The unexpected run through the NIT that UMass displayed over the past 3 weeks coupled with a premier SEC opening has led to several reports that former Kentucky standout Travis Ford is the next coach at LSU.
Ford has no doubt built a winner in a situation that has lacked consistent success over the past 10 years, but would LSU be right to hire yet another SEC head man (and Kentucky alum)?
The massive speculation has only increased over Final Four weekend.
Friday, Ford told the Boston Globe that he had yet to speak to anyone about the opening but stopped short of saying he wouldn’t be interested.
”Hey, I haven’t even thought about it,” Ford said. “But no one has called. That [attention] just goes with success, that goes with winning. That goes when you take over a situation that wasn’t doing very well and all of a sudden you get it back very quickly; if they’re even talking about that, it’s a tribute to this basketball team.”
As of yesterday, LSU had named a new AD, who will reportedly be in on the decision on whether to hire Ford or offer the job to someone else.
LSU announced Friday it had named Duke AD Joe Alleva to take Bertman’s place when he retires in June. School officials have said they want a basketball coach named within a week and Alleva may have a say in that task.
The search firm hired to headhunt for the position, Parker Executive Search, is still mum about whether Ford is on the list–or at the top of it, for that matter.
Should Ford land the role with the Bayou Bengals, he’d be the second former Wildcat coaching in the league (John Pelphrey at Arkansas) and would join Darrin Horn (formerly of Western Kentucky, now at South Carolina) as the conference’s coaching fraternity’s two newest members.
The other current coach who attended an SEC school is Alabama’s Mike Gottfried, coaching at his alma mater.
Filed under: Coaching
