Former OSU Coach's New Deal a Reminder of Cowboys' Fall Over Past Decade

Travis Ford is set to be back on the sidelines next season.

Feb 8, 2020; Dayton, Ohio, USA; Saint Louis Billikens head coach Travis Ford reacts from the bench in the game against the Dayton Flyers in the first half at University of Dayton Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State’s former coach has found his next landing spot.

As March Madness gets into full swing, some other programs are making some moves to change up the future, including one mid-major that is adding a former Cowboy. On Thursday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello reported that former OSU coach Travis Ford is finalizing a deal to become the next head coach at Little Rock. 

Ford had most recently spent time as the head coach at Saint Louis, leading that program for eight years from 2016-24, making the NCAA Tournament there in 2019. Of course, Ford is best known for his previous eight-year stint in Stillwater.

As the head coach at OSU, Ford led a fun era of basketball beyond the Eddie Sutton era that the program needed. In his eight years at the helm, Ford went 155-111, making five NCAA Tournament appearances and coaching a few future NBA players, most notably Marcus Smart.

At the time of Ford’s firing in 2016, it felt like a good decision for both parties. While Ford had found success in Stillwater, there was also an expectation for the Cowboys to be better and make deeper runs in the postseason.

His final season at the helm was certainly a forgettable one, with Jawun Evans’ freshman year highlighting an otherwise awful season. Still, the Cowboys had performed well in the seasons leading up to that campaign, securing NCAA Tournament appearances for three straight seasons from 2013-15.

In the 10 seasons since Ford’s departure, OSU has made only two NCAA Tournament appearances, coming in 2017 and 2021. That 2017 appearance came with Brad Underwood at the helm, and his arrival seemed to usher in a new era of OSU basketball that would feature high-level hoops for a long time.

Of course, Underwood left Stillwater after one season for a higher paycheck at Illinois, where he’s thrived in the near-decade since. While Ford’s firing was hard to argue with at the time, given the general stagnancy of the program, OSU’s decision-making in the years since has been questionable at best.

While it seems likely that OSU will return to the NCAA Tournament before Ford can make it in with Little Rock, the Cowboys’ five-year tournament drought is a simple reminder that the program’s best stretch after Sutton was with Ford in charge. The future could easily be bright under Steve Lutz, but the program is still searching for the same sustained success it had under Ford.