Fansided

Missouri State Bears find hidden gem in new head basketball coach Dana Ford

By Neil Harrington

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 01: Tennessee State head coach Dana Ford pleads for a call with an official as his Tennessee State Tigers take on the Southeast Missouri Redhawks in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on March 01, 2017, at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 01: Tennessee State head coach Dana Ford pleads for a call with an official as his Tennessee State Tigers take on the Southeast Missouri Redhawks in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on March 01, 2017, at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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After seven disappointing seasons under Paul Lusk, the Missouri State Bears basketball program looks to the future with their new hidden gem in head coach Dana Ford.

The Missouri Valley Conference proves over and over again that you don’t want any part of them once March (Madness) rolls around, just ask the Kansas Jayhawks. The Loyola Ramblers are donning the slippers as this year’s Cinderella team out of the MVC, with Porter Moser building that program from the ground up. The Missouri State Bears have not joined the “madness” since 1999 but they’re looking to follow the example of fellow MVC-member Loyola, with the recent hire of college basketball’s hidden gem Dana Ford.

After winning the MVC regular season in 2010-11 and coming up just short in the Arch Madness title game against Indiana State, the Bears haven’t played a meaningful game since that dark day. Their last NCAA tournament game was a 78-61 loss to the (overall) No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils, under Steve Alford.

With the fanbase losing confidence in its (men’s) basketball program, Missouri State President Clif Smart and Athletic Director Kyle Moates needed to get this hire right.

https://twitter.com/MissouriStBears/status/976837212737298432

Dana Ford is a man of faith; with these pillars defining his coaching philosophy.

  1. Faith: What leads his life and coaching style
  2. Family: “Everything thing to me.”
  3. Program: “Today and only today is the program about me.”

The Missouri State fanbase is in need of faith, with their confidence shaken under the previous regime — one that saw a record of 106-121 and no higher than .500 play in MVC play the past seven seasons.

Looking on the surface, Ford’s resume as a head coach seems lacking, with his past two seasons just above .500, while playing in the Ohio Valley conference.

Coach Dana Ford’s year by year results as a head coach

  • 2014-2015: 5-26 (2-14 OVC)
  • 2015-2016: 20-11 (11-5 OVC)
  • 2016-2017: 17-13 (8-8 OVC)
  • 2017-2018: 15-15 (10-8 OVC)

Overall record as a head coach: 57-65.

Gaging by these numbers, it seems the Bears may maintain their hibernation from the NCAA tournament, hiring another subpar coach. However; there’s more than meets the eye with Ford’s time at Tennesee State.

In 2014, Ford became the youngest coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball, taking over a program who logged a 5-25 season the previous season. The cupboard was bare, with only one player returning from that 2013-2014 squad.

However, Ford quickly displayed his abilities, winning 20 games the next season. His overall marks the last two years are deceiving, where he played the likes of Duke, NC State, Vanderbilt, Kansas, Purdue, and Texas on the road — which they nearly won in Austin this past season. Playing seven games against NCAA tournament teams in 2017-18 (five of those contests on the road) make that 15-15 record genuinely deceiving.

During his time as an assistant, he recruited the likes of current NBA players Robert Covington and Fred VanVleet. He’s served under the likes of Greg Marshall (Wichita State), Dan Muller Illinois State, and played under Porter Moser (current Loyola coach) at Illinois State.

More than anything else, his personality is a refreshing one for the Bears faithful in Springfield, Missouri; a change from the programmatic and cliche rhetoric of Paul Lusk.

Ford won the hearts of the Bears fans in just under an hour, at this morning’s press-conference, who took to Twitter expressing their excitement for the 33-year old coach.

Even hours later, he’s still batting around the order.

He no doubts checks off every single box.

Coach Dan Muller of Illinois State expressed his joy for his former (associate) coach.

However, don’t think Muller will allow his Padawan off the hook when they meet (at least) twice per season.

At the presser, I asked coach Ford if he’ll renew the “rivalry” with Mizzou — their last meeting came in 1998-99, with the Bears upsetting the Tigers in Columbia. Ironically, the Bears made the NCAA tournament that season.

Missouri State administration is no doubt dirty from all the digging, but it will pay off with their new diamond in the rough, Dana Ford. Fortunately for them, no one else discovered Ford’s talents until now.

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Welcome to Springfield, coach Ford. Here’s hoping you stay for 50 years and not five minutes as Cuonzo Martin did.