Kevin Sutton lounges in a chair in the team meeting room at the Ice Family Basketball Center and wears a sweet black long-sleeved t-shirt with “KANSAS STATE BASKETBALL” emblazoned in white lettering — a certain hit for Kansas State fans, if they can get ahold of one.
Sutton has been a hit at K-State. And he’s only officially been on the coaching staff for a week.
Armed with 36 years of coaching experience, including 15 at the Division I level, Sutton already appears to be at home at K-State. Moments ago, he alternated between wearing a suit and purple tie, and wearing a purple K-State pullover for a photo shoot on the practice court. He playfully jabbed at assistant coach Jareem Dowling and Chief of Staff Marco Borne — and they gave it right back like they’d been together for years.
In the tranquility of an empty team meeting room, Sutton speaks thoughtfully, and it quickly becomes apparent why he is a key piece for head coach Jerome Tang as the team’s Director of Basketball Strategies — a position whose exact depth currently remains unknown.
“It’s an evolving job,” Sutton explains. “You’re seeing more and more colleges start to develop this position.”
Sutton spent the 2021-22 season as an assistant coach at Florida Gulf Coast. He’s also served on coaching staffs at James Madison (1988-90), Old Dominion (1999-2001), George Washington (2011-13), Georgetown (2013-16), Pittsburgh (2016-18) and Rhode Island (2018-21).
His proven ability to develop relationships with young players is proven. He has 489 career victories as a high school head coach and went 186-33 at Montverde Academy, which included one national championship, seven nationally-ranked teams, three All-Americans, and 55 Division I scholarship athletes.
He’s also served three stints with USA Basketball, and has been active at every level of basketball camps and clinics, including the Nike Hoops Jamboree, Nike All-American Camp, Michael Jordan Flight School, and the LeBron James Skills Academy.
K-State Sports Extra‘s D. Scott Fritchen spoke with Kevin Sutton about his amazing career as Sutton sets his sights on helping guide the Wildcats to national prominence.
FRITCHEN: What have the last couple weeks been like for you? I’m sure it’s been a whirlwind, hasn’t it?
SUTTON: It’s actually been a good time for me, personally. It’s given me the opportunity to do some reflection and introspection and to look back on my career and my personal life and to see what move I wanted to make next. It’s been a really good time for myself and my family, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.
I’ve known Coach Tang for more than 20 years. We first met at a five-star basketball camp, and we just stayed in contact with one another, and we were like kindred spirits. We’re both Christians and we both use the game of basketball to impact as many lives as we can. We’ve stayed in contact with each other and have exchanged scripture and gospel songs through the years. One night, I just texted Jerome like I normally do, and it was midnight, and I had no idea he was involved with K-State at the time, but I just said, “Hey, this is what I’ve been praying over and what I’ve been looking for, and if you ever had an opportunity on your staff you are one of the people I’d love to work for.” That was basically it.
It was during the NCAA Tournament and Baylor was continuing to play, and then he got the K-State job, and I naturally sent him a congratulatory text: “Great hire. You’re going to do a fantastic job here.” I saw him putting together a staff, and he texted me, “Where are you?” I replied, “I’m still in Sarasota.” He said, “Great, my family lives in Lehigh Acres, which is a suburb of Fort Myers.” I said, “Great, if you’re coming to Florida, let’s meet.” We met and reminisced a little bit and talked through his vision and how he was going to put together his staff and what he envisioned at Kansas State.
I watched his press conference and I’d like to say I was blown away, but I wasn’t, because I’d seen it before, and I knew how emotionally intelligent he is, and I know how intelligent he is, and what he had envisioned for this program. I became more and more interested. The particular job that I have as Director of Strategy, Advanced Scouting and Player Development, it’s in total alignment with my skill sets.
FRITCHEN: Could you dig a little bit and take me back to the first time you met Coach Tang?
