New coach brings new offensive philosophy

Published: May 12, 2008

Nobody knows better than Travis Ford how important the point guard is to an offense that pushes the ball. After all, he was once the keys to the ignition of an up-tempo system.

Ford is aware that he's inheriting a senior-to-be point guard who has been inconsistent his first three years at OSU, and he knows that Byron Eaton's weakness — namely his fitness and weight issues — can be especially costly in this style of offense. He also knows how good Eaton can be.

So Ford challenged his point guard.

"I told him, as far as where he's at, he's done just enough to get a name for himself,” Ford said. "Is he a lock for the NBA? No. Is he a guy that's being talked about? Yes. So this summer you've got an eight- , nine-month commitment to decide where your basketball career is going to go. Period. What are you gonna do with that?”

Ford reiterated how important it was for Eaton to report back in shape.

"I told him, ‘If you're overweight, you're not gonna play. I'm just not gonna play ya. We're gonna have to go with the little freshman (Keiton Page) coming in.' It's got to be a commitment from him to get in great shape to be able to play the way we're gonna play. If he's not, it's gonna make him look bad. He's going to be embarrassed the way we play if he's not in great shape. So he says he wants to make the commitment and I believe him. If he's great, our team's gonna be good.”

At the NCAA Tournament, well before Oklahoma State expressed interest in hiring him, a Big 12 coach told Travis Ford he'd like to see his up-tempo style in the conference.

While Kansas has the ability to play fast, Baylor runs and Missouri is supposed to, Ford's aggressive style will be distinctive.

Although the league is full of new coaches and several of them — Texas Tech's Pat Knight, for example — say they plan to speed things up, the Big 12 has not been considered a fast-paced conference.

In the Big 12 last season only two teams averaged more than 80 points, and as a conference, teams averaged 71.9 points (in conference games, that number dropped to 69.8).

Ford's 2007-08 UMass team scored 81.5 points per game, and that team averaged 76.7 possessions a game. That is three possessions more than the Big 12's leaders, Baylor (73.5) and Missouri (73.6).

Since a simple stopwatch won't help judge whether or not a team plays up-tempo, two good ways to gauge speed are possessions and points. To show possessions we used the following formula: (Number of field goal attempts + number of turnovers + (free throw attempts/2) — offensive rebounds)/number of games. Here is a look at those numbers for some speedy teams, and some not-so speedy teams.

•Oklahoma State: 68.4 possessions per game, 67.9 points per game

•UMass: 76.7 possessions per game, 81.5 points per game

Three of last year's Final Four teams were considered "up-tempo”

•Kansas: 71.3 possessions per game, 80.5 points per game

•Memphis: 71.4 possessions per game, 79.9 points per game

•North Carolina: 77.1 possessions per game, 88.6 points per game

•UCLA: 65.9 possessions per game, 73.4 points per game

When asked what quality he looks for in basketball players, Travis Ford doesn't hesitate.

"Shooters,” he said. "Shooting. You've got to be able to shoot the basketball. I can teach you a lot of things, but I don't think you can make great shooters out of nothing at this point.”

Ford said he hasn't yet been able to look at much film of his new team, but he knows he's got a couple shooters on his roster. First and foremost is sophomore-to-be James Anderson, a wing player who relied heavily on the 3 and shot 38 percent from beyond the arc last season.

"From everything I've heard and the little bit I've seen, I think he fits us greatly,” Ford said. "I think a lot of these guys do, from what I understand.”

Junior-to-be Obi Muonelo also shot without a conscience last season and ran hot and cold. Athletic wing player Terrel Harris, who is currently suspended for a violation of team rules, could also excel in the system if he returns.

Lanky 6-foot-11 center Ibrahima Thomas, who loves to step out and shoot jump shots, is capable of getting up and down the floor as well.

Incoming freshman Keiton Page, however, might benefit most from the new system.

The 5-foot-8 point guard is a phenomenal 3-point threat (he averaged 44.9 points and shot over 50 percent from 3 as a high school senior) who can get up and down the floor, and in a pressing and trapping defense concerns about him being able to defend are lessened.

Fans accustomed to Oklahoma State's historically stringent man-to-man defense should be preparing for a shock under Travis Ford as the Suttons and Ford are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to defensive philosophy.

While hunkering down and playing defense has long been the foundation for OSU, Ford uses more gimmicky defenses to keep opposing teams off balance and keep the pace fast.

"If they can't play defense for whatever reason, I can camouflage that by the way we play and press,” Ford said. "We're not a half-court motion team where you're going to get exploited.

"We do enough stuff where we can camouflage weaknesses defensively.”

Ford said half-court traps, zones, full-court presses and other defensive twists are all in his repertoire.

Comments