HEN UMASS AMHERST BEGAN COURTING Travis Ford last spring for the men’s basketball head coach position, Ford sought out the advice of his former coach, Rick Pitino ’74.

“We talked a lot about the job,” Pitino recalls. “I said ‘Travis, you’re going to love it. It’s a beautiful place to live and raise a family. The people are great.’” Pitino also promises that UMass hoop fans are going to like Ford. “I think he’s a great fit,” says Pitino. And he would know.

Ford, who was a high school standout in Kentucky, began his college career at Missouri. After his solid freshman season, the NCAA barred the Tigers from postseason play. Ford had dreamed of playing in the tournament, and the penalty prompted him to move on. The timing was perfect: Pitino was rebuilding Kentucky and needed guards. Ford transferred, but had to sit out one season under NCAA rules. He used that year on the bench in Lexington to study Pitino.

“I think a lot of the reason he is successful is the way he communicates with players,” Ford says. “The way he looks them in the eye and is demanding. The way he says certain things. The tone of his voice. You believed in what he said.”

As coach and player, Pitino and Ford clicked. Kentucky went 86-18 with Ford in uniform. The Wildcats advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of Ford’s three seasons helping the storied program bounce back. And Ford was named the regional NCAA Most Outstanding Player in 1993, leading Kentucky to the Final Four.

Pitino saw a future coach in Ford. “He did whatever I asked him to do and made sure the other players did, too,” Pitino said. “I knew he was going to be a coach someday because of that leadership.”

Ford says he knew he wanted to coach “and I was learning so much from him. I saw how hard he worked every day.”

After graduating, Ford just missed out on the NBA but took a supporting role in the college basketball movie The Sixth Man. Despite passing the stockbroker exam, he didn’t head for Wall Street. Ford returned to Lexington for a year where he continued to study Pitino and looked for assistant coaching positions—the conventional route into the business. Instead, Ford went straight to the top, signing on as head coach at Campbellsville University, an NAIA school in Kentucky.

He quickly turned the Camels into an NAIA power. After going 16-17 in 1997-98, his first season there, Ford led Campbellsville to back-to-back 20-win seasons.

Ford returned to the NCAA when Eastern Kentucky hired him to resurrect its team. After dismissing 10 players for not going to class, he was forced to start from scratch.

The Colonels won seven games in each of his first two seasons and 11 in his third. In 2003-04, the Colonels improved to 14-15. Last season. Eastern Kentucky went 22-9 and finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Colonels defeated Austin Peay in the conference tournament to earn the program’s first NCAA bid since 1979.

His success at both schools was marked by a coaching style very similar to Pitino’s. “He coaches things he learned as a player. We both try to apply as much pressure with our hands and feet as possible. Offensively we’re always looking for the break and creating a lot of motion. It’s a great style from a recruiting and a fan standpoint,” says Pitino.

Ford is bringing this excitement with him, speaking and selling the program throughout the Commonwealth. “I enjoy being out there, meeting people. I’m excited about UMass basketball,” Ford says. “I want everybody else to be excited. I feel very lucky to be part of the UMass family. Get used to it. You’ll be seeing a lot of me.”

The Minutemen open the 2005-06 season with a home game against University of Hartford on Nov. 18.