Since taking over as Oklahoma State's new head basketball coach last month, coach Travis Ford has been on a blitz of recruiting, getting to know his players and learning his new school's policies and procedures.
By JEFF LATZKE
AP Sports Writer
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Inside Travis Ford’s office, six picture hooks hang on the wall unadorned. Stacks of paperwork cover his desk. Atop a refrigerator sits his fuel: a half-digested pack of Red Bulls.
This is the office of a man with no time to decorate. Since taking over as Oklahoma State’s new head coach last month, Ford has been on a blitz of recruiting, getting to know his players and learning his new school’s policies and procedures.
He hasn’t even had the chance to assemble his coaching staff, much less pick out some new wall hangings.
“I haven’t had any rest. None. No breaks. None, where usually every coach would take a little bit of a break. I just haven’t had time. There’s so much to be done here,” Ford said in an interview Tuesday. “There’s so much to be done that I often find myself just sitting here and I can’t figure out what to do next and I end up wasting time.”
Ford’s to-do list includes getting to know his players’ parents and familiarizing himself with the AAU and high school coaches in Oklahoma and surrounding states. He’d love to get his players on the court for practice, but NCAA rules don’t allow it and now school is out and the kids are gone until June 1.
Once the open recruiting period ended, Ford took only a quick breather by going back to his native state to take in the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
“There’s not enough time in the day to get everything done. This weekend was the first time I’ve done something not involving work for about seven months,” said Ford, whose family won’t join him in Stillwater until next month. “I haven’t had a break.”
Ford’s grind began before last season and continued into April as he coached Massachusetts to the NIT championship game. Then he was linked to jobs at LSU and Providence before signing on to take over Oklahoma State after Sean Sutton resigned.
Unlike previous jobs at Campbellsville (Ky.) of the NAIA, Eastern Kentucky and UMass, Ford believes he’s taking over a program that is on solid ground. Instead of starting essentially from scratch, Ford wants to build on the foundation created by Sutton and his father, Eddie. The Suttons took the Cowboys to 13 NCAA tournaments and two Final Fours.
“I would not be interested in this job if it wasn’t for what they have accomplished here. They’ve made it a great job,” Ford said.
“Obviously Coach (Henry) Iba started it all, no question, and obviously everybody knows his influence not just on Oklahoma State but on basketball period. In the modern day, the Suttons have made Oklahoma State basketball one of the reasons I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Ford takes over a team that’s lost in the first round of the NIT the past three seasons and finished 17-16 last season.
“I’m fully aware everybody wants to go to the NCAA, but you make the NIT, it’s not like you’ve had a bad year,” said Ford, who took UMass to the NIT in two of his three seasons there.
The recent success under the Suttons, combined with a fan base that until recently filled Gallagher-Iba Arena on a regular basis, gives Ford a running start toward getting back to the NCAA tournament.
“I think we’re the basketball school in this state. I do. I think this is a great basketball school in the state. We’ve got great football, we’ve got a lot of great things,” Ford said.
“I don’t think there’s any question Jeff (Capel) is doing a great job at Oklahoma but absolutely I think when you get 14,000 people to every game, or 13,000 people to every game, I think there’s a lot of great tradition here.”
Ford, who has known Sean Sutton since the two were teenagers, said he has consulted the former coach several times for insight on the team he’ll be inheriting. He has also brought in Steve Middleton, his assistant the past six years at Eastern Kentucky and Massachusetts, as the first member of his new staff.
His daily to-do list still never gets completed.
“This is my fourth job and this has been probably the craziest as far as things that I needed to do and how quick it happened and going right from playing,” Ford said.
Soon enough, Ford will have his own photos to hang alongside the ones of John Lucas and Tony Allen that were left in his office. He’ll have his own players and his own place in Oklahoma State history.
It just might not be soon enough for him.
“There’s just so much to do and I’m not a patient person,” Ford said. “I like to do everything immediately.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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