SUTTON: Yes, I can. It’s a great story. I was the associate head basketball coach for St. John’s Prospect Hall High School in Fredrick, Maryland. My boss was Stu Vetter, who was a Hall-of-Fame coach in the Washington, D.C., area. I actually played for him in high school worked 10 years for him. Stu Vetter coached Dennis Scott, Kevin Durant, Randolph Childress, and a lot of other players. I brought our team St. John’s Prospect Hall High down to five-star basketball camp and Jerome was a young coach, a couple years younger than I, and he came from Texas. We met at camp and our spirits just connected right away. I’d been in camp before and this was his first time at camp, so he watched and observed me and how I ran stations and mini-lectures, and he watched me at all the events, and just watched me, and we started talking. At nighttime, we’d do an impromptu coaching clinic, and I happened to be one of the speakers. On Sunday morning, several of us wanted to have Chapel. You know he was all in. We exchanged numbers and stayed in contact.
I can tell you today that at that very first opportunity I had a chance to meet him, I knew he was going to be an outstanding coach, because his spirit was in the right place. The reason why he wanted to become a head coach, I felt, was in the right place, and was totally aligned with why I coach. I watched him on teaching stations, and I watched him coach his team, and I thought he was a future star, to be honest with you. We stayed in contact and became really good friends that way.
FRITCHEN: It seems like Coach Tang, since his first news conference, is already so revered by Kansas State fans with the stories about students wanting his picture on campus and people approaching him to say hi in restaurants. What is it that draws people to Coach Tang?
SUTTON: I think it speaks volumes to who he is as a person. He’s totally self-aware. He knows who he is, and he is proud of who he is and what he stands for, and what he represents. That takes a great deal of emotional intelligence. Also, it’s the fact that he’s not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is very, very important to him, and it’s genuine and authentic. His spirit oftentimes goes before him so that naturally lends people to want to get to know him more or feeling at ease in his presence. Those are important characteristics of a person. Jerome is going to continue to — he’s always been that way, and he’s going to continue to be that way, and people are going to continue to be drawn to him.
.@CoachJTang has added veteran coach Kevin Sutton to his staff as Director of Basketball Strategies.
Welcome @CoachSutton to the K-State Family!
?https://t.co/kOkFDIXDiX#KStateMBB x EMAW pic.twitter.com/0u4AqraWfK
— K-State Men’s Basketball (@KStateMBB) May 3, 2022
FRITCHEN: What would you like Kansas State fans to know about Kevin Sutton?
SUTTON: The thing that I’d like Kansas State fans to know is that the most important thing to me is that I’m a professional and that I use the game of basketball to impact as many lives as I possibly can, so I can create living trophies. In doing so, I’m raising up young men and developing them to become more than just student-athletes. That’s what I’d like Kansas State fans to know about me.
FRITCHEN: The basketball strategy position appears to be somewhat new within the realm of college basketball.
SUTTON: Yes, it is.
FRITCHEN: Exactly what does the basketball strategy position entail, or will the position continue to develop as you go along?
SUTTON: I’m hopeful that I’ll continue to develop and evolve. This position that I have here speaks volumes to Jerome’s out-of-the-box, forward thinking, because the business side of basketball and the game of basketball continues to evolve, so you need to continue to evolve with it, or you’re going to be left behind. One important aspect is the Name, Image and Likeness, and the transfer portal. It’s important to have someone with a wealth of experience in this particular position, and to be on campus all the time — COVID-19 proved to us that you don’t always have to outside to recruit — because you need to continue to recruit your current players because the transfer portal is here to stay, and it’s not going anywhere. So, you need to re-recruit your players on a daily basis.
This business is a relationship-based business, so you have to have a guy that’s on staff that has the ability to pick up a phone and make relationships, and who doesn’t necessarily have to go out and secure relationships. This position is going to continue to evolve with the relationship piece and the developmental piece, because our program, Jerome’s program, we’re going to take a holistic approach to development.
