Mike Jones 
Mike Jones: No 'wow' factor, but OSU's choice is solid
Travis Ford, huh?
No doubt the news that Oklahoma State finally found a new basketball coach Wednesday in the 38-year-old Massachusetts coach was met with similar reaction in the land of Pistol Pete.
Ford is not the home run for which athletic director Mike Holder was swinging and for which OSU fans desperately yearned, despite obvious factors against that. But at least call it a clean, run-scoring single with a good chance for extra bases. On the surface, on par with Mark Turgeon to A&M or Jeff Capel to Oklahoma.
And let me again emphasize to those who doggedly somehow persisted in the Billy Clyde Gillispie fantasy: There was never, ever any interest on either end.
So less than 24 hours after Southern Illinois' Chris Lowery backed out of OSU contention, Ford surfaced and will be introduced at a 2 p.m. news conference today. This less than a week after Ford declared about UMass, "This is the right place for me," after interviewing at LSU and turning down Providence and then agreeing to a (short) long-term deal at UMass, "because of all the reasons I wanted to be here."
Some of those reasons apparently aren't that important anymore. But based on his ability to build a winner at different levels, the former Kentucky (and briefly Missouri) guard has demonstrated in 11 years in the business that he knows what he's doing courtside.
A winner in two of three NAIA seasons, Ford then led Eastern Kentucky to a 22-9 season and its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance after four losing seasons. He won 49 games the last two seasons at UMass after a 13-15 first season, and this season (25-11) reached the NIT title game.
Ford's small-town Kentucky roots should be a fit in Stillwater, according to one guy I talked to Wednesday.
He coaches the up-tempo game. And his task won't be that difficult on the court. He's not inheriting a bad team. His job will be ducking the crossfire between the Holder haters and Holder backers, the faction upset over the perceived trashing of the Sutton legacy against those who said good riddance and those still pouting over not getting prodigal son Bill Self.
He also will face a chore navigating the dusty recruiting trail in Texas, though Capel has done a good job of that. That's not being pompous. The fact is -- and look at college basketball rosters all across the country -- there are a lot of good players in the state, and you've got to get some of them to win.
"It's not going to be easy for him," one Big 12 source said. "He's going to find that in Texas, the Longhorns do pretty good. The Aggies are strong. And Oklahoma is right in there."
But so is every other major program, on some level. And Oklahoma State has a history of success here.
Texas high school coaches remain a clannish bunch, slow to take to someone who doesn't understand the state of mind. But unless Ford comes in with an I'm-Bob Knight-and-you're-not attitude, he'll probably do fine.
He should keep top assistant coach James Dickey, who has run the program since Sean Sutton's ouster, to ease the transition.
So the Big 12 has added another respectable name to its coaching roster. Not with a solid crack of the bat. But not with an aluminum "plink," either.
Travis Ford
Age: 38 College: Kentucky, 1994
Notable: 190-146 coaching record in 11 seasons.... Led UMass to NIT title game last month.... Had three-year record of 62-35.... At Eastern Kentucky, he was 60-81 in five seasons, but led Colonels to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than 25 years.... Mid-South Coach of the Year at NAIA Campbellsville in 1998-99 season.... Played at Missouri and Kentucky.
jjones@star-telegram.com
Featured Advertisers
| High School Sports | DFW Online Yellow Pages | Local Shopping |
| Find a Car | Apartments | Local Jobs |
| Dallas Cowboys Tickets |
