Sunday, March 06, 2005

Congratulations, Travis Ford

Quick update today. I offer my congratulations to former Kentucky Wildcat star Travis Ford for Eastern Kentucky winning the OVC tournament. He will take EKU to the big dance.

He shed tears for joy.
Travis Ford ended up in tears yesterday.

Five years ago, it was the destiny many foresaw.

When the former Kentucky Wildcats hero was offered the head coaching job at basketball-challenged Eastern Kentucky in the spring of 2000, he conferred with hoops graybeards.

Take the offer or not?

"People told me I was crazy to take this job," Ford said.

After all, this was Eastern Kentucky University -- a school where basketball labored in the vast shadows of both Roy Kidd's historic football excellence and the Big Blue Hoops Behemoth not 30 miles up the road.

This was Eastern basketball -- no NCAA Tournament since Jimmy Carter was in the White House (1979). Not even an eight-game winning streak since 1965.

Then Ford got to campus, where he realized Eastern basketball lacked something else:

Players.[...]

Suddenly, being starting point guard on Kentucky's 1993 Final Four team is no longer No. 1 on Ford's basketball thrill meter.

"Oh, this is it," he said. "I'll guarantee you getting Eastern into the NCAA Tournament as a coach is a lot harder than going to the Final Four as a player at UK. I've never worked so hard at anything in my life."

Back when he was draining threes as Rick Pitino's court general at Kentucky, it was easy to admire the fire and cunning that Ford brought to the basketball floor.

But there was a bit of an Eddie Haskell air about him, the feeling that, while he said the right thing, he was putting one over on you.

That's gone now.

In its place is a vibe of appreciation, even humility, over the ride his fifth EKU basketball team is taking.

There's a name for that: Maturity.

Ford's father, Eddie, sees it. The big difference in Travis now and the technical-foul-waiting-to-happen, 20-something head coach who broke in at Campbellsville University in 1997 is sideline demeanor, he says.

"He talked to me a lot about 'the team reflects the personality of the coach,' " Eddie Ford says. "I think he's grown a lot. I think the sideline is where it shows."

Backup guard Ben Rushing, the first player Ford recruited at Eastern five years ago, says the coach now shows "more patience. If you make a mistake, he's not as quick to get on you; he's not as quick to jerk you out of the game."

Early last season, when Ford followed up two seven-win seasons and an 11-victory year with a 2-4 start, there were rumblings in coaching circles that he might be in trouble.

Asked yesterday if she ever considered pulling the plug on Ford during his lean years, EKU President Joanne K. Glasser said "never. Never. Never. I knew this program was going to take time."

Through the tough times, Heather Ford says her husband never wavered in his belief in himself. Never stopped the chip-off-the-old-Pitino 4 a.m. film sessions.
Gotta love those players that have become coaches since the days of Rick Pitino at Kentucky.

Kentucky takes on Florida today at 2 on CBS. Florida is coaches by a former Pitino assistant and Providence University star: Billy Donovan.

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