Former Bradley and Kent State head coach Geno Ford officially has joined the Stony Brook men’s basketball coaching staff, head coach Jeff Boals announced Friday.
“I’m very excited to add Geno to our Seawolves’ basketball family,” Boals said. “His experiences and knowledge will be beneficial in order for our program to continue its success.”
Ford has spent 22 years in college basketball, most recently serving as an analyst on the ESPN family of networks.
“I’m really excited to be a part of Coach Boals’ program at Stony Brook. We’ve had a relationship that’s spanned more than 20 years and that’s a rare thing in college coaching,” Ford said.
In his second season at Bradley, Ford guided the Braves to the seventh-best win improvement in the country, going 7-25 in 2011-12 to 18-17 the following season.
Ford coached Walt Lemon, Jr., who became just the second player in Missouri Valley Conference history to record 500 points, 100 rebounds, 100 assists and 70 steals in a season.
The team posted seven straight semesters of a 3.0 GPA, including a program-best 3.16. Prior to Ford’s arrival, the men’s basketball program had never had a cumulative GPA of 3.0.
Ford produced a 68-37 (.648) record in his three seasons as head coach at Kent State (2008-11), including a 35-13 (.729) mark in the Mid-American Conference. In addition to his two MAC Coach-of-the-Year awards, Ford was the 2009 NABC District 14 Coach of the Year.
Ford became the first MAC coach in 48 seasons to win back-to-back regular-season titles in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
As an assistant coach at Kent State for four seasons (2002-05; 2007-08), the Golden Flashes went 92-38 (.708), earning four postseason bids, including an NCAA berth in 2008.
Ford’s first head-coaching position came at Shawnee State (2001-02), where he led the Bears to a school-record 22 wins in 2001-02 and a 10-win improvement from the previous season.
Ford also spent two seasons as the head coach at Muskingum (2005-07), which posted a 17-9 record, the school’s best in the last 25 years, in 2005-06.
Ford was a four-year letterwinner at Ohio University, where he was a teammate of Boals for two seasons. The Cambridge, Ohio product scored 1,752 points at OU, which ranks sixth in school history. He was first team All-MAC and academic all-conference selection as a senior.
A high school standout, Ford was named Ohio Mr. Basketball by the Associated Press in 1993. He graduated as the third all-time leading scorer in Ohio history and ranks ahead of LeBron James.
http://www.stonybrookathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/060316aab.html
