One-on-One: Dean Blevins and Eddie Sutton

The college basketball hall of fame coach spent some time with Dean at the Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award Dinner.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:20 pm

By: News On 6

One-on-One: Dean Blevins and Eddie Sutton

Originally Published: Apr 11, 2011 9:39 PM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Among the many big names at the First Annual Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award dinner Monday was legendary Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton.

In his three seasons at Oklahoma, Tisdale made a huge impact for the Sooners and rewrote record books. Between 1982 and 1985, Tisdale set the school’s all-time scoring mark, became just the 10th player in NCAA history to score more than 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds and was the only player in Big 8 history to lead the conference in scoring.

“[Tisdale] became maybe the best player to ever come through [Oklahoma]. He was such a great player, but even a better a better person.”

However, the hall of fame coach summed up Tisdale’s overall impact on the game of basketball in a single sentence.

“He epitomizes what every coach would like to see from a student-athlete,” Sutton said.

The award was given its current name this offseason, to honor the impact Tisdale made on the game of college basketball in three short seasons. The first-ever Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award was given to Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger. The 6-foot-9 forward was named the Big 10 Freshman of the Year, after averaging 17.2 points and 10.1 rebounds per contest.