Sutton began coaching at the NCAA level in 1969 at Creighton University, followed by Arkansas from 1974 to 1985, Kentucky from 1985 to 1989, and Oklahoma State from 1990 to 2006.

[1][2] At Oklahoma A&M/State, Sutton played at guard for the Cowboys basketball team from 1955 to 1958 under head coach Henry Iba.

[1] Sutton began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Iba at Oklahoma State in the 1958–59 school year before completing his master's degree in 1959.

[8] Sutton also coached a trio of basketball players, all from the state of Arkansas, known as "The Triplets": Ron Brewer, Marvin Delph, and Sidney Moncrief.

[17] Sutton's tenure at Kentucky ended at the close of the 1988–89 season after a scandal and a losing record tarnished the school's basketball program.

Additionally, sophomore standout Eric Manuel was suspected of cheating on his college entrance exam and voluntarily agreed to sit out until the investigation was finished.

[18] As it turned out, Manuel didn't play a single game as the investigation dragged through the entire season, essentially placing the Wildcats in the hands of inexperienced sophomore LeRon Ellis and freshman Chris Mills.

[16] The scandal broke when it was alleged that Emery Worldwide employees discovered $1,000 in cash in an envelope Kentucky assistant coach Dwane Casey supposedly sent to Mills' father.

[21] The NCAA deemed the violations so egregious that it seriously considered hitting the Wildcats with the "death penalty", which would have shut down the entire basketball program (as opposed to simply being banned from postseason play) for up to two years.

Kentucky was eligible for this severe penalty because it was already on probation for failing to cooperate with an investigation into an extensive scheme of payments to recruits.

In March, school president David Roselle told Sutton that he had lined up enough support on UK's athletics board to fire him unless he resigned.

At the time of his hire, since joining (or rejoining, depending on the source) the Big Eight Conference in 1957, Oklahoma State appeared in only three NCAA Tournaments.

[23] Previous Oklahoma State head coach Leonard Hamilton had also resigned to take the job at the University of Miami.

[6][1][25] Following the season, The Oklahoman sports columnist Berry Tramel observed: "Sutton is pleased that pride has returned to the court made famous by Iba.

[30] After declining a police officer's offer for a ride or ambulance,[30] Sutton hit another SUV from behind at 60 mph, resulting in minor injuries for the other driver.

[30] Sutton announced on February 14 that he would take a medical leave of absence from the basketball team, citing his health problems and the accident as reasons.

[31][32] The following day, in a prepared statement delivered over the phone at a press conference, Sutton admitted he had taken prescription medication due to back pain and "bought a bottle" of alcohol on the night of the accident.

[6] On December 26, 2007, Sutton came out of retirement to replace Jessie Evans as head coach at the University of San Francisco on an interim basis.

[34][35][36] On February 2, 2008, Sutton became the fifth NCAA Division I men's basketball coach to reach 800 career wins after San Francisco rallied from a 19-point second half deficit to defeat Pepperdine 85–82 in an away game.