Eddie Sutton: I don't think that anyone that is the head of an organization, whether it's the president of an institution or the president of a company or a head basketball coach, can be fully responsible for everything that takes place. I'd certainly have to share a big part in that responsiblity.
Media: There is a clause in your contract that the university has recourse if you are found guilty. What do you think about that clause and how do you think it will come into play?
Eddie Sutton: I think if you will research that, there are very coaches who don't have that in their contract. I think that if I were guilt to actually be one of the people that was doing something wrong, then certainly they could take action. But I feel very secure in my position. I always have.
Media: In the second press release your issue on this matter, you thanked the fans and many other people, but there is no mention of the administration. Was that an oversight?
Eddie Sutton: I think everybody connected with the University of Kentucky has suffered. I know Dr. Roselle has suffered, and certainly the administration has.
Media: You thanked some people for the support, but you did not mention the administration.
Eddie Sutton: Well, it was an oversight on my part. Certainly, anyone connected with the University of Kentucky has suffered the past six months.
Media: When you were hired three-and-a-half years ago, you were told to divorce yourself from the so-called "fat cats", and not to have so many people involved with the program. You basically did that, but now one of your attorneys is a close friend of Joe B. Hall. Is this a change in your philosophy, or is that strictly coincidental?
Eddie Sutton: I think we've done a lot of things since we came to Kentucky three-and-a-half years ago in trying to improve the situation where we don't have any wrongdoings, not that there were any during the time that coach Hall was here. We monitor the automobiles, the summer jobs and things like that. We don't allow boosters into the dressing room like we once did. We try to do things I was asked to do. I'm a team player and always will be. When the president of the university tells me to do something, I'm going to do it. Dr. (Otis) Singletary told me he wanted some of these changes made, and made them. I feel very strongly about that.
Media: Have you had any indication as to what the NCAA holdup is?
Eddie Sutton: No, I have not. Evidently, they're just trying to dot their i's and cross their t's.
Media: That's a long time to dot the i's. Eddie Sutton: I think it is.
Media: Do you feel that the longer it goes, the better you feel that they're having trouble generating the rest of the allegations?
Eddie Sutton: No, I don't think that at all. I do believe that the longer it goes, the more we get punished. There's no doubt about that. I didn't fully answer your question. I have several attorneys that I have seeked information from...information isn't a good word...advice. Terry McBrayer is certainly one of the outstanding attorneys here in Lexington. He's a good friend of Joe Hall, but he's also a good friend of mine.
Media: The one allegation against UK concerns the $1,000 supposedly sent to Claud Mills, yet there hasn't been any evidence that coach Dwane Casey had anything to do with money being placed in that package. There's been talk of a conspiracy or that Coach Casey is being set up.
Eddie Sutton: Conspiracy by whom?
Media: Anyone.
Media: Does that seem possible to you?
Eddie Sutton: The whole Emery situation is bizarre. If you talk to other basketball coaches who are out there in the r^inks or are out there in the fox holes...I don't think there's a basketball coach around who thinks Dwane Casey sent any money through the mail. Evidently there was something there. It seems very strange to me when I say 'bizarre.' I don't know of anyone, and I wish you all could reserch this, where anyone receives an overnight package where the thing pops open.
You've got to get a piece of dynamite or a crow bar to open those things up. How many times have you ever seen an overnight company call a newspaper? I thought that was strange. The whole thing is bizarre, as far as I'm concerned.
Question: With all the press people covering this, no one has come up with even a rumor that Coach Casey has anything to do with putting money in that package. Yet, that is the one allegation.
Eddie Sutton: The package came out of our office and had his (Mills) name on it. The people at Emery eivdently said there was some money. Again, I believe Dwane Casey until he is proven guilty, and I don't he's going to be proven guilty. I don't think there's any way. I've grilled Dwane at long length about this. If there was money there, how it got there, I don't know.
