Oklahoma State Hires Travis Ford

Oklahoma State said that they intended to hire a "big name" coach to replace the recently departed Sean Sutton. And armed with a $300 million trust, courtesy of multi-billionaire booster T. Boone Pickens, the OSU athletic department swung for the fences.

They tried to lure the coach of the 2008 National Champions--Kansas' Bill Self--to return to Stillwater, OK, to coach his alma matter. But he declined.

Then there was speculation that Pickens and OSU were trying to convince Billy Gillispie--himself a Self protege--to leave Kentucky for Oklahoma State. But that went nowhere as well. There was even talk of OSU making a play for former NBA coach Larry Brown, and then for Minnesota's Tubby Smith.

And on Tuesday, Oklahoma State officials met with Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery.

But in the end, Oklahoma State settled on UMass coach Travis Ford.

However, while Oklahoma State fans who had planned on landing Self or Gillispie may be less than inspired by Ford's hiring, Drive and Dish thinks that Oklahoma State probably made a good hire.

The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcey doesn't like the move, though:

"OK State promised to pay Sean Sutton more than $2 million if he'd just go away, and for all of that, and for all the Cowboys will pay to Ford, they got themselves a coach with a .565 career winning percentage and one NCAA bid in eight seasons as a Division I head coach. Barry Hinson got fired from Missouri State for not making the tournament. Ford got the Oklahoma State job. You wonder why some coaches are a bit batty?"

Ohio State Wins N.I.T.

One year removed from playing Florida for the National Championship, Ohio State beat UMass 92-85 to win the 2008 N.I.T.

The Buckeyes (24-13) struggled at times during the 2007-'08 season. Coach Thad Matta had to find a way to replace the production of the three freshman stars from the '07 team who left school early for the NBA Draft: center Greg Oden, point guard Mike Conley and guard Daquan Cook.

The result was an up and down season for the Buckeyes in '08. But they finished the season strong and headed into the Big Ten Tournament with a head of steam. However, despite their strong finish, Ohio State was left out of the NCAA Tournament.

So they accepted an invitation to the N.I.T.

And they made the most of that opportunity.

After winning last night's N.I.T. Championship, Head Coach Thad Matta said:

“We knew there were going to be growing pains as we went through the season, especially with the schedule we were going to play. To watch them come together and jell and play team basketball, I’m very, very proud of them and it’s very gratifying. I think it says a lot about our program and the job that these kids have done.”

Congratulations to Coach Matta and to Ohio State.