Looking ahead: Brad Underwood has work to do at Oklahoma State

May 4, 2016

In the end, it all came down to the number one.

That’s how many NCAA tournament games Travis Ford won in nine seasons at Oklahoma State.

That’s how many league games Brad Underwood lost in three years at Stephen F. Austin.

Granted, winning a tournament game isn’t quite so easy as racking up the victories in the Southland Conference, but at a place that values success as Oklahoma State does, just one win can get you fired … and only one loss makes you an awfully attractive hire. Which is exactly how it went for the Cowboys, athletic director Mike Holder opting to part ways with Ford and bring in Underwood, arguably the hottest mid-major coach in the country.

In three seasons with the Lumberjacks, Underwood finished 89-14, tying the record for the most wins by a Division I coach in his first three seasons. The other guy in that category? One Brad Stevens. That’s some good company.

And, as an underdog, Underwood still managed to win twice as many games in the NCAA tournament as Ford, upending VCU in 2014 and upsetting West Virginia this year.

So that’s why Underwood is at Oklahoma State.

Now for the matter of the job at hand.

It’s a big one.

The Cowboys struggled to defend all season, allowing 79 points per game, and by the end of the season they couldn’t score. In their final 11 games — 10 of which were losses — they averaged 58 points per game. That …

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