A Conversation with Massachusetts head coach Travis Ford
Travis Ford. Name ring a bell? It should. Just a little over a decade ago the Kentucky point guard sharpshot the Wildcats to three straight NCAA tourney appearances, including the Final Four in 1993. Nowadays, Ford is known more as a guy who can turn ailing college basketball programs around.
At Eastern Kentucky, Coach Ford took a program that was used to losing, (9-44 in two years prior to his arrival) and in five years led the Colonels to their first winning season since 1994 and its first trip the Dance in 26 years. Now, the 35-year-old Ford faces arguably his greatest coaching challenge yet: Helping a D-I hoops program hungry to get its reputation back in a bolstered, new-look Atlantic 10.
In this edition of Conversations with Adam, I talk to the new Minuteman coach about winning fans in Amherst, becoming an adopted member of Red Sox Nation and his short-lived acting career.
Adam Shandler: How does coming into this role compare to when you first took the head coaching job at Eastern Kentucky?
Travis Ford: It is a lot different in the fact that, at Eastern Kentucky, I was taking over a program that was traditionally the worst team in the league every single year. I have said on several occasions that it was like starting a program, then rebuilding one. Here, I am taking over a program that has strong possibilities: it’s got good players coming back. I don’t think it has reached its potential
in a very long time. But it’s got legs, and it needs to have the body and the face put to it as far as the consistency level and the level that we want to compete at… as far as in the Atlantic-10. I don’t think I am taking over a program that is as far in the gutter as Eastern Kentucky when I took over. Though I do believe that this UMass program has a long way to go in order to get to where we want to be.
AS: You’re already creating quite a buzz both on campus and in the community with public appearances and other events. How have the fans responded thus far?
TF: Well, the fans have been absolutely tremendous. One thing I have noticed about fans in the western Mass. area, and in Massachusetts and the New England states in general, is that they love college basketball, and they enjoy watching it. But on the other hand, when I first got here, I had seen that some of the excitement level had fallen off a little bit, and I think the fans have gotten a little disconnected to the UMass basketball program. The thing I have tried to do in the past seven months is try to rejuvenate the fans and get them excited again about UMass basketball and get them reconnected to their team. I have said this all along, this is their team. I want them to feel a part of it, and I want them to know the team; I want them to know me. We are trying to get them excited even before our first game, and get that love back for UMass basketball because I know it’s there, I’ve seen it, and now I really believe they are catching back on again.
AS: You threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game this season. Have you become an official member of Red Sox Nation yet?
TF: I have believe it or not, and it is very true; you almost can’t help not to become a huge fan of the Red Sox. It was a thrill to throw out the first pitch at the Red Sox game; it is something I will always remember, and something I really enjoyed as a great evening. I have found myself getting up in the mornings when the season is going on trying to figure out where they won the night before, and figure out what is going on [with the team] without even realizing it. It is something that you can’t describe to people. I tell people all the time, the love for the Red Sox around here is almost indescribable, and it has caught me, that’s for sure.
AS: What kind of experience can I expect if I come up to the Mullins Center for a game?
TF: Hopefully you are going to see an exciting event. We want this to be more then a game. We want the fans to see exciting things during timeouts and at halftime. But the type of basketball you are going to see is very exciting. It is going to be very up-tempo and we are going to push the ball on offense, shoot threes, and we are going to press on defense. We are going to be very aggressive in everything that we do. You are going to see a team that is very prepared; a team that has worked hard to prepare for their games physically, mentally and everything else it takes in order to be successful. So I think you are going to see true excitement. You are going to leave the basketball game – win or lose – and say, “Man, that was a fun and exciting basketball game.” Hopefully there will be a lot more wins than losses, but I think [the fans] will enjoy watching these teams play.
AS: Your track record as a young head coach speaks for itself, but do you feel your players respect you more for being a player who, fairly recently, led his team to the Final Four?
TF: Well, I think it is a little of both. I think they can relate to me, and I can relate to them because it wasn’t that long ago when I was in their shoes. I know what they are going through every day as far as trying to balance athletics, academics and a social life, and how hard that can be on these student athletes. So I understand what they are going through and I can relate to it. Also, I think some of them remember a little bit of when I played, believe it or not. They have seen the Classic channels – which makes me feel old when they say that – but they have seen that a little bit. They know that as a player, I was not going to compete by my physical abilities. I was a player who [considered himself] a coach on the floor, and I understood the game very well, and hopefully that will translate into me being a better coach someday.
AS: Do you feel you inherited a team that can be competitive in the new-look A-10?
TF: Yeah, I think “competitive” is the right word. How good we can be in the Atlantic 10, I don’t know yet. I do know the Atlantic 10 is going to be the strongest it has been in a very long time. I would be very shocked if we do not get at least four teams in the NCAA tournament this year. Where do we fall in the mix? We are somewhere in the middle of the pack, if you just look at it on paper right now; hopefully we’ll finish somewhere better than that. This is a big transition year for us; it is never easy when a new coach is coming in, putting in what is not only a new system, but a system that is totally different from the other system. So it is kind of a double whammy for these guys. It is going to determine a lot on how well they pick up our system, how long it takes; we have to stay in great health.
I have said it many times, we have very small room for error this year. For the fact that in the first semester we only have nine scholarship players and in the second we have ten. For the fact that I have taken some transfers who have to sit out. So if we get one or two players injured, that really reshapes our team, and gives our team a totally different look. We would have to regroup and change some things. If we can have everybody stay healthy, then I like our basketball team, and I think we can compete in the Atlantic 10. Where is that? To be honest with you I do not know the Atlantic 10 well enough to say that. I do know we have added some very good basketball teams and several teams in the conference have everybody returning, so the Atlantic 10 this year is going to be an all-out war. There are some great teams; you are going to have teams that maybe finish 5th, 6th or 7th – but they have very good basketball teams, it’s just that it is going to be so competitive.
AS: Did you and your team set benchmarks yet for this year?
TF: No, I don’t do that. It is something I have never done; I don’t think there is any reason to put any undue pressure on your team or on yourself. I’ve said it all along, your goals are going to be what every other teams’ are. Yes, you want to win the Atlantic 10, that is what everybody says; everybody has the same goals. We have team goals that go game by game, as far as what we want to hold our opponents to in scoring, field goal percentages, and other game goals that we want to accomplish. As far as trying to figure out how many wins you want to get, or saying you want to win the Atlantic 10, well of course you do. We don’t want to talk a whole lot about it. We want to go out and take it day by day, and try to get better each day. That is our biggest goal, making sure today we are better than we were yesterday, and making sure we are preparing each day to make our team better. If we do those things, then we think all those other goals will take care of themselves.
AS: Lastly, if I had my choice between seeing a UMass game coached by Travis Ford, or watching The 6th Man starring Travis Ford as Danny O’Grady, which would be a better use of my time?
TF: That is a good question, and I think the UMass basketball game would be a little bit better. But for a late night movie, The 6th Man, you can’t beat it, that’s for sure.
