Travis Ford is a child.

[sooner_15]

We beat KSU in front of a sellout crowd today so I'm sorry you wasted all your time typing all that noise to make yourself better about your season and playing in that tomb. We will be preseason ranked next year with or without Smart and you guys lose some key pieces while bringing in a typical mediocre Kruger recruiting class loaded with JUCOs and Oklahoma 3 stars as we bring in big time talent, Rivals 100/150 players.

Enjoy finishing the season unranked and your awesome 9/10 seed or wharever.

Enjoy being a poor, loser poke. Go to your farm boards. If you are so great at bball, why do we own you? Idiot.

 

[GIA Stout]

Aggie, I laughed and laughed and laughed at your post. First, yes it was a sellout but there was still a couple thousand empty seats - easy to see. Actually OU has had some great attendance for several games down the stretch this year, you need to pay attention as you all have played about 90% of your games this year with around 3 to 4,000 in the stands, LOL. Your school, by the way, is GIVING the students tickets now, haha.

You also are an Angry Elf. Such jealousy towards big brother. We still own you in basketball and football. Look at the records in b-ball - OSU=FAIL against our Sooners. And you think Hillbilly Ford can recruit a top 150 player that is taller than 6-5? Don't think so. By the way, Ford can't hold Krugers JOCK in coaching and EVERYONE with a brain knows it. He will become the FIRST COACH EVER to take 5 different schools to the tourney. He doesn't need 4 stars etc to win, he actually knows how to coach.

Go take some medicine and sit in the corner and stew over your little problems, LOL. You are one SAD little person.

Yes, we're all jealous of Kruger's ONE conference championship in a quarter century of coaching, his 13-15 career NCAA tourney record, losing at home to SFA (lol) and blowing a historic lead to the worst UT team in Big 12 history, only making it past the 2nd round 3 times in 13 NCAA appearances which includes only ONE trip past the 2nd round since 1994, a Sweet 16. Unibrow's prime days are long long gone as is his recruiting. Enjoy the 10 seed and being in our rearview mirror this year and next. I'm out.

 

[sooner_15]

Yes, we're all jealous of Kruger's ONE conference championship in a quarter century of coaching, his 13-15 career NCAA tourney record, losing at home to SFA (lol) and blowing a historic lead to the worst UT team in Big 12 history, only making it past the 2nd round 3 times in 13 NCAA appearances which includes only ONE trip past the 2nd round since 1994, a Sweet 16. Unibrow's prime days are long long gone as is his recruiting. Enjoy the 10 seed and being in our rearview mirror this year and next. I'm out.

Got plans to bang horses?

 

[Soonermarty]

Yes, we're all jealous of Kruger's ONE conference championship in a quarter century of coaching, his 13-15 career NCAA tourney record, losing at home to SFA (lol) and blowing a historic lead to the worst UT team in Big 12 history, only making it past the 2nd round 3 times in 13 NCAA appearances which includes only ONE trip past the 2nd round since 1994, a Sweet 16. Unibrow's prime days are long long gone as is his recruiting. Enjoy the 10 seed and being in our rearview mirror this year and next. I'm out.

You are a tool, and a typical Aggie. Why do you come to an OU board to post? You are the typical bitter, lol brother syndrome aggie. You worry more about what OU does, than the Pokes. Are you one of those idiots that are more excited over an OU loss, than a OSU win?

 

[earlpearl]

To think that Lon is not a great xo type coach is ludicrious. The same can be said for Bruce Weber. What they both have in common is the inability to sign great recruiting classes. This is a deficiency in coaching at the college level. Ford on the other hand is a great recruiter, but has a hard time with x's and o's. If a guy could morph both together you would have national title type talent.

 

[KBaden145]

To think that Lon is not a great xo type coach is ludicrious. The same can be said for Bruce Weber. What they both have in common is the inability to sign great recruiting classes. This is a deficiency in coaching at the college level. Ford on the other hand is a great recruiter, but has a hard time with x's and o's. If a guy could morph both together you would have national title type talent.

