On March 5, the Massachusetts men's basketball team played its final regular season game and its last game at the William D. Mullins Center until next season. As I walked around the court, towards the Green Room, where the press conference is held, I stopped and looked at the sea of maroon one last time.
It was one last glance at the vast silence which encompasses this arena. One last time to see empty maroon seats and hear the solemn banter of apathetic fans looking for more than a two point nail-biting victory over a lesser opponent.
A mere 20 days later the university decided that not only would this be a last time for me, a graduating senior, to see this depressing scene, but it would be the last time the Minutemen ended a season with less energy than it started with.
Enter Travis Ford.
On Friday afternoon, the University of Massachusetts introduced Ford as its new head basketball coach. Cheerleaders lined the walkway to the podium and in the middle of dozens of side-conversations throughout the stands, the familiar UMass fight song broke through, turning the heads of those in attendance to the man who will be changing the face for their program.
Forty seconds they stood. Shouts and cheers from a spirited audience filled with students and alumni rang through as Ford stood at the podium. He looked around with a straight face and tried to cut in, but the crowd wasn't having it. They stood and Ford let them cheer, this was exactly what he was looking for.
When the crowd finally sat, bringing into view a large sign in the back row which said, "Welcome to UMass Travis Ford," Ford began talking about what he wants for this program. He mentioned that it was, in essence, a time for change.
The entire time he spoke, the Curry Hicks Cage sat in silence, occasionally cheering when he would hit a nerve. He mentioned how UMass was going to be, "the hottest ticket in town," a phrase which resonated with the alumni and represented something that most of the students had never truly seen... a sense of school pride.
Most of the team lined the first row of the Cage, just behind the two sections of chairs set aside for the press. None of the players had been introduced to their new coach, or his subsequent staff, and sat in the same position as everyone else, listening and analyzing this southern man that appeared to be saying all the right things.
He told the crowd that they needed to come to games and that they had to be, "a part of the team." He spoke of how his doors were always open and how this was the community's team. For the first time in years the men's basketball team at UMass took on the image of something bigger than a maroon and white team lost in the Berkshires.
After telling the crowd what they needed to do, Ford directed attention to the men in black warm-ups sitting in those front row seats. Each hunched over figure had his eyes transfixed on the coach as he mentioned what their responsibility was. He told them that they were about to learn what it meant to truly work hard.
Each player had a straight, objective face after the initial comments, but Ford switched gears and had a few of his future pupils smiling. He said it was going to be fun, that as hard as they worked, they were going to have more fun than any other team they came across.
This comment appeared to hit everyone there than afternoon. Amidst the very heart of March Madness, the University of Massachusetts was absent, yet very much alive. Players and fans alike have been missing this fun the past few years and Coach Ford was adamant and confident that it was coming back sooner than later.
A new era of UMass basketball has arrived in the form of a hardworking southern man from Madisonville, Ky.
Perhaps it is truly time for this community to have some fun.
Bob McGovern is a Collegian Columnist
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