We’re going to develop them as men, first and foremost, and develop them as students and then finally as players. When you have people here on staff who can continue to drive the message home on a daily basis when Jerome has to be all over the place, it’s really, really important. The person with experience like myself, that’s going to be important. Also advanced scouting is important because this Big 12 Conference, as you know, is one of the top leagues in the country. You must continue to take advantage of every advantage you get. Being in an advanced scout role and helping with strategies, I’ll also help us to be successful.
It’s an evolving job. You’re seeing more and more colleges start to develop this position. Virginia was one of the first ones. With the potential rule change, Coach Tang will have the ability when two coaches are on the road, you can have two support staff coaches come onto the floor. So, it’s almost back to the days when a coach decided which coaches were on the floor, so it’s coaching in all aspects. I’ve always, in my career, have not allowed myself to be defined by my title, anyway. I think it all falls under coach.
FRITCHEN: You’ve had more than four decades of experience in basketball. What have you learned most about yourself during this journey?
SUTTON: Wow. I’ve learned a great deal about myself throughout this journey. I’ve always known why I wanted to be a coach because I had great coaches when I grew up. My father was my first football coach, and then I had other great football coaches and basketball coaches as well growing up. I knew I wanted to be into coaching, and to not just coach the sport, but do like they did and take a holistic approach. They cared about me as a person and as a student and as a player, for sure. I was blessed and fortunate to play for and coach for Stu Vetter, who I knew was a really good coach in high school, and who now it’s being confirmed because he’s a Hall-of-Fame coach. I went onto college and had great coaches there, John Thurston, who recruited me and put me on my path to coach. I’ve never looked back.
I was a young man from Falls Church, Virginia, seven miles outside of Washington, D.C., who grew up in the hot pit of basketball, and who used the game of basketball to become the first person in my family to earn a scholarship and graduate from college, and who then was literally able to go around the world with this game, this sport, and have an impact. What I’ve learned on this journey is I learned what my “why” is and what my gifts and talents are, and most importantly, I learned that I wanted to be a person of impact and be a person of influence. What I’ve learned more than anything else is this is my gift, and my biggest challenge is to continue to honor the Lord with this gift that He’s given me.
I say it all the time — I coach, lead, mentor because I want to use my influence as a platform in basketball to impact as many lives as I possibly can, so I can create living trophies. You and I have both won trophies, and we take the trophy, and it doesn’t move for five, 10 or 15 years, and it is covered in dust. But if we take the opportunity on a daily basis to be the ladle that pours into the people we serve and we fill them up with positivity, then we’re creating living trophies, because they’re human beings with a heartbeat, and they have a voice, and they have feet that enable them to move around. I’ve been very fortunate. That’s the biggest thing and the proudest thing about me, is the number of people who I’ve the opportunity to impact.
FRITCHEN: Who are some players you coached and you look and say, “Here’s a guy who really developed, who really showed me something?”
SUTTON: They all came in at one level and left at another level, which is something better. But some of the stories I can share with you — the story of Randolph Childress. Randolph Childress now works for ESPN, and he was a Hall-of-Fame player at Wake Forest. When he was at high school, I was six years older than him, and he came in and was a junior in high school and was transferring to us from a public school, and he lived 45 minutes away in the Washington, D.C., area. He was a good player. I convinced him that in order for him to reach his true greatness, he had to start working out in the morning. He took a bus to a train and then I picked him up at 6 o’clock in the morning all through his senior year, and he just dedicated himself. Then he went to Wake Forest and had a Hall-of-Fame career and still holds the records for points scored in the ACC Tournament.
Another young man is Josh Merkel. Josh Merkel is the head coach of Randolph-Macon College, which ended with a No. 1 ranking in Division III this year and earned 2021 Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year. He’s been coach of the year four or five times in his conference. Josh played on my jay-vee team at St. John’s Prospect Hall as a freshman and sophomore. He tells the story that he knew right away that he wanted to become a coach because he looked at me and said, “That’s what I want to be.” Again, I use the game of basketball and sold Josh on the same thing. I said, “Hey, you have to outwork your people here in order to get playing time.” We had a 45-minute lunch period and he’d come in the gym and shoot for 35 minutes and then put his clothes on and race to class. But through his hard work and dedication he’s at Randolph-Macon and is having tremendous success.