I don't think it is fair to say Kruger can't sign great classes. I think any coach who can win at the level he has for so long can recruit at a high level. He left extremely good players at each of the places he left while building those programs. You don't have to sign a bunch of Mc AAs to be a high level recruiter. It helps but it all comes down to recruiting the right people for your style and system, regardless of the number of stars that player has. He may not be Calipari but he will get players. He will get the right kind of player , too.

 

[oSuJeff97]

Ford on the other hand is a great recruiter, but has a hard time with x's and o's.

This is an interesting take, considering that Ford's worst two OSU teams of his tenure were the direct result of a recruiting failure.

His first full recruiting class was a complete bust and crippled the program these past two years. This was his 2009 class of 7 players, all of whom were gone after two years. If even half of those guys would have stayed all four years, I think the past few years would have been very different.

He seems to have righted the ship with his second full class, which is paying dividends this year, as guys like Markel Brown, Brian Williams and Mike Cobbins are major contributors. J.P. Olukemi would also be contributing if he hadn't been injured.

This idea that "Ford can't coach" comes mostly from the problem of having suffered through two straight seasons of inexperienced teams with zero depth because an entire recruiting class was lost.

 

[Section31]

This is an interesting take, considering that Ford's worst two OSU teams of his tenure were the direct result of a recruiting failure.

His first full recruiting class was a complete bust and crippled the program these past two years. This was his 2009 class of 7 players, all of whom were gone after two years. If even half of those guys would have stayed all four years, I think the past few years would have been very different.

He seems to have righted the ship with his second full class, which is paying dividends this year, as guys like Markel Brown, Brian Williams and Mike Cobbins are major contributors. J.P. Olukemi would also be contributing if he hadn't been injured.

This idea that "Ford can't coach" comes mostly from the problem of having suffered through two straight seasons of inexperienced teams with zero depth because an entire recruiting class was lost.

You might be right. We'll see. I just don't think he's a great x's and o's guy...and I'm not alone.

Let's see what he does next year after Smart is gone. This is probably his best team with the best player (by far, arguably) and they are a play or two away from being just as average as they've been in previous seasons. Normally, I would just say it's due to the toughness of the league. I'd say the opposite this year, he SHOULD be winning more comfortably as the league as a whole is pretty average.

 

[topcat]

Quit feeding these Aggies trolls.

We ought to be concerned about our team and their performance yesterday.

 

[oSuJeff97]

This is probably his best team with the best player (by far, arguably) and they are a play or two away from being just as average as they've been in previous seasons.

And we're also one point away from being Big 12 co-champs and the #1 seed in the Big 12 tournament.

Good teams win close games. That's part of being a good team.

We also did another thing that good teams do -- we took care of business against the bottom half of the league. We don't have single "bad loss" in conference, which is also the difference between getting a good seed in the tournament and/or sweating out the bubble or getting a bad seed.

 

[JBaker]

And we're also one point away from being Big 12 co-champs and the #1 seed in the Big 12 tournament.

Good teams win close games. That's part of being a good team.

We also did another thing that good teams do -- we took care of business against the bottom half of the league. We don't have single "bad loss" in conference, which is also the difference between getting a good seed in the tournament and/or sweating out the bubble or getting a bad seed.

I know it's not exactly comparable to losing to TCU, but you got blown out at Baylor. They're in the bottom half of the league.

 

[HoHum]

I'm not saying Ford is a good or bad gameday coach, because, frankly I probably don't know enough about the ins and outs of basketball well enough to come to an educated conclusion, particularly in calling him good or bad relative to other head coaches in the conference/nation

But, the internet is full of people that say Drew is a bad coach, or Ford is a bad coach, or a guy like Capel was bad at OU, but then they don't elaborate. They don't give reasons, they just make blanket statements. Just, he's good, he's bad, etc... When I really think it's all about having talented players and having experienced players. You have to have a handful of one or the other to be a good team.

