Does Travis Ford now see broadcasting, not coaching, as his future?
The way Travis Ford figures it, being at Rupp Arena on Tuesday night as he made his debut as an SEC Network+ basketball analyst provided comfort in what was an otherwise stressful situation.
Tapped to provide the commentary for the Internet streaming broadcast of Kentucky’s men’s college basketball game with Lipscomb, Ford reports that his presence in the arena where he was a standout point guard for UK in the early 1990s helped calm his nerves.
“It was good being at Rupp Arena, made it a little bit easier as far as comfort level,” Ford said Thursday.
For Ford, 54, this basketball season is a time for exploring. After the 2023-24 men’s hoops season ended, Saint Louis University cut Ford loose as its men’s hoops coach after eight seasons.
That means this will be the first season in the 21st century that Ford — the former head man at Eastern Kentucky, Massachusetts and Oklahoma State in addition to SLU — is not a working NCAA Division I men’s basketball coach.
As a result, Ford is now discovering the benefits of a concept largely unknown in the workaholic world of college basketball head men: Free time.
“Spending a lot of time with my family, my wife and kids and my mom and dad,” Ford says. “Doing some traveling. Doing a lot of hunting and fishing. This winter, I might do some snow skiing. ... I am enjoying the aspect of kind of being able to go do what I want to do.”
In the spirit of trying new things, Ford said yes when he was approached about providing the color commentary on the broadcast of UK-Lipscomb.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do one game and see how it goes,’” Ford says.
In the run-up to making his broadcasting debut, Ford relied on his coaching background as he laid the groundwork for his first broadcast.
“The preparation I did was a lot of fun. It wasn’t work,” Ford said. “It was a lot of fun for me just getting to know both teams inside and out, studying film and those type of things that I would normally be doing this time of year coaching.”
As one who was at Rupp Arena for Kentucky’s 97-68 thrashing of Lipscomb, I did not get to watch the broadcast Ford did with play-by-play announcer Andrew Kappes. Among those who did watch the SEC Network+ game stream, feedback I have heard has been bullish on Ford’s performance.
“He was awesome,” Kappes says of Ford’s debut. “He was super-prepared. And he was willing to pick things up. ... He was super-receptive to everything.”
When Ford decided not to seek a coaching job for 2024-25, the Madisonville product says he promised himself he would not think about his career future until January of 2025.
Nevertheless, Ford has kept his hand in the world of college hoops coaching this fall by attending practices run by coaches such as Kentucky’s Mark Pope, Rick Pitino of St. John’s and Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington.
Ford, of course, played for Pitino and was a teammate of Pope (during the latter’s redshirt season in 1993-94) at Kentucky.
When they were both UK players, Ford said he did not have Pope pegged as a future college head coach.
“One thing I did know, (Pope) always had an incredible attitude every single day,” Ford says. “(Pope) brought joy to the locker room every single day. His personality is very contagious.”
While Pope’s No. 9 Wildcats (4-0) have invigorated Kentucky backers with an entertaining style of play — and an upset win over Duke — it is the team chemistry displayed by a UK roster that does not include even one scholarship player that played for the Wildcats last season at which Ford marvels.
“Mark has done a masterful job. He has brought this team together and developed the chemistry and the camaraderie, it looks like they have been together for 10 years,” Ford says. “The chemistry they have right now is remarkable. (Building that is) one of the hardest things to do, especially in today’s recruiting.”
As of Thursday morning, Ford did not have any other broadcast analyst jobs on his schedule. Whether he pursues that career path in the future is probably dependent on whether he decides to try to go back into coaching.
Overall, Ford is 424-335 as an NCAA Division I head coach. At all four of the schools where he has coached, Ford either led his team to at least one NCAA Tournament or won a league regular-season title.
Even though he was fired at both Oklahoma State and Saint Louis, Ford has had enough success that he can probably get another head coaching shot at some level of Division I if he wants to pursue it.
“I get that question every single day, multiple times,” Ford says of a possible return to coaching. “I miss the game, no question. There’s a lot I miss about being part of a team. I miss the preparation of it. I miss being in practice, things like that. So, we’ll see.”
Based on the game they called together, Kappes, the halftime and postgame host on UK Sports Network radio coverage of Wildcats football and men’s basketball contests, thinks Ford could have a big future if he pursued a career as a TV college hoops analyst.
“I think he could be a rock star,” Kappes said.
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 8:07 AM.
