Keep an eye on men's basketball coach Travis Ford at Oklahoma State

He's not leaving here until he thinks he's leaving the program in a place where it can continue. From speaking with him, he invests too much of himself into the kids and program to leave them before he thinks his job is done.

Well, we could worry about every coaching opening that comes up or we could go drink a beer and not worry.

This is a good article about why Buzz Williams took the job at Virginia Tech. I think now is a good time to re-read it.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/245...

Simply put, once Williams decided to go into what he called an "information-gathering mode," his mind wouldn't rest until he had more data than you can imagine. He projected the likelihood of basketball programs not connected to football programs flourishing over the next 10 years in this ever-changing climate of college athletics. He studied how many programs succeed at a high level without some sort of ESPN contract. He estimated whether it was reasonable to expect the next six years at Marquette would duplicate or exceed the previous six. He researched every coach who has been at a high-major program for at least eight seasons to the point where he learned that staying in the same place too long in this era -- especially when you'll be inheriting a new athletic director soon, like he would've been at Marquette -- proves to be a mistake more often than not for most men.

Williams took an honest look at his career from every angle.

He was consumed with collecting the data that led to his decision to leave Marquette.

And, honestly, it wasn't as hard of a decision as most apparently think.

"When we were talking in, for lack of a better term, the interview phase, he gave me a list of ... I don't know ... 20 questions, maybe, it was unbelievably detailed -- everything from the shoe contract to camps to admissions," said Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock. "He wanted to know how [Virginia Tech football coach] Frank Beamer does this or that. When I got the list, I was like, 'My goodness. This is going to take a while.' But I was very impressed. He had done an incredible amount of homework, and he wanted even more information."

The second interesting thing was how often Williams began a sentence in that meeting with the words "when they fire me" because I've never heard a coach, particularly a successful one who has never been on the so-called hot seat, speak that way, especially not a coach with a fresh contract. And yet he said it over and over again.

When they fire me. When they fire me. When they fire me.

Again, this offered a glimpse into the way Williams thinks and his obsession with data.

He knows, because he's done all of the research, that almost nobody who enters this profession works as long as they want and retires without a nudge, and so he's forever planning for the day he'll be fired. It's not a defeatist attitude because Williams is a confident person. It's just that his entire view of the world is rooted in "facts and data," and the facts and data suggest he'll eventually be fired like pretty much everybody else. So he obsesses about it and plans for it while trying to put it off as long as possible.

He has a fresh contract and fans with fresh sets of expectations.

Williams' move ensures he doesn't have to make three Sweet 16s over the next six years to prove to the world he isn't slipping. He's now in charge of a program that's been to exactly one NCAA Tournament since 1996, that's made just one Sweet 16 ever, and that won a mere two ACC games last season. In other words, the bar is really, really low. And Williams is more likely to spend the next six years outperforming his predecessors at Virginia Tech than he would've been to spend the next six years outperforming himself at Marquette.

Or, at least, that's what the "facts and data" assembled suggest.

Seems like OK State is living in a T.Boone Pickens induced pipe dream. They are going to be a year late and a few million short to land Buzz. Mozzy on Cowpokes, nothing for your here in Blacksburg.

FWIW:

#OKstate Official statement from Mike Holder. Travis Ford will not be fired: pic.twitter.com/c1TzGORDzB— Kyle Fredrickson (@kylefredrickson) March 31, 2015