Oklahoma State Basketball: Cowboys hire Brad Underwood

Oklahoma State basketball replaces Travis Ford with Stephen F. Austin head man, Brad Underwood.

In eight seasons as the head coach of Oklahoma State, Travis Ford posted a record of 155-111 and 63-80 in Big 12 play.

Despite having vaunted stars like Marcus Smart and Phil Forte, Ford only finished above .500 three times. He won over 10 games in conference play just once.

Lastly, while he reached the NCAA five times, he made it past the opening game just once.

Given that this is the school of legends like Olympic coach Henry Iba and Eddy Sutton, both parties decided it was time for a change. He leaves behind a legacy of moderate success derailed by injuries, player attitudes, and declining fan enthusiasm.

Into his place steps Brad Underwood. Underwood comes to Stillwater fresh off a successful first stint as a head coach of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks.

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In his three seasons in Nacogdcoches, TX, Underwood posted a record of 89-14 and 59-1 in Southland conference play. He also made the NCAA tournament each season, making the round of 32 twice.

We know that Underwood can maintain a program and push it to a higher level of success. He developed star guard Thomas Walkup into one of the hot names in the NCAA this postseason and got the Lumberjacks to three straight NCAA appearances.

He has experience at the highest levels of basketball after assistant coaching stints under Bob Huggins and Frank Martin.

What is unknown is how well Underwood can build a program from the place in which Oklahoma State finds itself. The recent success of SFA is nothing to discount, but it had earned 20+ win seasons in five of the previous six seasons before Underwood took the helm.

A significant part of what Underwood accomplished in Nacogdcoches, including Walkup’s very existence on roster, was inherited from former coach Danny Kaspar.

Underwood will have every financial and marketing asset Oklahoma State possesses at his disposal, but his ability to recruit against famous coaches with longer track records is a moderately sized question mark.

What counts in Underwood’s favor is a roster not entirely devoid of talent and a proud fan base eager to return to national prominence. Star guard Jawun Evans should be fully recovered from a shoulder injury, sharpshooter Forte might get a medical redshirt for a fifth season due to an elbow injury.

The Cowboys also have four players currently signed for next year’s team. If Underwood can hang onto any of these guys and mold them into a gritty team like SFA or Kansas State, then he’ll be just fine against the higher tempo teams, the Oklahoma’s and Iowa State’s of the world.

Underwood’s hiring signals a major effort from OSU to push back against the schools that have been dominating the Big 12 headlines. He’ll likely imitate his old mentors Huggins and Martin and try turn the Cowboys into a defense first team, built around a dynamic playmaker at point like Evans.

It might take until 2017-2018 before we really know what level of success he’ll have, but grabbing one of coaching’s hottest names is a solid move for Oklahoma State.

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And it will be exciting to see what he can do against the likes of Shaka Smart, Steve Prohm, Bill Self, and the other remarkable Big 12 minds.

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