Wins should not count when Sutton isn't on the bench

	Eddie Sutton led Oklahoma State to the last two Big 12 Tournament titles. Elsa

There is no official NCAA protocol for how a school should record games in which the head coach is incapacitated. It's up to the university to keep its records however it chooses. This puts Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton in a strange quandary. On the one hand, even though Sutton will not coach the Cowboys again this season (and maybe ever), this is indisputably his team. That would mean the wins and losses should count against his career record.

On the other hand, doing so could mean Sutton would reach a significant milestone under highly unusual circumstances. And nobody wants a milestone that comes with an asterisk.

Sutton has candidly said that part of his motivation for coaching this season has been so he can win his 800th career game, which only four other Division I coaches (Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Bob Knight and Jim Phelan) have done. At this moment, Sutton stands at 794. The way the Pokes are playing, it's far from assured they'll win six more games (Oklahoma State is 13-12, 3-8 in the Big 12). If the Cowboys did, the sixth would probably happen during the postseason NIT. Imagine the scene: Eddie Sutton gets his 800th win, but it comes in the NIT and he's not even there. Wouldn't be pretty.

Oklahoma State basketball SID Mike Noteware told me this week that OSU will continue to count its games on Sutton's record. This is far from unprecedented. New Mexico State did the same thing for Lou Henson after he was too ill to coach his team. Ditto for Kansas State and Rutgers regarding the records of Jim Woolridge and Gary Waters, who each missed time in the last week (Woolridge for illness, Waters because his flight back to New Jersey from the Midwest was cancelled by last weekend's blizzard in the Northeast). And it should be noted that the losses OSU incurs will also count toward Sutton's record, and there will probably be more of those than wins the rest of the way.

There is another important element at work here: Sutton is not yet in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Sean Sutton believes his dad would have a better chance of getting into the Hall if he got the magic 800. Maybe I'm naive, but I disagree. Eddie Sutton will get into the Hall of Fame regardless of whether he "wins" six more games.

Therefore, I believe Sutton should tell Oklahoma State not to count any future wins toward his career record while he is out. If he can't get number 800 from the sidelines, it's not worth getting. If anything, not counting those wins might make Sutton an even more viable candidate for enshrinement. It would, after all, be the good-sport thing to do, and the sport is what the Hall of Fame is supposed to celebrate.

Other Hoop Thoughts

• You'd think firing your coach wouldn't be such a hard thing to do, but Missouri athletic director Mike Alden botched it as badly as it can be botched. As Ricky Ricardo would say, Alden has some 'splaining to do.

• Gonzaga got an unexpected boost last weekend when freshman center Josh Heytvelt returned. It looked as if Heytvelt was lost for the year when he broke his ankle during the Maui Invitational in November, but he played one minute against Stanford last Saturday and 11 against Portland on Monday. Heytvelt was a significant recruit for the Zags two years ago (he redshirted last year), and coach Mark Few has long raved about his athleticism and three-point shooting ability. He certainly won't be at full strength this season, but Heytvelt gives Gonzaga added size and depth at just the right time.

• You know those Stewart twins, one at USC and the other at Kansas? Well, Roderick is a righty and Loderick is a lefty. This is one of my favorite all-time facts.

• Indiana State lost 11 straight games at one point, but since its best player, senior guard David Moss, returned from injury, the Sycamores are 3-3 with wins at Southern Illinois and at home against Northern Iowa. There's no way this team can get an at-large bid, but Indiana State is definitely a sleeper pick to win the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

• Favorites to replace Mike Davis at Indiana: Iowa's Steve Alford (the heavy favorite) and Orlando Magic assistant Randy Wittman. Favorite to replace Alford at Iowa: Northern Iowa's Greg McDermott. Remember, Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby used to be the AD at Northern Iowa.

• I still think Creighton's Dana Altman is going to get the Missouri job. Altman was a junior college coach in the Show Me State and did an underappreciated job when he was the coach at Kansas State. Just an educated guess.

• Oh, and I know I have been the captain of the Skip-Prosser-will-go-to-Cincinnati brigade, but I feel obliged to let you know that someone with direct knowledge of Prosser's thinking told me last week that "there is no [bleeping] way that is happening."