Kansas State University

This K-State basketball staff member is leaving the Wildcats to return to high school

Kansas State basketball director of strategies Kevin Sutton helps coach players during a practice in Manhattan, Kansas.
Kansas State basketball director of strategies Kevin Sutton helps coach players during a practice in Manhattan, Kansas. K-State Athletics

Kansas State men’s basketball coach Jerome Tang is losing a member of his support staff a little over one year into his tenure with the Wildcats.

Kevin Sutton, a veteran coach with nearly 40 years of experience within the profession, is leaving his post as K-State’s director of basketball strategies to take a new job with IMG Academy as its technical director of basketball.

The move was first shared by college basketball reporter Jon Rothstein on Friday.

Sutton only spent one year with the Wildcats, but he made an impact as an extension of Tang’s coaching staff, which featured five aids on top of three traditional assistant coaches. K-State is coming off a sensational season in which it won 26 games, finished third in the Big 12 standings and reached the Elite Eight.

He was well liked, as coaches from other teams routinely lined up to chat with him before games last season.

The rest of Tang’s staff is remaining intact.

Sutton came to K-State last offseason after spending 15 seasons as an assistant coach at the Division I level and a dozen more as the head coach for elite basketball high schools such as Montverde Academy.

His resume includes stops at Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island and Florida-Gulf Coast on top of K-State.

This move will allow Sutton to return to his high school roots. It could also provide the Wildcats with a helpful recruiting link to IMG Academy, which regularly boasts many of the nation’s top prospects.

This story was originally published June 9, 2023 at 11:38 AM.

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Kellis Robinett
The Wichita Eagle
Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.
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