As for what I've gathered in 5 years about For:

• They consistently play hard, almost to a man (the exceptions being Matt Pilgrim and Nash, though Nash has revved up his effort level a lot this year)
  
• They do a good job of keeping the other team off the offensive glass.
  
• They take some ill advised shots, heat checks, or trying to quickly answer an opposing three. And Ford doesn't seem to have many problems with it, which can be frustrating.
  
• He runs good traps and changes up the defense effectively most games. At times he goes to zones at times that I don't understand, however.
  
• He is good at getting players isolated on the block, when he has players that can capitalize (so far the only Ford-era players that have been able to are Moses and Nash).
  
• I think one problem he has, is that his plays can be too complicated and have too many moving parts and if one guy misses his assignment in the play, it throws the whole thing off and results in a contested jumper or a wild drive into the lane.
  
• The defense has improved each year he's been at OSU (except for the catastrophe that was last season, where all efficiency stats plummeted), and I think that has come from a concerted effort to emphasize defense by Ford. His first year the defense not good at all, this year, at times it has been stifling.

As a follow-up question/comment what do you think the ratio on importance between coaching and recruiting is for making a good coach? I'd put it at somewhere around 70/30 recruiting to coaching, at least in major conferences.

 

[oSuJeff97]

I know it's not exactly comparable to losing to TCU, but you got blown out at Baylor. They're in the bottom half of the league.

I appreciate that, but Baylor is at least an NCAA Tournament bubble team. Losing to them in Waco, especially in the first week of the conference season, should hardly be considered a bad loss.

I'm not saying Ford is a good or bad gameday coach, because, frankly I probably don't know enough about the ins and outs of basketball well enough to come to an educated conclusion, particularly in calling him good or bad relative to other head coaches in the conference/nation

But, the internet is full of people that say Drew is a bad coach, or Ford is a bad coach, or a guy like Capel was bad at OU, but then they don't elaborate. They don't give reasons, they just make blanket statements. Just, he's good, he's bad, etc... When I really think it's all about having talented players and having experienced players. You have to have a handful of one or the other to be a good team.

Scott Drew has a pretty strong track record of under-achieving. Look at the level of talent on this year's team as the latest example. There's no way the Baylor team that was on the floor yesterday against KU, or earlier in the season against full-strength Kentucky, should lose games like Texas, Northwestern, College of Charleston, etc. They also shouldn't be losing home games to other contenders like K-State and OU. People say Drew is a bad coach because this has been a consistent theme for a while now... his teams are often very talented, but undisciplined and often uninterested unless it's a "big" game. Some years (the past few) he's had talent that was so overwhelming that they could get by in those games where they weren't interested... but other years (like this year) that doesn't work.

I don't know that Capel's problem was coaching so much as it was overall program management. When the Griffins weren't around, it just didn't seem like he had much of a handle on his players.

Ford has shown that when he has a team with some talent and experience, he gets them in the NCAA tournament. Because of the 2009 recruiting class disaster, this is really the first team he's had at OSU that is based on the talent and experience that he recruited.

 

[KBaden145]

Ford has shown that when he has a team with some talent and experience, he gets them in the NCAA tournament. Because of the 2009 recruiting class disaster, this is really the first team he's had at OSU that is based on the talent and experience that he recruited.

You aren't suggesting he gets a pass for the poor seasons he has had, are you? The recruiting disaster is his responsibility just as signing Smart is. Recruiting class disasters are the last thing I will ever worry about with Kruger. He may not sign a ton of Mc AAs but he will bring in players who can play, will stay out of court rooms, and do well as student-athletes.

 

[oSuJeff97]

You aren't suggesting he gets a pass for the poor seasons he has had, are you? The recruiting disaster is his responsibility just as signing Smart is. Recruiting class disasters are the last thing I will ever worry about with Kruger. He may not sign a ton of Mc AAs but he will bring in players who can play, will stay out of court rooms, and do well as student-athletes.

