Arkansas State basketball coach Dickey Nutt steps down

2/19/2008 7:05 PM

By NOAH TRISTER
AP Sports Writer

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -Dickey Nutt resigned after 13 seasons as Arkansas State's basketball coach and he will step down immediately.

Nutt announced his departure Tuesday night at a news conference in Jonesboro.

Arkansas State (9-17, 4-11 Sun Belt Conference) has lost seven consecutive games.

Assistants Shawn Forrest and Al Grushkin will take over as co-interim head coaches. The Indians have three games remaining in the regular season, starting Thursday night at Arkansas-Little Rock.

``Our record doesn't indicate the fight that this team has in it,'' Nutt said. ``But after conferring with (athletic director Dean) Lee this morning, I've agreed to step down and resign.''

Nutt's brother Houston was the football coach at Arkansas for nearly 10 seasons. He left the Razorbacks in November after a tumultuous season and took over at Mississippi.

Nutt went 189-187 at Arkansas State and led the team to the NCAA tournament in 1999. Last season, a late winning streak brought the Indians within a game of another trip to the NCAA tournament, but they lost to North Texas in the championship game of the Sun Belt tournament.

Adrian Banks, the Indians' leading scorer, was suspended earlier in the season and has started only 12 games.