Charlie Riedel, Associated Press Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton watches his team during practice. Click photo for larger image.

Jamie Dixon first came to the public's attention as a child actor, starring in a Volvo commercial at age 5.

At the time, Eddie Sutton already was in his first season as head basketball coach of a major college.

Dixon is 38 now, a rookie coach at Pitt. Sutton, 68, is in the 34th season of one of college basketball's most magnificent and overlooked careers.

Sutton has taken four different schools to the NCAA tournament, and has won 753 games -- more than any active coach except Texas Tech's Bob Knight. Yet Sutton is not in the Basketball Hall of Fame, nor is he often mentioned in the same sentence with celebrated coaches such as Knight and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.

One reason is that Knight and Krzyzewski each have won three national championships. Sutton is still after his first.

If this is to be Sutton's year, he must get by upstart Dixon and Pitt. Pitt (31-4) plays Sutton's Oklahoma State team (29-3) tomorrow night in the third round of the NCAA tournament at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J.

Don Haskins, the retired coach of Texas-El Paso, regards this game as the tournament's best coaching matchup -- rising star Dixon versus grand master Sutton.

"I think that young man that took over at Pittsburgh is right up there," Haskins said yesterday. "But Eddie is the best. He's kind of like fine wine, it appears. He's getting better with age."

Sutton, an Oklahoma State graduate, revived his coaching career on the Stillwater campus after nearly drowning in scandal and alcoholism at Kentucky.

Since he returned to Oklahoma State in 1990, he has turned the Cowboys into one of the strongest and most consistent teams in Division I. They have qualified for the NCAA tournament 12 times in 14 seasons. His 1995 team reached the Final Four, losing in the semifinals to eventual champion UCLA.

In the 25 years before Sutton's arrival, Oklahoma State had qualified for the NCAA tournament just once and had only seven winning seasons.

For most of his career, Sutton specialized in taking downtrodden teams and turning them into national powers.

He did it in his first major-college job at Creighton. He inherited a team that had not had a winning season in four years. Under him, Creighton had five consecutive winning seasons and qualified for the NCAA tournament.

One of his first recruits was Bimbo Pietro, who found his way from South Hills Catholic High School (now Seton-LaSalle) in Mt. Lebanon to the Creighton campus in Omaha, Neb.

Pietro said Sutton demanded excellence, especially on defense. But what stands out 34 years later, Pietro said, is that Sutton cared about every player.

"There was so much more to him than basketball and wins and losses. He constantly talked to us about making something of our lives after basketball," Pietro said.

Every member of Sutton's first recruiting class at Creighton became a professional in something other than basketball. Pietro is a dentist practicing in Omaha. Three other players are lawyers. Another operates a nursing home and one runs an insurance business.

After Sutton's big splash at Creighton, Arkansas hired him to resurrect a program that was barely breathing.

"Arkansas was a football school. It had no basketball program," said Marvin Delph, who was Sutton's first recruit for the Razorbacks. "Coach Sutton said he was going to build the basketball program into one that would compete on a national scale, and I guess I believed him."

Sutton designed his first Arkansas teams around three 6-foot-4 leapers -- Delph, Sidney Moncrief and Ron Brewer. In Sutton's fourth season, 1977-78, Arkansas defeated vaunted UCLA in the NCAA regionals and advanced to the Final Four.

The Razorbacks lost to Kentucky, the eventual national champion, in the semifinals, but Sutton had delivered on his promise.

While he was creating a basketball power from scratch, Sutton impressed his players as somebody who kept sports in perspective.

"Coach Sutton knew all of us weren't going to play in the NBA, if any of us played in the NBA," Delph said. "But he knew all of us could get a college degree and add to society, rather than being a person who burdened society. That's what he preached."

Moncrief and Brewer went on to the NBA. Most of the other Razorbacks took Sutton's advice about getting an education.

Delph, for instance, received a degree in social work. Now he is in the insurance business in Conway, Ark.

To this day, Delph and Sutton stay in touch. Delph regards him as more a mentor than a basketball coach. But that reputation would be marred in Sutton's next job.

For all his success at Arkansas, Sutton knew he was still running a second-tier basketball program. The job he wanted most was Kentucky's. He once said he would crawl to Lexington to get it.

As things played out, he didn't have to grovel. The Wildcats happily hired Sutton after Joe B. Hall retired in 1985. But what looked like an ideal situation for Sutton turned into a personal and professional disaster.

He inherited an excellent team at Kentucky. The Wildcats went 32-4 in Sutton's first year and advanced to the final eight of the NCAA tournament.

Sutton, though, was drinking heavily by then and having a difficult time adjusting to a place where basketball -- not football, or politics or religion -- always captivated public attention.

"I don't think he was prepared for the magnitude of Kentucky basketball," said Rex Chapman, a prize recruit of Sutton's who left for the NBA after two seasons.

By then, friends and probably players knew that Sutton needed professional help. In the summer of 1987, he checked himself into the Betty Ford Center for treatment of alcoholism.

He rehabilitated himself, but his Kentucky program continued to crumble.

Sutton and his coaching staff were ensnared in a recruiting scandal centered on claims of players being paid in violation of NCAA rules. Kentucky forced Sutton to resign in March 1989.

The Wildcats had just completed a 13-19 season and later would be placed on NCAA probation.

Sutton had always maintained good personal relationships with players. But at Kentucky even that fell apart.

Chapman, now a scout for the Phoenix Suns, said he and Sutton did not speak for 15 years. In 2003 they crossed paths at a game. They're talking again.

Though Sutton's four seasons in Kentucky were not happy ones, his coaching brilliance was not lost on Chapman.

Chapman said the defensive skills taught by Sutton prepared him to survive in the NBA as a 20-year-old.

"I've never played for a better coach," Chapman said. "He's dedicated. He's diligent. He really teaches the game."

Kentucky hired Rick Pitino to revive its program after squeezing out Sutton.

Down but not out, Sutton convinced Oklahoma State to give him a chance at rebuilding its program, which had not had sustained success in decades.

Sutton played basketball at Oklahoma State in the 1950s under Henry Iba. Iba won two national championships when the school was still called Oklahoma A&M. Everybody hungered for a return to the glory years.

Sutton has delivered everything except a national title.

"He's a real hero in Oklahoma," Oklahoma State University president David Schmidly said. "I just came from a meeting in the college of veterinary medicine, and everybody was abuzz about his team. Aside from the basketball, his young men are doing well in school and behaving themselves."

Schmidly said Sutton remains driven, but he's also at peace. The coach revels in playing with his four grandchildren. Sutton's son, Sean, is Oklahoma's associate head coach and, perhaps, his successor should the old man ever retire.

Sutton has work to do first, starting with Pitt.

Delph said the Panthers are no match for a Sutton-coached team.

"I think Pitt's going to be in some trouble," he said. "Both teams are tough on defense, but Oklahoma State has some boys that can shoot."

Haskins, also an Oklahoma State graduate, said there's no such thing as a sure bet in the tournament. His Texas Western team (later called UTEP) shocked the country by whipping Kentucky for the 1966 championship.

Another relative unknown could prevail this year, Haskins said.

Still, Haskins loves Sutton's Cowboys for a variety of reasons.

"They're going to handle the ball well. They're going to guard you. They're not going to mistake themselves. Pitt's going to have to beat them, because they won't beat themselves."