by Joe Donatelli
THE POST
Sporting a No. 12 Ohio jersey, a pacifier and the same squinty-eyed determination his father gets when he's got the ball, 1-year old Darin Ford waddles down The Convo floor toward the hoop. He doesn't shoot - he's barely the size of a basketball - and instead looks around for Mom and Dad, who are standing on the sideline watching their son an hour after the Kent game Feb. 8.
Geno Ford's come a long way since his days as the littlest Bobcat on The Convo floor.
He's no longer the pint-sized freshman, the role-playing sophomore or the junior shooting guard in a point guard's body. He's a senior - and in the eyes of many - the biggest man on the team.
"He's never going to let a limitation hold him back from achieving his goals," coach Larry Hunter said. "I've been around some great human beings, but none any better than him. None. He just keeps looking for the window of opportunity and takes advantage of it. He'll adapt and find a way to get where he wants to be. He's all about winning and championships, playing hard and all the good things in college athletics."
Ford will play his last regular season game at The Convo tonight. But the Geno Ford story doesn't begin on The Convo floor.
It begins as a child riding in the Muskingum College team van to basketball games. Ford was weaned on small college basketball. His dad and uncle (later an assistant coach there) played at Muskingum. It was there that Geno adapted the small college mind-set he takes to each game - play tough, play fundamental and play like every game may be your last.
He wasn't your normal kindergarten student. After the bell rang at the end of the school day, he'd run across the street to the high school and watch practice. Since then, Ford hasn't spent a winter outside the gym. His dad, Gene, is Cambridge High School's basketball coach. Every day was 'Take your child to work day' in the Ford family.
By grade school, Ford was showing glimpses of greatness.
"In the fifth and sixth grade he was in those little tournaments and he was dropping in 30 or 35 points a game," said Geno's brother Dustin, a Bobcat redshirt freshman.
Dustin and Geno would play for hours on the Cambridge hardwood. The two have your typical brother relationship.
"When we play one-on-one, we usually don't finish the game because we usually come to blows," Dustin said, "or we get too busy talking and dad kicks us out of the gym."
Under his dad's tutelage in high school, Geno was all-state four times in basketball, finishing his career as the state's second-leading scorer all-time and Ohio Mr. Basketball in 1993. Hunter landed the undersized recruit and Bobcat basketball hasn't been the same since.
"Geno would have played for nothing if he didn't have a scholarship," Gene Ford said. "It wouldn't matter. It's Hunter's fault for offering him money to play there."
Geno is money for Ohio when he's on the court. He's scored the fifth-most points in Bobcat history, and he needs only 54 more to climb into fourth place. He's also among the all-time leaders in assists, three-pointers, three-point percentage, free throws and field goals. It took four years to accomplish, but his storied career as a Bobcat started on a very special team his freshman season.
That first year, Geno and Gary Trent teamed up to win the Big Island Classic in Hawaii. Ford was named MVP of the tournament on the strength of his 22-point outburst against No. 14 Connecticut in the semi-finals and his 29 points against LaSalle in the championship.
That season, the Bobcats won the MAC regular season title, post-season tournament and qualified for the NCAA Tournament where the Bobcats lost to Indiana in the first round. Ohio has not returned to the highs reached that 1993-94 season. The 1994-95 season saw Ohio win the Preseason NIT, but following that season Trent declared his eligibility for the NBA draft.
A seed was planted within Ford. The desire to win without Trent sprouted up and manifested its way into Ford's junior and senior seasons which have seen him carry the team in scoring and leadership.
"Before it was Gary and company, and it should have been because he did a heck of a lot for us," Geno said. "Curtis (Simmons) and I would both like to win it and know that we won one. When you're a senior, it's your team. We were here for the first one as freshman contributors. Now our roles have changed, and it would be special to win it from a different spot on the totem pole."
But as Ford ascended the totem pole, he didn't forget about the people closest to him.
"Off the court he'd always push me," Dustin said. "When he played on the road he'd call to see how we did. He's always been pretty good to me that way. At home it's a different story. I can count the amount of times he almost put me in the hospital. He looks small, but he gets on me occasionally."
Horse play and roughhousing with his brother aside, Ford is a family man. He has a wife, Tracy, and Darin. Just who he got his good sense from is still a mystery though.
"He got all his good qualities from his dad, bad qualities from his mom and probably the rest of those bad qualities from coach Hunter," Gene said. "I'm just kidding. He's married now with a son and he's a very mature individual."
That mature individual wants to coach some day, but not perhaps before one more go-round on the court. Ford said he will entertain the idea of heading to Europe to play and is confident he can secure a few NBA tryouts. It's a childhood dream of Ford's to try out for an NBA team, but he's realistic about his chances of latching on to a team.
"I understand my limitations as a player," Geno said. "To see myself matched up with the Nick Van Exels and Kenny Andersons - I'm not sure that's going to go Geno's way."
Playing for a few years after college would lead perfectly into Ford's coaching career. Hunter said he'd hire Geno, but he would have to let him go as soon as head coaching offers poured in.
Ford and Hunter coaching at the same time, maybe even in the same state is reason enough to cause worry to future coaches.
Imaging the recruiting war between the two over Darin 16 years from now. Hunter's a pro at recruiting Fords. He's got two now and claims he has two on the way.
"I've already made offers to Ryan Ford, the third brother (currently a fifth grader) and Darin," Hunter said, smiling. "I'm probably going to have to fight Geno for him."
Geno doesn't seem worried.
"Right now Darin's into football more than anything," Geno said. "That could be a real problem because it looks like he's going to be about 5-foot-4, 300 pounds at this point.
"He may not be much of an athlete, but he really likes to play."
Sounds like someone else you know, doesn't it?