Another young man is Kimmy English. Kimmy English is the head coach at George Mason University. I recruited Kimmy to play for me at Montverde Academy. Kimmy was from Baltimore, and he came to me, and he just grew tremendously, but the story about Kimmy is he ended up at Missouri, but I had to dismiss him from Montverde because he had a city mentality in a suburban area. Kimmy’s thought process was in city blocks versus miles. We didn’t have the resources in place for him, and we had to dismiss him from school, and it changed the course of his life. At the time, I had to take him to the airport. I didn’t know if we’d be friends. We’re really good friends still to this day. He tells people that was the turning point in his life because that was the hardest thing, we both had to do, was to make that decision, and then Kimmy came out here and had a great career at Missouri.
Marvin Lewis is associate athletic director at Brown University. I saw Marvin Lewis when he was in eighth grade. Marvin was on my jay-vee team with Josh Merkel. Marvin started at Georgia Tech and played Connecticut for the 2004 National Championship. He was a four-year starter. Those are just some of the stories. I could go on and on. There are so many living trophies.
FRITCHEN: Do you find player talent to fit a system, or do you mold a system around player talent you bring in?
SUTTON: When I recruit, whether it be when I was recruiting student-athletes to play in high school, or from high school to the university level, my recruiting philosophy has always been to recruit people who are men of character and not boys who are characters. Second, I wanted to recruit student-athletes who value education. They don’t have to be rocket scientists, but they have to be conscientious and value and want to get their degree. Third, I always recruited people who celebrated diversity. First and foremost, we’re a part of the human race. My children are bi-racial and then I worked at Montverde, which was an international boarding school. It was a microcosm of the world. To celebrate diversity is important. Lastly, you recruit kids who had potential and talent from winning programs. I know I can make you a better basketball player, I’m not sure I can make you a better person, but I’ll try. I’m not so rigid that I cut my nose off to spite my face, but in the beginning, I have to have those four things in that order.
I always sacrifice talent for character. I always want to get the person to fit the system versus adapting. In basketball, you’re going to have 16 people. Have the system in place. Your system will always evolve, it has to evolve. If you make adjustments for this person, then I have to make adjustments for that person. There are players who come in and you say, “He’s different.” You can’t put LeBron in the box — he’s just different. You look at Nickola Jokic, and in a tradition sense he should be down in the block, but he’s a better passer than anybody else — he’s different. You look at Joel Embiid and he’s 7-foot and shooting 3-pointers — he’s different.
I need people of high character because you’re going to be around my family and you’re going to be representing the school in the community, and then I’m going to take you places like China and Italy and you have to be ready to function. You have to be a person of character of some level of substance. Second, we are an institution of higher learning, so you’d hope they all wanted to get a degree at some point, but they don’t all have to be rocket scientists. We have things in place, academic support, tutoring, learning specialists, but they do have to be conscientious, and they have to want to get a degree.
Third, you’ve got to celebrate diversity. We have to understand that I’m African-American and you’re white, and we’re a part of the human race. I have to celebrate you and you have to celebrate me. That’s what we teach in our homes. I don’t want our child to celebrate my heritage and negate her mom’s heritage. We’re a part of the human race. My wife and I have four kids, but we raised 12 other kids from around the world. Our kids know about the importance of celebrating diversity. We have kids from Russia, Lithuania, Australia, Cameroon and Ivory Coast in Africa, who are a part of our family now. When we’re together you cannot tell that the 12 kids are not a part of the Sutton family. All those things are celebrated. It’s important. So, you’ve got to celebrate diversity.
