Mark Story: Why Travis Ford thinks Little Rock basketball 'could be a sleeping giant'

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Oct 15, 2026

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Last March, as Travis Ford contemplated a return to men’s college basketball coaching, the vacancy at Little Rock was not even on his radar.

“I wasn’t interested in (Little Rock) at all,” Ford said Tuesday morning in a phone call. “There (were) several other schools that were talking to me, (but) my agent (Evan Daniels) kept calling me back and said ‘I think you might need to talk (to Little Rock). They might have exactly what you’re looking for.’”

With that prompting, Ford, the point guard on Kentucky’s 1993 Final Four team, agreed to meet in person with Little Rock athletics director Frank M. Cuervo.

“We ended up sitting and talking for three hours,” Ford said. “... His vision kind of lined (up) with what I was going to need to get back in (coaching).”

On Friday night, Ford will unveil his new team in the arena in which he toiled as a college player. Little Rock will face Kentucky in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. EDT.

“I’m excited to bring my team there to experience Rupp Arena,” Ford said.

Little Rock will be the fifth NCAA Division I head-coaching stop for Ford, 56.

Over 24 combined seasons as head man at Eastern Kentucky (2000 through 2005), Massachusetts (2005 through 2008), Oklahoma State (2008 through 2016) and Saint Louis (2016 through 2024), Ford has gone 424-335, a winning percentage of 55.9%.

Ford-coached teams have reached the NCAA Tournament seven times — once at Eastern Kentucky, five times at Oklahoma State and once at Saint Louis. In 2007-08, Ford led UMass to a runner-up finish in the NIT.

After Saint Louis parted ways with Ford after the 2023-24 season, the former Madisonville-North Hopkins High School hoops star was out of coaching for two seasons. That hiatus gave Ford the chance to do something his career had long prevented: Return to Rupp Arena as a spectator to watch the Wildcats play.

“Until two years ago, I’d never gotten to do that,” he said.

In pondering a resumption of his coaching career in 2026-27, Ford had a specific vision of what he was seeking.

“If I got back in, I wanted an opportunity to build something and have the resources to do it,” Ford said. “And I think we have that (at Little Rock). We got great, elite facilities. They’re committed to basketball. Little Rock’s a big city of almost 800 (thousand) people.

“We’re the only show in town. The University of Arkansas is almost three hours away. So I think this could be a sleeping giant.”

Little Rock returns only one player, sophomore forward Terrion Burgess, from the team that finished 12-20 last year. Ford recruited the other 15 players on the Trojans roster in the six weeks after he took the job.

Ask Ford how good a team he has, you get a frank answer.

“We don’t know,” Ford said. “It’s a good question. I don’t know. People keep asking that. You would think I would know. But it’s hard to tell. I like our guys a lot. I think we have some depth, that is going to be a strength. Now, how good is it? I don’t know.”

Ford was a redshirt senior at Kentucky in 1993-94, which was Mark Pope’s first year in the UK program as a player after transferring from Washington.

The Little Rock coach is more bullish on the team that Pope will lead this year in his third season as UK head coach than were the media members who voted the Cats seventh in the SEC preseason poll.

“I think they’ve got a great team,” Ford said of Kentucky. “I saw where they were picked seventh. There’s no way they’re going to finish seventh in the SEC. They’ll finish a lot higher. I think they’re a top-15 team, top-10 team in the country.”

From 2000 through 2007, Ford coached against UK four times in games that count. Three of those contests were as EKU head man and one was while at UMass. Kentucky won all four, although Ford’s 2004-05 Eastern team put up a gritty fight against UK in a 72-64 loss to the Cats in the NCAA Tournament round of 64.

Starting Friday night at Rupp Arena, one thing will be different for Ford from his prior coaching stints. When he looks into the stands, he will not see his father, the well-known Kentucky summer basketball maven, Eddie Ford.

The elder Ford died on May 31, 2025, at age 81.

“‘You know, he went to pretty much every game,” Travis Ford said. “So, yeah, I’ve thought about that, even coming out Friday night, he won’t be there. So, it’s been a little different. But I just think about him a lot.”

As he prepares to commence his fifth D-I coaching journey in his old Kentucky home, Ford believes life experience will make him a more effective leader.

“I think I’m a little more patient, see life a little differently,” Ford said. “And I hope that helps me be a better coach and a better mentor for these young men.”

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