Missouri State University will conduct a news conference on Thursday, March 22 at 9 a.m. to introduce Dana Ford as its new men’s basketball head coach.
Ford’s hire was unanimously approved by the Missouri State University Board of Governors Executive Committee late Wednesday afternoon after an extensive national search.
The news conference will take place in the PRIME Overtime Club in JQH Arena on the Springfield campus. Doors will open at 8:30 a.m., with standard media parking available adjacent to the arena. The public is invited to attend.
Ford, 33, has served the last four years as head coach at Tennessee State University. He is widely regarded as one of the nation’s most promising young head coaches and was awarded the Ben Jobe Award in 2016 as the nation’s top Division I minority coach.
He orchestrated one of the best turnarounds in NCAA history when he accepted the TSU job in 2014-15 as the nation’s youngest Division I head coach at the time. The Tigers went from a 5-26 record his first season to a 20-11 ledger a year later. He earned Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors and NABC District 19 Coach of the Year laurels that same season.
Over the last three years in Nashville, Ford has led the Tigers to a combined 52-39 record and coached five All-OVC players in addition to two players recognized on the OVC All-Newcomer Team. Under his leadership, Tennessee State also doubled its home attendance average and twice earned votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll during the 2016-17 season.
A native of Tamms, Ill., Ford is a 2006 graduate of Illinois State University where he was a four-year letterman for the Redbirds under coaches Tom Richardson and Porter Moser from 2002-06. He went on to successful assistant coaching stints at Winthrop and Wichita State under coach Gregg Marshall and later at Illinois State under coach Dan Muller. His coaching resume also includes assistant coaching stops at Chipola (Fla.) College and Tennessee State.
Also noted as a high-level recruiter, Ford has been an assistant coach on two NCAA Tournament teams at Winthrop (2006-07) and Wichita State (2011-12) as well as a NJCAA national final four run at Chipola College (2008-09).
