite Eight berth in the 1985-86 season.

Sutton was best known for his time spent as the coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, including a Final Four trip during the 2003-04 season. He also coached for 11 seasons at Arkansas from 1974-85 when the Razorbacks were part of the Southwest Conference.

The famed head coach then spent four seasons with the Wildcats, having over an .80 win percentage in two of his four years.

Sutton made three NCAA Tournament in his four seasons and ended with a 90-40 record for the Cats. He coached the Cats from 1985-89, having ended his first year as the third-best team in the country.

Unfortunately, Sutton’s time in Lexington ended on a sour note. During the 1988-89 season, one of Sutton’s assistant coaches was accused of mailing $1,000 in cash to the father of a UK recruit. That would eventually lead to Sutton re-signing before becoming Oklahoma State’s head coach in 1990.

Overall, Sutton ended his career with 806 victories to just 329 losses, having ended his coaching career with San Francisco after the 2007-2008 season.

Sutton spent 37 seasons as a coach and was a four-time National Coach of the Year. He was even the first coach in NCAA D-1 history to take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament.

Sutton was previously inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.