NCAA Basketball: Top 10 impact head coaching hires from 2008 offseason

4. Travis Ford (Oklahoma State)

Though a Final Four team as recently as 2004, Oklahoma State was trending in the wrong direction just a few years later. Eddie Sutton had stepped aside and his son Sean hadn’t gotten the job done succeeding him as head coach. The Cowboys were after a new name to lead this team to success in a tough Big 12.

In a short time, Travis Ford was already proving himself worthy of that chance. A former point guard at Kentucky, his head coaching career had taken him to success at three schools already, including taking Eastern Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament. Ford had spent the last three years at UMass, with his work with the Minutemen quite impressive. It was the right time to jump to a power conference program.

Under Ford’s leadership, the Cowboys got things back on track. He spent eight years at Oklahoma State, leading the team to five NCAA Tournaments. Ford failed to win any Big 12 titles (not an easy task clearly), and didn’t do much in the postseason when they got there, but this Cowboys program was much better than it’s been since his firing in 2016. Meanwhile, Ford’s most recent success story continues at Saint Louis.