Not at all. He absolutely should not get a pass for that first recruiting class being a disaster.

The point I was responding to was that Ford was a "great recruiter" but not necessarily a great "Xs and 0s" coach.

Point being that a recruiting failure (the first class), not an "Xs and 0s" issue, is what caused the problems of the past two years.

Ford has shown that he's plenty capable on the "Xs and 0s" front when he's playing with a full roster that isn't hamstrung by defections and injuries, as has been the case the past few years.

 

[Krugerfan52]

Ford is a very small man. In every way.

 

[KBaden145]

Not at all. He absolutely should not get a pass for that first recruiting class being a disaster.

The point I was responding to was that Ford was a "great recruiter" but not necessarily a great "Xs and 0s" coach.

Point being that a recruiting failure (the first class), not an "Xs and 0s" issue, is what caused the problems of the past two years.

Ford has shown that he's plenty capable on the "Xs and 0s" front when he's playing with a full roster that isn't hamstrung by defections and injuries, as has been the case the past few years.

I will admit he did better with this roster than I thought he would. However, I attribute their success this season more to health and Smarts impact than to Fords ability to coach at a high level. For me, the jury is still out on his ability to truly match wits with the top coaches in this league. A cousin of mine who is a big OState fan was arguing Ford should win Big 12 COY. I asked why he felt that when OState finished exactly where they were picked in the preseason. No answer...

P.S. My COY is Webber with Kruger second, Hoiberg third...

 

[earlpearl]

My biggest problem with Ford is that his teams tend to go stagnet offensively for long periods because of a lack of ball movement. Have you seen one team of Ford's that you would consider a good passing team? Shot selection drives me utterly crazy sometimes. I will give you the point that this years team is much better defensively but I think it is much more a result of having lenght and athleticism rather than the scheme itself. Help defense and weakside rotation are better this year but we still have some breakdowns. As a result teams that penetrate well eat our lunch. If you do not believe me take a look at the KU game and to a lesser extent the OU game. I would almost bet that if Self, Webber, or Kruger would have had this team they would have won the big 12.

 

[fhosu]

I will admit he did better with this roster than I thought he would. However, I attribute their success this season more to health and Smarts impact than to Fords ability to coach at a high level. For me, the jury is still out on his ability to truly match wits with the top coaches in this league. A cousin of mine who is a big OState fan was arguing Ford should win Big 12 COY. I asked why he felt that when OState finished exactly where they were picked in the preseason. No answer...

P.S. My COY is Webber with Kruger second, Hoiberg third...

No significant injuries to OSU's top 3, but they've had plenty of health problems this year. Olukemi, a starter, played the first two games of the year before tearing his ACL. Brian Williams, at least in the top 7, didn't play until the the 19th game of the season. Michael Cobbins, a starter, missed most of preseason practicies and the first five games of the year.

Not a health issue, but the OSU coaches expected D. Williams to play this year. So 3 of OSU's projected top 7 will have missed 3/4 to all of the season. Ford may still be a ****ty coach, but OSU hasn't been void of injuries this year.

 

[KBaden145]

No significant injuries to OSU's top 3, but they've had plenty of health problems this year. Olukemi, a starter, played the first two games of the year before tearing his ACL. Brian Williams, at least in the top 7, didn't play until the the 19th game of the season. Michael Cobbins, a starter, missed most of preseason practicies and the first five games of the year.

Not a health issue, but the OSU coaches expected D. Williams to play this year. So 3 of OSU's projected top 7 will have missed 3/4 to all of the season. Ford may still be a ****ty coach, but OSU hasn't been void of injuries this year.

While he did a decent job managing them through those injuries, their non conf was not very difficult outside of a couple of games. They are healthy now, have been for awhile, and, regardless of Fords ability to read juries, this is the team everyone else expected them to have when they were picked right where they finished.