Saint Louis parting ways with coach Travis Ford

Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff WriterMar 13, 2024, 11:10 PM ET

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• Basketball recruiting insider.
• Joined ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.Saint Louis has actually proceeded from

males’s basketball coach Travis Ford after 8 seasons.Athletic director Chris May revealed the choice after the Billikens’season ended Wednesday with an 83-73 loss to Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 tournament.” For eight years, Travis led our males’s basketball program with passion and dignity,

“May said in a declaration. “This decision was not made lightly.”Ford took control of the program in 2016, less than two weeks after getting fired by Oklahoma State

. He led the Billikens to the NCAA tournament in 2019, winning 4 games in four days at the Atlantic 10 tournament before losing to Virginia Tech as a 13-seed. The next season, Saint Louis once again won 23 games and completed 4th in the Atlantic 10. The Billikens won a combined 44 games in 2022 and 2023, going 12-6 in the league both seasons. They connected for second in the league a year ago, however didn’t play in the postseason.After a 4-0 start this season, though, Saint Louis had a hard time the remainder of the way. The Billikens opened A-10 play with one

win in their very first nine games en path to a 13-20 record(5-13 A-10 ).” It is our expectation to regularly contend for conference championships and play in the NCAA Competition,” May stated.”Sadly, we

have actually not satisfied these expectations the last a number of years. We thank Travis for his commitment to SLU and want him the best in the future.”Ford didn’t comment straight on his job status after the loss to Duquesne, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. But he noted that he had” a good 27 years and

won a lot of games, established a lot of relationships. “This game’s been great to me. Now it’s time to do something else,”he said.Prior to taking control of at Saint Louis, Ford was the coach at Oklahoma State for 8 seasons, leading the Cowboys to

five NCAA tournament appearances. He also invested 3 seasons at UMass and five at Eastern Kentucky. He played his college ball at Missouri and Kentucky (where he was coached by Rick Pitino). Indiana State’s Josh Schertz is expected to be a main target of Saint Louis ‘search, sources told ESPN. Schertz led the Sycamores to the Missouri Valley regular-season title this season, going 28-6 overall and 17-3 in the league before losing to

Drake in the conference tournament title game.Information from The Associated Press was utilized in this report.