READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN
Sports Extra!



SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

FOR THE RECORD
LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US
BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA


Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
Travis Ford answers questions at Cowboy Caravan
Published: 8/3/2011 9:40 AM
Last Modified: 8/8/2011 4:59 PM


Travis Ford at recent Tulsa caravan stop. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World file

Oklahoma State basketball coach Travis Ford has been on the road for more than three weeks and hit the road again Tuesday to make an appearance at the Cowboy Caravan tour stop in Tulsa.

Following are excerpts from an interview session with the media:

--On returning players and signees taking care of business during the offseason:
“Right now I’m just preparing for them to come back, for school to start, so we can start our individual workouts. I’m anxious to get started with this team, very anxious, probably as anxious as I have been in a long time just because I like the makeup and the character of this basketball team. They impressed me a lot over the summer.”

--OnMcDonald’s All-American LeBryan Nash:
“He has had a great summer, from everything I have heard. He has worked extremely hard. He worked on his body... Once he starts getting on the court and getting with me, once he learns how hard you have got to play every single second, I think the sky is the limit for him.
“He’s probably going to be one of the most highly touted players, as a freshman, coming into Oklahoma State, ever. But you’ve got to remember he is a freshman and he has got a good learning curve and I think he has got really good high-character kids around him -- not just good players, but players that are going to understand that, hey, there’s this guy getting a lot of attention. Yes, we need LeBryan Nash. Yes, we are excited about LeBryan. But he has got to go through everything that everybody else goes through. He is going to have his ups and downs. He is very talented. But he has got a lot of things he has got to learn.”

--On whether he has a role in mind for Nash:
“He can do so many different things on the court, from bringing the ball up the court, he can shoot 3s, he can post, he can rebound. He’s got good size. He is a very skilled player. He is kind of what we needed, something we have been missing, especially off of last year’s team. We were so one-dimensional at so many spots. He brings us some versatility. Brian Williams brings us great versatility. Michael Cobbins brings us a little versatility.”

--On the makeup of his team:
“It’s going to look different -- totally different. Last year’s team probably looked totally different than any team I have coached in a long time as far as how much we just pounded it inside to (Marshall) Moses and those guys. As much as I love Marshall, and he had a great, great year and he was the reason we won a lot of games, no question about it, our pieces were tough last year. The puzzle just didn’t quite mesh as well as we would like. That was on the court and off the court and a lot of things. Hopefully we have corrected a lot of that. I’m excited about that. I’m excited to coach this team. How good we can be, I don’t know yet. I do know I have put together probably the toughest schedule... maybe in the history of Oklahoma State.”

--On coming to the Cowboy Caravan in Tulsa and interacting with OSU fans:
“As I’m going into year four, I’m feeling more at home and hopefully everybody is getting to know me a little bit better. It’s always important for me and my family for people to get to know us -- not just me as a basketball coach, but me as a person and my wife and my children and things like that. Hopefully they start to see me more as part of OSU. We are surrounded by so many alumni in the athletic department, the coaches. I would say the majority of the coaches probably graduated from Oklahoma State. It’s almost like you have got to come for four years, almost like a lot of these people did to graduate, and now you are almost like an alumnus, and that’s how I want to be embraced. This gives me an opportunity hopefully for people to see me as somebody other than just someone who is screaming and yelling on the sideline.”



Reader Comments


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.


Games People Play

Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

Follow Jimmie Tramel on Twitter

Subscribe to this blog


Archive

 
Jimmie Tramel's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  3/2008  
2/2008  1/2008  12/2007  11/2007  10/2007  9/2007  
8/2007  7/2007  6/2007  5/2007  4/2007  3/2007  
2/2007  1/2007  12/2006  11/2006  10/2006  9/2006  
8/2006  





Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.