Comments on: OSU basketball sliding down the status scale

By: Greg Patton

Greg Patton — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:02:52 +0000

Trammel your Article left a few things out,I mean nothing is mentioned that Ford was brought in to late to recruit anyone for 2008-2009. That Ford inherited a shoot first point guard that was over weight for 3 years and still needed to lose 15 pounds going into his Senior year. Nothing was mentioned about the next 6 best players on the depth chart are really shooting guards or small forwards. You forgot to mention all the discipline issues that Sean Sutton left behind one’s that Ford immediately handled. Left unmentioned was the excellent recruiting class signed by Ford for the 2009-2010 season. OSU blew it when they hired Sean Sutton to replace his Father,almost immediately disciplinary problems and grade issues started, James-on Curry has to leave school cause he would have been academically ineligible, the Suttons waste a scholarship and recruiting time on Gerald Green, everyone knew for months Green was going into the NBA draft.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:55:55 +0000

Tramel, your a ****ing Idiot!!!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:21:04 +0000

You know I believe I saw this episode once on Star Trek, it was called “The Trouble with Tramels”. Let’s put this think into perspective. “Yes” OSU currently has two McDonalds All-Americans and “No” OSU has never fielded a team that included any McDonalds All-Americans under Eddie Sutton’s regime. Eddie Sutton was one whale of a coach and OSU was lucky to have him home. Eddie Sutton was also a great recruiter in spite of not having any McDonalds All-Americans. He was so cagey spotting talent and developing talent. Sure “Big Country” was a project but Eddie developed him into a star. He turned Ivan McFarland into a “warrior”! Eddie was a tremendous coach, no debating that! Eddie’s son Sean was not Eddie, much in the same vein that Pat Knight is not Bobby! Let’s get down to brass knuckles, OSU fans and Mike Holder wanted Bill Self. We wanted to bring home another of OSU’s favorite sons to his alma mater aka Mike Gundy but were unsuccessful. So the search ensued and I’m sure a lot of Big XII coaches including Self had a lot of input as to who to go after. We rolled the dice and came up with Travis Ford. Texas had great success going after a Big East coach. Travis will be a good coach at OSU. He’s going through what every knew coach to the Big XII goes through and that’s growing pains. First year coaches get very little respect from referees in the Big XII. Right now, OSU is playing with basically four guards and a power forward. We absolutely have no center. We have a shallow bench. Eddie always had a shallow bench but he had eight guys who at any time could be called a starter. Getting into foul trouble was always difficult for Eddie’s teams but by the time that happened the game was usually well in hand. That’s why you often saw Eddie work the clock and emphasize defense. When you’re dealing with a short bench you have to make the clock your allie. Eddie always worked the ball inside and he always played suffocating defense. Bottom line, we’re hurting this year! Keiton Page is just a freshman and he’ll have to learn to shoot beyond the three point line and be given the green light to do so. He’s just too short to square up and shoot at the three point stripe. He’ll have to be like Mark Price and be able to make it from anywhere on the floor. Expect better things to come in years to follow, the cavalry is on it’s way!

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:24:22 +0000

Berry, please take a look at OSU in the years that they didn’t have Eddie Sutton and Mr. Iba coaching. I believe that their winning percentage would be far less than what you would expect from a “basketball school”. My point is; since WWII OSU has not been a very good basketball school except for those two periods. This calls into question the schools contribution as opposed to the coaches contribution to winning.

By: Mike Jackson

Mike Jackson — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:06:40 +0000

Berry, thank you for the very interesting insight on the O-State program. Your information on the Top 30 was fascinating for a hoops junkie.

I was curious, before the Billy Donovan championship teams at Florida–how many NCAA Tournament wins did the Gators B-Ball program have in their entire history?

Two other programs I would be interested in would be Marquette and Arkansas.

How many NCAA Tournament wins total has Marquette garnered since Al McGuire?

How many NCAA Tournament wins total has Arkansas garnered since the departure of Nolan Richardson?

A tough situation at OSU, but I honestly felt that with Eaton, Harris, Anderson, Obi, and (then) Thomas– and with a Big 12 Conference that is down in hoops overall–that OSU could legitimately compete for a No. 5 seed in the conference.

Even though I’m an OU fan, I hope Travis Ford can get the program back somewhat to where it was because it was good for the state and good for the conference.

Mike Jackson