By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Eddie Sutton has some unsolicited advice for those who have reached their 50s and find themselves losing motivation for their work.

Take a year off. It worked wonders for Sutton.

"That year I was out allowed me to recharge my batteries," Sutton said. "I tell a lot of guys when you get into your 50s, if you can take a year off and then come back for the homestretch of your career, you're fired up."

Sutton, the head basketball coach at Oklahoma State, is 66 now, 13 years after he resigned from the University of Kentucky in 1989 amid an NCAA investigation that left the program on probation.

His batteries remain fully charged.

Since returning to coach his alma mater in 1990, Sutton has rebuilt the program that gained notoriety in the 1940s under Henry Iba.

His 11th-ranked Cowboys (18-2) are in town today to take on the University of Cincinnati (13-6) at 3:30 p.m. at Shoemaker Center.

UC will be trying to avoid its first four-game losing streak since 1987-88, two years before Bob Huggins took over as head coach. The Bearcats are also trying to avoid their first two-game losing streak in the 14-year history of Shoemaker Center.

The team Sutton brings to Cincinnati already has surpassed its coach's expectations. Before their loss at Texas last week, the Cowboys had won 15 in a row, then the nation's longest winning streak.

"We're a lot like Cincinnati," Sutton said. "We have a hard time scoring. Like Bob's teams, year in and year out, we play good defense. Sometimes our games are really ugly."

Like UC, the Cowboys don't have a true center. Their strength is on the perimeter, where Tony Allen (16.2 points a game), Victor Williams (14.7) and Melvin Sanders (12.9) do the bulk of the scoring.

OSU ranks fifth nationally in field-goal percentage defense (38.3). The Cowboys average 9.65 steals, block 5.6 shots and force 18 turnovers a game. Forward Andre Williams leads the team with 56 blocks.

Sutton said he still has friends and plenty of fond memories from the four years he spent as UK's coach. The NCAA investigation and his subsequent resignation, he said, changed him.

"It made me grow as a person," Sutton said. "It was a tough situation on everybody that was there."

During the year he was out of coaching, Sutton worked as a representative for Nike. But he never doubted he would return to his chosen profession.

Oklahoma State, where he played in the late 1950s, offered the perfect opportunity. It was a program that had fallen on hard times, with just seven winning seasons in the previous 25 years, but with a solid core of returning players from a 17-14 team. He won 22 games his first year.

Sutton's specialty has been building programs - from the College of Southern Idaho, where he started the junior-college program, to Creighton and Arkansas.

Since Sutton has been at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys have been to the postseason 11 times in 12 years, including 10 trips to the NCAA Tournament and a Final Four appearance in 1995.

OSU's win over Kansas State on Wednesday was the 1,000th game of his Division I coaching career. With a record of 720-280, he's one of only 14 coaches to reach the 700-win plateau, has been nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame and stands 13th on the career victory list.

This year's overachieving team has provided him with special fulfillment.

"That's what every coach wants," Sutton said, "to take your ballclub and watch them mature and grow and see that they're maximizing or surpassing what their talent level should allow them to do."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com

UC vs. No. 11 Oklahoma State

Tipoff: 3:30 p.m., Shoemaker Center (13,176).

Records: Oklahoma State 18-2, UC 13-6.

Radio: WLW-AM (700).

TV: Channels 9, 2

Series: Oklahoma State leads 3-1.

Line: UC by 2 1/2.

OKLAHOMA STATE

Player	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Ivan McFarlin	Jr.	6-8	11.3
Andre Williams	Sr.	6-8	4.7
Victor Williams	Sr.	5-10	14.7
Tony Allen	Jr.	6-4	16.2
Melvin Sanders	Sr.	6-5	12.9

Coach: Eddie Sutton (290-116, 12th season; 720-280 overall.)

UC

Player	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Leonard Stokes	Sr.	6-6	16.4
Jason Maxiell	So.	6-7	11.8
Kareem Johnson	Jr.	6-7	2.2
Field Williams	Jr.	6-3	13.2
Taron Barker	Sr.	6-1	6.6

Coach: Bob Huggins (345-106, 14th season; 513-178 overall).