Ford decides to keep riding with Minutemen

TRAVIS FORD Turns down offer from Providence

After a full day of being pursued by Providence, Massachusetts men's basketball coach Travis Ford said no to the Friars and yes to the Minutemen, which made last night's basketball banquet in Amherst a true celebration of not only a 25-11 season, but of keeping a coach who had flirted with leaving.

Ford, 38, who is under contract at UMass through 2015, had spent the week dealing with rumors about his future.

"It was an incredible honor to be considered at Providence College," Ford said last night. "I looked at it hard and I decided that it was best for me and my family to stay here at UMass. I wanted to stay here, my family and I have developed some great relationships over the last three years."

The dance began Tuesday when Ford announced that he was not a candidate for the vacant LSU opening, hours before Stanford coach Trent Johnson accepted an offer to coach the Tigers.

On Wednesday, however, Providence, which fired coach Tim Welsh a month ago, thought it had its man when it brought Ford and his wife, Heather, to Providence for a whirlwind tour of the campus and city. Included was a multiyear offer to coach the Friars at considerably more than the approximately $400,000 per season Ford makes at UMass.

Ford went back to Amherst yesterday to make a decision. Although Providence is in the higher-profile Big East Conference, it has become a second-tier program in the 16-team league, with aging facilities despite a renovation of the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

UMass is an upper-tier team in the Atlantic 10 and while Ford's ultimate desire likely is to land a job in the Southeastern Conference - he played at Kentucky for Rick Pitino - Providence seemed more like a sideways move.

When Ford, who is 62-35 in three seasons at UMass with a trip to the NIT title game this season, returned to Amherst, Minutemen officials had put together a counteroffer as a way of keeping him for at least another season.

Providence now has to regroup after having been turned down twice, the first time by George Mason coach Jim Larranaga.

The Friars cannot afford another public turndown, which presents a dilemma. Of the candidates PC athletic director Bob Driscoll interviewed in the past two weeks, Ohio University's Tim O'Shea remains the most logical candidate. O'Shea played at Boston College and was an assistant at both Rhode Island and BC for Al Skinner.

If the Friars do not want O'Shea, the picture becomes murkier. Former BC coach Jim O'Brien and Siena coach Fran McCaffery could be candidates, but neither apparently has been contacted by PC officials. Other possibilities include Albany coach Will Brown and Kevin O'Neill, who is looking for a job after leaving his role as an assistant coach at Arizona, where he served as the interim coach this season after Lute Olson took a year off for personal reasons.

Another possible candidate emerging last night was George Washington coach Karl Hobbs, who has Big East ties from his days at Connecticut.