Lastly, you have to be hungry about wanting to be successful. The other day, Jareem (Dowling) said, “Man, this dude is a pro! This dude is a pro!” I said, “From here on out, we don’t want pros.” He said, “Yes, we do.” I said, “No, we don’t. We want professionals. We need to develop professionals.” He said, “That’s deep.” I said, “Think about it ‘Reem. There are 12 letters in the word ‘professional.’ If you just want pros, that’s three letters, and that’s their first contract. If they don’t get the other nine letters and learn what it takes to become a professional, they just have a job. Then guess what? If they don’t do their job, what happens? They’re gone. And management is ready to get a contract to the next guy. But if we teach them how to become professionals then they have a career. That’s our job.”
They need to play as long as they possibly can, but I’ve had kids — Luc Mbah a Moute went to UCLA, and he’s an example, coming out of high school he was top 150 in the country. Ben Howland came in and recruited him over three days and said, “I have to have this kid.” Nobody knew about the kid because he came from Cameroon, Africa, and had been in America for two years — he was with us at Monteverde — and didn’t grow up on the AAU circuit. He became Pac-12 Rookie of the Year. He played on three teams that went to the Final Four. On draft night he was the 37th pick. And then he has a double-figure career. You know why? His superpower was defense and a very good rebounder. But more importantly, he was a person who had leadership ability, who was great in the community.
Houston dedicated a day to him because after the second hurricane he galvanized his team to help the city. I say all of this because he understood the bigger picture understanding the long game versus the short game of “I don’t want to be a pro; I want to be a professional.” He ended up having a career. That’s how I’ve always recruited and the sermon I’m always going to preach.
FRITCHEN: How receptive have recruits been to K-State?
SUTTON: I’ve been totally impressed with the recruiting that has gone on here. Coach Tang is the head coach now, but he’s been an assistant coach longer than he’s been a head coach, so his natural instinct is to recruit as if he was the assistant coach. The bar is way up here. Jareem Dowling is a heck of a recruiter. I love that dude. He’s so funny to me. And I can see how people gravitate to him. Ulric Maligi is going to be a head coach really soon. He’s a combination of Jerome and Jareem. He comes with the cerebral and emotional intelligence of Jerome, and he comes with that personality not quite of Jareem, but all of that works.
Then when you get the recruits here, and this is the part — identifying the talent is the easy thing, and then you figure out how to start recruiting him. You have to identify the circle of influence and who’s the influencer within the circle of influence. Then you start working in reverse. You’re recruiting by figuring out all those things and then once you get him here it’s a rap because we have all the proverbial bells and whistles that you’d want and you just add to that the quality of people here, which isn’t a knock on any other coaching staff that’s been here before, and I’m just speaking to our current staff. I just got here last Thursday, and we had two recruits over the weekend, and I was just watching and observing and chiming in when it was appropriately. These guys know what they’re doing, they know what they’re doing, and they’re just fantastic.
The bar being set by Jerome, the level of expectation is high, and it should be high, and we’re going to be successful, and not just have success, but we’re going to have sustainable success despite the NIL and transfer portal. You just have to navigate accordingly. The transfer portal is here. I was at Florida Gulf Coast last year and we prospered from it. We had five players we brought in from the transfer portal, and all year long, every team that we played believed we’d have trouble meshing with the team that we had before with these five transfers, including two of them who were very talented — Kevin Samuels from TCU, who ended up being Defensive Player of the Year; and Tavian Dunn-Martin from Duquesne, who scored 705 points in a year and was Newcomer of the Year and first team all-league — and were high-major at a low-major school.
But from day one, they were a totally cohesive unit, and we had a great deal of success because the best two players didn’t look at the level and say, “Hey, we’re better than that.” No, they just came in and got after it. That’s one thing you have to do in this transfer era, is be selective with who you take and how many you take and will they come in and enhance your program or will they be a distraction from your program.
That’s why you have different people on staff, not just assistant coaches who are out recruiting, but you have chief of staffs and director of strategy and all these other people, because you need those different level of experience, because seeing the talent is one thing, but we must figure out can that talent be successful here at Kansas State. Can they be successful here? Can they function in this community? Can they graduate? Can they play in this league? Can they help us be successful?
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