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Travis Ford dislikes losing, but doesn't dislike his team
Published: 1/1/2012 3:30 PM
Last Modified: 1/1/2012 3:30 PM

Oklahoma State wrapped up the nonconference portion of its basketball schedule with a record that is barely above the break-even level.

The 7-6 Cowboys open Big 12 play with a Wednesday home game against Texas Tech and coach Travis Ford said he is proud of his shorthanded team.

With starters Markel Brown and Jean-Paul Olukemi sidelined by injuries, OSU gave up a seven-point lead, then rallied from a 10-point deficit in a homecourt loss Saturday to Virginia Tech. It was the Cowboys’ fourth defeat in a five-game span.

“A lot of people want to be negative and wallow in negativity because that’s the easy thing to do,” Ford said afterward.

“Nobody wants to win more than we do. Nobody wants to win more than those guys (in the locker room). That’s as upset as I have seen them because they felt they let everybody else down. They hear what everybody else is saying about them....

“Our guys have stayed very positive. We understand who we are. We understand what is going on. We understand what kind of schedule we have played. We understand fully. And our guys are fighting. I was proud of our effort.”

After OSU’s most recent victory -- a double-overtime victory over SMU -- Ford said the Cowboys, though certainly not great, are better than their record shows.

“We haven’t played some of the cupcake games that some people play,” Ford said, adding that the Cowboys could be something like 9-3 if they had played a lesser schedule.

“But we wouldn’t know where we are at,” he said.

“The record might not be pretty, but we know who we are. We are a young basketball team that has played a ridiculous schedule and we haven’t been able to gain a lot of confidence through our schedule or get a whole lot better through our schedule and work on things.”

OSU’s six losses (two to Virginia Tech) are to opponents with a collective record of 56-13. The December schedule included a stretch of 26 days between home games. It was the second-longest stretch between regular season home games since the 1988-89 season.

Ford said negativity is not going to cure anything and he urged fans to continue to support the Cowboys.

“I don’t dislike our team,” Ford said.

But he does dislike losing.

“Nobody in this town or anywhere else hates losing any more than I do,” he said. “I can promise you that. But I’m not down on my team. I have had teams that I have been down on. These guys are trying and giving everything they have got and it will pay off for them eventually.”


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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.

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