People at Emery said there was some money, Dwane said no money left our office, and Mr. (Claud) Mills said when he received the package, there was no money. It would seem to me that at Emery, they didn't do a very good job. They should have photographed the bills, got the indentification numbers
and see what part of the country they came from. It would seem to me that when they deliver the package, they would say, 'Mr. Mills, there's some money in here, we should open this package up.' But they didn't do that. When I say it's bizarre, that's exactly what it is."
"The whole Emery situation is bizarre. If you talk to other basketball coaches who are out there in the ranks or are out there in the fox holes. . .1 don't think there's a basketball coach around who thinks Dwane Casey sent any money through the mail."
Eddie Sutton
Media: Do you feel there's a chance UK can successfully defend itself in this case even though that has been the one charge?
Eddie Sutton: That verdict will be judged strictly on circumstantial evidence. That's all it could be. The thing I said all along, is that if they will judge this program on the three-and-a-half years that I've been here, I would feel very secure and comfortable. I do not want to be a recipient of past sins. I don't want them to judge Kentucky's basketball program on something that maybe happened 25 years ago
Media: Then you have a feeling that they are doing that?
Eddie Sutton: No, I don't have a feeling at all. When I have visited with my friends from Kansas City, I have tried to explain that to them at great length. I said, 'You all make sure you all are very objective about this investigation.'
Media: Are you surprised they went ahead
and made the allegation on cirumstantial evidence?
Eddie Sutton: I think the enforcement division at the NCAA at times gets very frustrated. They do their job and there are times when they feel institutions are wrong, and yet they have not been able to prove that. Perhaps they felt that way in the last investigation.
Media: You said you don't want to be held accountable for past sins, but every allegation we know about is from the last three-and-a-half years.
Eddie Sutton: That's true. I don't believe they're going to go back and actually charge you with an allegation prior to the time I arrived. But at the same time, it's in their mind. I made the statement that your wonderful newspaper (Lexington Herald-Leader) won a
Pulitzer Prize in the investigation of the last time. Yet, I'm sure there are people down there who feel like you prize is tarnished a little bit. In their minds, just like the NCAA, they felt there was a wrongdoing. So I hope they can erase all that out of their minds, that's what I'm saying.
Media: It seems that you 're saying the first charge was made out of frustration and not out of evidence.
Eddie Sutton: No, I think we felt they probably would make an allegation. It was in the newspaper and got so much play. Like I said, they're frustrated. A lot of institutions across the country feel like favoritism is given to some schools. And a lot of schools feel like Kentucky has been placed in that category as one of the favorites of the NCAA. I don't believe that at all, but there are some institutions that do. The enforcement division feels like they almost have to find something on the University of Kentucky in order to maintain respectability as far as the other schools are concerned.
Media: Do you think they felt that way in he last investigation?
Eddie Sutton: I can't answer that. I don't know.
Media: You have said previously that you have never wanted or thought about resigning. If Kentucky was hit with a harsh penalty, would you reconsider?
Eddie Sutton: Not at all. I want to be here, if we get penalized, to place this program back together. Again, I'm very optimistic. I don't think we'll be penalized that hard. But we might be.
Media: Is it possible to run a completely clean program?
Eddie Sutton: I would like to believe you can. That's what I've said all along. I told Dr. Roselle if there's a place where one can run a clean program, then the University of Kentucky basketball program ought to be one of them. That's what we've tried to do since I arrived here.
Media: If you feel the university is too harshly penalized based on circumstantial evidence, would you like to see UK fight it in a court of law?
Eddie Sutton: I don't know about that. I don't know whether that's ever been done or not. I really believe the university and Judge Park have done a good job up to this point, and the NCAA has had to have done a good job. I don't believe any program has been investigated like our program has been this time around. There for a while, the investigators were running into each other. When we get through this, and we get a penalty, the university has a right to appeal that penalty. Now whether they would or not, I don't know. I doubt the university would ever take it to a court of law.
[Continued On Page 8]
Sutton, third from left, says there's no way NCAA can find Casey, standing, guilty