New Missouri State coach Dana Ford calls return to Missouri Valley 'an honor'

With the pride band playing the school fight song in the background, Missouri State University president Clif Smart and director of athletics Kyle Moats introduced Dana Ford as the Bears 18th men’s basketball coach in program history Thursday morning.

“We are getting a young, ambitious, up-and-coming and highly respected man to lead our men’s basketball program,” Moats said. “Everyone I talked to was enthusiastic about Coach Ford.”

Moats said he spoke with Illinois State coach Dan Muller, Texas coach Shaka Smart, ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis and NBA player Robert Covington before completing the hire of Ford.

“There is no doubt that he comes from the right coaching trees and will be a great addition to our program,” Moats said.

Ford, 33, was unanimously approved by the Missouri State board of governors executive committee on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m looking forward to getting started,” Ford said. “I have always had a great admiration for this university and the great basketball program here. It is an honor to return to the Missouri Valley Conference and be the one selected to carry on a great Bears basketball tradition.”

Ford will have the task of bringing the Bears back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1999 season. He’s not unfamiliar with rebuilding a program, however; when he took over at Tennessee State, the Tigers had experienced just one winning season from 1995 to 2014.

Ford and Missouri State agreed to a five-year contract through March 31, 2023. His base salary will be $375,000 for years one and two, then jump to $425,000 for the remaining three years. There are additional incentives in the contract for NCAA and NIT appearances, coaching honors and conference championships.

In his first year at Tennessee State, the team went 5-26. Since then, Ford put together a record of 52-39, made a CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament appearance and won the Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year and Ben Jobe awards. The latter honor, which he earned in 2016, is given to the nation’s top Division I minority coach.

“I was hired here to win championships. Period,” Ford said. "This will be a players-first program. They will be held accountable, but they will be loved unconditionally. The greatest form of love is discipline. And discipline for us is doing the next right thing.”

When he took over for the Tigers in 2014, Ford was the youngest permanent head coach in the country.

“When you consider what coach Ford has done, his resume is impressive,” Moats said. “But when you consider that he was the third-youngest head coach in Division I this season — with four years of head coaching already under his belt — then you can understand why all of us are so excited here today.”

His energy and success of the program transformed the Tigers’ fan base. According to Tennessee State, attendance grew each year he was there, from 12th in the OVC at 1,337 per game in 2014-15 to third in the league at 2,627 fans per game in 2016-17.

Smart said while Moats and the search committee were focused on the basketball side of things, he was most concerned with the character of the next head coach.

“Within 15 minutes of talking with Coach Ford Sunday morning in Chicago, I was excited about the possibility of him becoming our head coach,” Smart said. “Ford’s leadership style and tone are consistent with mine. I don’t think we could have found a better fit.”

After the decision became official Wednesday night, Ford said he met with the players for 90 minutes to introduce himself and get to know them. Reggie Scurry, Mustafa Lawrence, Jared Ridder, Jarred Dixon, Obediah Church, Ross Owens, James Byrd and Obediah Church were all in attendance at the press conference.

Ford said he told the returning players he has been in this situation before, following his freshman season at Illinois State. The Redbirds fired their coach and brought in Porter Moser.

Scurry, who was named to the 2018 MVC All-Bench team, tweeted following Lusk’s firing that his future as a Bear was up in the air. Ford said he has three things on his to-do list: Get his family back home for the time being, recruit and spend time with his players.

Additionally, Ford said no decision has been made about his staff yet.

“I am going to have a sit down with every member of the current staff,” Ford said. “I owe them the right to sit down and interview them like anyone else.”

Ford’s news conference focused on three things, things he said his whole life is surrounded by: His faith, his family, his program.

“When the word 'championship' is brought up, we have to be about that,” Ford said. “That has to be our expectation. Every time we step into an arena, when we are walking around in Arch Madness, our players need to think they are going to win, coaches need to think we are going to win. Everyone’s mindset needs to be changed.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 12:09 PM with the headline "New Missouri State coach Dana Ford calls return to Missouri Valley 'an honor'."