Everybody knows what has transpired the past few weeks in our athletic department. It’s been all over the news and in the newspapers. After 15 days, Oklahoma State University finally has a new basketball coach.
Thursday afternoon, OSU introduced Travis Ford to the Cowboy faithful as the next coach for men’s basketball. Not really surprising. He seems to fit the same description of all other OSU coaches: young, spirited and approved by Boone Pickens.
Everybody knows it already. What Boone wants, Boone tends to get. Yes, he did have a set back when Bill Self turned OSU down to stay and defend his national championship with Kansas (and we would like to wish him luck), but Pickens is a successful businessman.
He knows when to cut his losses and move on. Now we have Coach Ford who has had success with the University of Massachusetts the past two seasons. Personally, I was hoping we’d go after Bob Knight, but Ford has an impressive enough résumé.
I think the coach search was a bit premature. I mean Holder and Boone shouldn’t have forced coach Sean Sutton to resign. I know our basketball team has not been the most successful team the past two years under Sutton, but look at the facts.
In his first season, he started with a short bench. When Obi Muonelo went down with a broken leg the situation was made worse. Still, the team raced to 15-1 and was ranked in the top 10. But by the end of the season you could tell the team was physically exhausted.
This season, Sutton had to replace our two leading scorers from last year. He solved the problem with filling the voids on the bench, but with freshmen and sophomores. The team had two seniors and two juniors.
Signs of hope surfaced toward the end of the season. The team won five straight games, including a victory over the eventual national champions, and played the University of Texas down to the wire … twice.
So why didn’t Holder give Sutton one more season to prove himself? Well, for starters, Holder is the type of guy who wants immediate results or you’re canned. Secondly, it was because Sean was cursed as a Sutton scion.
It comes as no surprise that because Boone Pickens didn’t like the Suttons, he wanted them out at the first opportunity.
So now I would like to address our new coach. We wish you best of luck next season and in those that follow. It will take a truly special man to coach under these conditions.
I know it didn’t take much incentive to come here with Boone signing your checks. But keep in mind, the way things work around here, you better win the national championship next year if you want to be wearing the orange and black for a few seasons.
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How do you know that Boone did not like the Suttons? Sounds like message board rumors to me. I read a report of Eddie saying that Boone wanted him fired when he got the DUI, but that hardly implies any ill will. Further, it shows that the Suttons had at least some sway over Boone’s opinion.
Bring back OSU’s legendary “Streaker’s Night” and everything will take care of itself. There’s nothing like naked people running willy-nilly down Jefferson Ave. to put everything in perspective — just ask Garth Brooks, an OSU grad who now has friends in HIGH POSITIONS. Go Pokes! FF