Tulsa World: Q&A with OSU basketball coach Travis Ford

TULSA WORLD HOMEPAGE | Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | WIRELESS

OU | OSU | TU | ORU | HIGH SCHOOLS | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NFL | FANTASY | OUTDOORS | GOLF | PROS | ALL

HOMEPAGES

SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

		Sports Editor Mike Strain
		Sports Columnist Dave Sittler
		The Picker Entertaining & Infuriating

LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

Search the World's archives

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US

BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

Buy a published photo by clicking the "Order this Picture" link on the photo. For a full-color page reprint, call 732-8198 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or order online.

TULSA WORLD

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA

Learn more about the site.

Newspaper View Print this story

Bookmark

Q&A with OSU basketball coach Travis Ford

Oklahoma State University head basketball coach Travis Fordsays he can tell the fans he has met so far really love their Cowboybasketball team. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World

By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 8/6/2008 2:06 AM
Last Modified: 8/6/2008 2:31 AM

Following is a question-and-answer session with new Oklahoma State basketball coach Travis Ford, who is turning the summer camp business into a road show. He will hold a camp in Jenks for children in first through eighth grades this week. The camp (entry fee $100) runs from noon-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. To enroll, call the OSU basketball office at (405) 744-5845. Ford talked about the camp and other OSU-related issues during a recent telephone interview.

What was the reason for scheduling OSU basketball camps, which are usually held in Stillwater, in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas this week?

I love camps. I love being around the kids. I love that. And it's an opportunity for me to get in those (towns). I haven't had a lot of time to spend in Oklahoma City or to spend in Tulsa to get to know the fans and this gives me a chance to get to know the people as well as getting to know the kids and giving back to them a little bit and keeping them involved. My oldest son, who is 8, has been coming to camps for awhile and he didn't get to go to any camps this summer, so he will get to go to these and meet some kids and play a little bit. This will give us a good opportunity to get into these cities and get to know the people and get the word out about Oklahoma State basketball.

Do you have a progress report on suspended guard Terrel Harris?

He is doing very good. He has had a great summer as far as doing some things that we required him to do. I really expect him to be a major part of this basketball team coming up.

What do you know about the OSU job now that you didn't know when were introduced as the head coach?

Nothing has really surprised me. I have been through this enough that nothing has really surprised me. I don't know if surprised is the right word, but I don't know if I knew how much they really love their basketball here. I got to go on a few of the (OSU) caravans. I went out to Woodward and I went to another place, Altus, that I really enjoyed and got to meet a lot of the people. It's not a fly-by-night or bandwagon-type support. You can tell that they truly love basketball and truly love Oklahoma State. It has really been impressive to me how much people love this university when I went and spoke at those places, because that's not true everywhere. It's really not. There are a lot of places where they may like basketball only if they are winning and things like that or maybe there are fans who are just fans because they are sports fans. But the Oklahoma State fans truly love Oklahoma State and they are going to support it. It has been really neat for me to learn about that true love from the people who are there and are with the university one way or another.

You have been on the road recruiting since you got the job. NCAA rules prohibit you from talking about unsigned prospects, but what has the reception been like?

The reception has been great. We have a lot of work to do, no question. It is going to probably be a big signing class. Any time you take over and change jobs, you are changing recruiting needs and changing recruiting priorities and recruiting whole new areas and new players and that's true of me and my whole staff. We have a lot of work to do, but we have literally spent 24 hours, seven days a week, trying to make those contacts and relationships with AAU coaches and high schools, but things are going well, no question. But it's just a process. It has been entirely time-consuming and just a lot of hard work at this point." By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer

Newspaper View Print this story

Bookmark

COMMENTS

Add your comment

Show: Most Recent Comment First

1 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!

Reporting Comments

If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the web staff to review the comment. Thank you. -- Web Editor Jason Collington

Report Comment

AC OrangePower!, Tulsa (8/7/2008 6:36:07 PM)

Alright, can't wait for Basketball to start!

Add Your Comment
In order to post a comment on this article, you must sign in to Tulsaworld.com. If you do not have a site account, you can create an account for free.