Sutton closing in on 700th win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Eddie Sutton's next victory will be one for the books _ No. 700 in a remarkable coaching career that's seen him take four different schools to the Final Four. <br><br>He

Tuesday, February 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Eddie Sutton's next victory will be one for the books _ No. 700 in a remarkable coaching career that's seen him take four different schools to the Final Four.

He could get the milestone win Wednesday night when his No. 13 Oklahoma State Cowboys visit Texas.

If not there, then his Cowboys can make him just the 15th coach to reach the 700-win when they play host to Baylor.

But what will it mean?

``I've coached a long time and I've had some outstanding players and outstanding assistant coaches,'' Sutton said Monday.

``When it happens, I'll be thrilled because it is a worthy achievement, something I never would have dreamed about when I left here as a grad assistant and went to high school. If not for one man, I would have still been coaching high school basketball.''

People assume that one man who turned Sutton toward college coaching was Henry Iba, his coach and mentor at Oklahoma State. But it was actually James Taylor. When Taylor invited Sutton to become head coach at Southern Idaho Junior College in 1966, he was almost turned down.

Finally persuaded, Sutton got to Twin Falls and discovered the gymnasium hadn't even been built yet.

``But he convinced me to come out and help him build that college,'' Sutton said. ``If I could find an assistant coach who could sell as well as he does, I'd have players like Duke has.''

``It's been a wonderful career. It'll be fun.''

With two weeks to go in the regular season, it's become obvious that the Big 12 is bristling with outstanding freshmen.

Youngsters like Texas point guard T.J. Ford, who leads the nation in assists, Aaron Miles and Wayne Simien of Kansas, Baylor's Lawrence Roberts and John Lucas and Colorado's David Harrison have made an immediate impact.

But because of summer leagues and AAU teams that have now become so numerous, freshmen aren't really freshmen any longer, said Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson.

``The game is set up for new players to impact you,'' he said. ``The game's changed a lot. I watch these kids in the summer. They've been on the road traveling and playing in AAU programs. They're so much better. The attention they get, they're so much better prepared for (college).

``They're not normal freshmen. When I saw that (Ford) was going to go to Texas, I said Texas is going to be really good.''

Missouri, ranked as high as No. 2 early in the season, could miss the NCAA tournament altogether unless it picks up some much-needed wins the next two weeks.

``We've got four more league games,'' said coach Quin Snyder. ``If you focus on those, everything will take care of itself.''

Sunday's 72-70 loss to Texas left the Tigers 18-8 over all and 7-5 in the league.

``We'll have to play better than we did yesterday,'' Snyder said.

Nobody in the Big 12 is taking better care of the ball than Nebraska. The Huskers have the fewest turnovers in the league and set a conference record with only three turnovers against Iowa State last week.

``We just came up with a formula to shoot it before we turn it over,'' said coach Barry Collier. ``Our guys have done a very good job of being unselfish and finding the open guy.''