“I’ve had that feeling about seven times now that this is the year,” Reeves said at the celebration. “He should have been in the first go around.”

Reeves and other Sutton supporters will no longer have to ask if this year will be the year. Although it took seven finalist announcements before being inducted, Sutton’s name can finally be removed from the list of Hall of Fame snubs.

Chianti Roberts was another member of the 1995 team. Roberts said in February that he felt Sutton would finally get inducted this time.

Roberts turned out to be right, and he said Friday that pride was the biggest emotion he felt after hearing the news.

“It’s just a considerable amount of pride to know that this person that, in my young age, my mom helped direct me to put my life in his hands,” Roberts said. “And to see the kind of fruit that’s come from his labor. He’s always been a sense of pride for me anyway and a sense of motivation. To know somebody that’s achieved something like this, I guess pride is the biggest emotion.”

Sutton’s coaching resume consists of three Final Four appearances — with OSU in 1995 and 2004 and with Arkansas in 1978.