All the talk about this situation is fun but it's now left to Travis to keep the players he has on campus, add one (?) more, and then make the tournament next year. If he can do that and recruit a decent class in 2009 I think he can be a success at O-State. His record next year is crucial. If he stumbles it will be more difficult.

Why do you say that he was Holders second choice behind SElf? Holder went after Gillespie and he turned them down, he then went after the coach at Southern Illinois and he turned them down, and then he hired FOrd. HOlder is a golf coach and that is about it!

Let's be realistic. His record next year will likely have very little to do with any long term impact on the team. He's playing with a team that has been taught basketball by the Suttons. His style is completely different. This guy needs at least 3 years and more likely 4 before we can at all tell what his full impact as a head coach could/will be. I know waiting a few years isn't what anybody wants to hear but that's reality. He may do very well next year and should receive at least some credit for it. If he does poorly next year he should receive some blame, but not all of either as Sean and Eddie have taught most of these kids and they deserve some of the credit good or bad until Ford has time to establish himself in his own right.

Tom,
Inonsistency is usually a sign of youth. Beyond that, Sean tried to push the tempo more than his father did and his father actually had more success in slowing the game and playing physical man-to-man defense. Your TU reference has little bearing on any of this. TU played complete jokes. I am happy being a Tulsa native to see TU win, but really they played a bunch of teams that couldn't even make the NIT. OSU would have done the same if they had played teams at that level. Memphis destroyed Tulsa and many teams in the Big 12 competed with the team that actually beat memphis. Oh yeah, the only other team to beat Memphis lost to a Big 12 teams.

TU was undoubtedly the worst team in Oklahoma this year. I hope this is not always the case, but that's the truth.

With all of that said, what does that have anything to do with this coach deserving 3 or 4 years because Ford's system is different and needs time to recruit his own players? The system you mentioned wasn't Eddie's system at all. Eddie's system was extremely heavy on ball movement to create openings to drive or pass into the post, then if the post was double teamed, move the ball again to the open man(whether that be behind the 3-point line or not). That is not this guy's system it requires more movement from the players and means that your big men have to be more in shape. To transition the team he needs a few years. It will be 3-4 years before we really see how Ford wants to run the offense at OSU. Until then, it will have to be modified to account for players recruited for a different system.