Saint Louis University ended their search for a head coach and hired recently dispatched Travis Ford. Ford’s time ran out while coaching at the University of Oklahoma State for eight seasons.
Ford is very familiar with the territory in the region. The Kentucky native started his collegiate career playing for former Missouri Tigers head coach Norm Stewart for one season. The 5’9 Ford won Big Eight freshman of the year and looked like he was going to be a fixture in the Tigers lineup, but he transferred to his home state school the Kentucky Wildcats. He sat out a year and closed out his collegiate career with back-to-back SEC Tournament MVP awards.
Ford knows the Atlantic 10 Conference very well, posting a 62-35 record while coaching at UMass for three seasons, which led to him accepting the same position as head coach for the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Big 12.
While he coached at Oklahoma State, however, his non-conference record was not a pretty sight. He went 55-65 and only once won more than 10 games in a conference. And that one time in the 2012-13 season when he did have over 10 victories, his team just unraveled. That team featured Boston Celtics point guard Marcus Smart and a very athletic Markel Brown, who posterized the Missouri Tigers before they exited the Big 12 and landed in the SEC conference.
Ford is a big upgrade from coach Jim Crews. It was very painful to watch SLU play basketball under Crews. There is no real description of what of what they were trying to get accomplished on offense. This team labored in half-court sets and often looked confused or fearful of taking uncontested shots. No defensive intensity, nothing in transition, and a slam dunk was as common as a Bigfoot sighting.
There are plenty of athletes on the team roster, they just need to be coached up better. But it sure didn’t take long for some in the St. Louis media to say that he needs to recruit. Ford managed to land some major recruits at his most recent job.
The Saint Louis Billikens instantly became more competitive with this hire, and the timing of the hire was perfect for SLU. Had the Missouri Tigers dispatched Kim Anderson, Ford would have made a good fit there for the same reasons.
