Saint Louis' Ford proud of his tenure at Oklahoma State

Travis Ford's eight years at Oklahoma State featured some ups, some downs, and many mixed reviews.

His fans will say he brought a struggling program to back respectability, while his critics will point to his inability to get the Cowboys over several proverbial humps. So how does Ford see it?

"Well, I thought we accomplished a lot," he told David Gardner of Sports Illustrated. "I took over a program that had not been to the NCAA tournament in the three previous seasons. And we get there and we go to two straight. We did a lot in our eight years."

Oklahoma State became a pretty consistent NCAA tournament team under Ford, but advanced past the Round of 64 just once. The 46-year-old became a lightning rod for criticism at times over his final seasons, and the Cowboys pulled the plug on his stint at the end of last season - a campaign that didn't include a trip to March Madness.

"Obviously, last year was one of our craziest in terms of injuries and illnesses with a basketball team or we would have probably went to the fourth straight NCAA tournament," Ford said.

"But we obviously went to a lot of NCAA tournaments. I wish we would have went further in them. But we played a lot of great games, we beat a lot of great teams, we had some great moments. We graduated a lot of players and got players in the NBA. I created a lot of great relationships there that will last a long time. I enjoyed my time in Stillwater, and I feel very good about it."

After being let go by Oklahoma State, Ford signed on with Saint Louis, where he'll try to resurrect the Billikens in the same way he breathed life into the Cowboys. He'll have his work cut out for him, though, as Saint Louis is coming off back-to-back seasons of just 11 victories.