Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FORD'S DRIVE IMPRESSES PITINO
When the Ford promised to Rick Pitino arrived on the Kentucky campus in 1990, it came with an airbag. It wasn't exactly a sub-compact, either.Travis Ford, having returned to his home state after transferring from Missouri, came equipped with baggage the Wildcats' basketball coach wasn't expecting. It was Pitino who had a better idea.
"I remember the Kentucky media questioning me that possibly I had made a mistake bringing in Travis," said Pitino, who this weekend becomes only the 10th coach to take a second school to the NCAA Final Four. "He had that freshman or rookie syndrome, the `I' syndrome.
"He was a good kid, just a little spoiled, a little pampered, a little overweight. Two years ago, he was a pain in the butt."
He's also little, period. Ford, 5 feet 8, was a frustrated complainer in 1990-91, the season he sat out after being an All-Big Eight Freshman choice at Missouri. Last season, as Sean Woods' backup at point guard, he played with a broken left kneecap, shot 35 percent and had almost as many turnovers as assists.
"I was fat," Ford said last week in Charlotte, N.C., when Kentucky won the Southeast Region. "Coach Pitino told me I had to lose 17 pounds, down to 150, or I wouldn't play."
So?
"I'm 149," he said.
And is he ever playing. Ford was voted the region's outstanding player last weekend without much argument. After he scored 26 points in a regional semifinal rout, Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said, "Ford is Kentucky's most valuable player."
He wasn't forgetting forward Jamal Mashburn, the consensus All-America and perhaps the best player in the country. Kentucky's pressing, gunning style begins - and often ends - with Ford, a coach's son who is shooting 54 percent from behind the arc this season.
"The only philosophy we have on threes is, if you're open, shoot it," Ford said. "And if you're challenged, and you shoot it, you'd better make it."
Florida State coach Pat Kennedy watched Ford help destroy the Seminoles in the regional final, after trying to recruit him out of North Hopkins High in Madisonville, Ky. Using a historical ACC playmaking reference point, Kennedy called Ford "a Chris Corchiani with a jump shot, and that's saying something."
So, how did Ford get his shot?
He took it lying down.
"When I was a little kid," Ford said, "I couldn't get the ball up to the basket. My dad didn't want me to get into bad habits, so he had me practice my shot toward the ceiling, while I was on the floor."
Ford didn't play for his high school-coaching dad, except on the fullcourt blacktop in their backyard. When he reached the seventh grade, Ford began suffering severe pain in his knees. Diagnosed with a rare bone disorder, Ford's athletic career continued only after a specialist drilled small holes in his kneecaps to enhance circulation.
Like many other Bluegrass boys, Ford wanted to play for Kentucky. The Wildcats, however, didn't show a lot of interest, and Ford was smart enough to see that the team's point guard then was Sean Sutton, the son of coach Eddie Sutton. He went to Missouri, which like the Wildcats, was going through an NCAA investigation.
When Kentucky hired Pitino - who coaxed Providence to the 1987 Final Four on guard play and then made an NBA star of guard Mark Jackson with the New York Knicks - Ford moved because he could be a point of emphasis. "It wasn't a case of wanting to come home to play," Ford said. "I just wanted to play for Coach Pitino."
In Saturday's Final Four nightcap, how Kentucky will cope with Michigan point guard Jalen Rose's 1-foot height advantage on Ford could be critical. Then, Rose will have to guard Ford at long range, too.
"Travis is truly one of the great shooters I've seen," Pitino said. "He'd be tough in those NBA 3-point contests. After seeing how he came back in shape, at the beginning of the season, I said there wasn't a guard in the country I'd trade him for."
That's no small talk.