Stillwater, Okla. ? Eddie Sutton felt like his 368 coaching wins were his own way of repaying Oklahoma State for an athletic scholarship that years earlier had allowed him to get an education.

After just more than a year away, Sutton’s alma mater stopped to honor him for all he did in Stillwater.

“I’m really honored that the university would see fit to do this,” Sutton said Wednesday night before a ceremony planned at halftime of the Cowboys’ game against No. 8 Texas A&M.

Sutton’s 798 wins at Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Kentucky and Creighton are the fifth-highest total for any men’s NCAA Division I basketball coach. When his victories at Tulsa Central High School and the College of Southern Idaho are included, he won exactly 1,000 games before retiring from coaching in May.

“I’ll tell you one thing: I have greater appreciation for fans. Having been a head coach for 47 years at high school, junior college and four Division I schools, you could always have an impact on the game in some way. You could change the game,” Sutton said. “When you sit up there, you are helpless.”

Sutton said he didn’t think it was too early after his retirement for him to be honored.

“I’m not, in all likelihood, going to go back into coaching,” Sutton said. “I think I could still coach some, because of the way I feel. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time.

“The last couple of years I felt so badly I could hardly get up and down off the bench sometimes. If anybody tells me they’ve got back problems, I’ll be the most sympathetic person because I didn’t know you could hurt that bad.”

Sutton last week was named one of 15 finalists being considered for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame but said of his chances, “I am not that optimistic because I look at who’s been nominated.” He said he figured Phil Jackson, Roy Williams, and the 1966 Texas Western NCAA championship team will get in.