Who?

If Travis Ford was the best OK St could come up with, you gotta think they're wishing now that they hadn't fired Sutton to make a play for Self.  This entire thing was bungled from the beginning and is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with the culture of coaches switching programs and schools trying to lure coaches away.

You guys might want to stick to football or whatever sport you follow, because you obviously don't know anything about Travis Ford.  He's far from an unknown.  He was the starting point guard for UK where he led the team to a Final Four along with Jamal Mashburn.  He played for Rick Pitino when his assistants were Billy Donovan and Tubby Smith (1991).  He has since been a head coach for the past 10 years and has been a winner everywhere he's been.  This hire is no different than Florida hirng Billy Donovan when he was an "unknown".   I would  take an up and comer like him rather than a has-been any day.  You can read more about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Ford

UMass had a good tradition of Bball- Wasn't it Marcus Camby & UMass that Big Country took to school in 1995 when OSU went to the final four?

Ford did ok there but didn't have them in the NCAA. Sounds just like Sean Sutton. Sean played at Kentucky also. Where is the difference? Experience? # of games coached?  

I always thought that for college coaches, the name of the game is recruiting. Can Travis Ford recruit? Can he recruit to OSU? That will be the real test.

Records

Sean - 39-28    58%

Travis 190-146  56%

Cowpoke,

The difference in the numbers that you threw up is that Sean Sutton took a pretty good team and made them worse, while Travis Ford has taken teams with bad records and made them better.  Look at his stint at each school and he has a really bad record in his first year, before improving the program.  It doesn't make much sense to compare the overall record.  It makes more sense to see how their teams have improved year after year.

As far as not making the tournament, UMass was every bit as good as St. Joe's and Temple, two other A10 teams that made the tournament.  And I bet that Okie St. will be a little bit easier to recruit at.