Dustin Ford's family gives Akron basketball belief he's ready. Opinion

Dustin Ford isn’t a slam dunk hire by the University of Akron just because he learned from former longtime Zips men’s basketball coach John Groce for 18 seasons. Ford’s pedigree is another reason he represents the epitome of a logical choice to fill the big shoes Groce has left behind at UA. Thieves in Cambridge, Ohio, knew houses were empty on Friday nights because virtually everyone attended the local high school basketball games.

Ford’s late father, Gene, created a basketball coaching legacy at Cambridge High School and other stops, including Muskingum University. Gene, who died in 2019, is in the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame along with his eldest son, Geno Ford, a longtime college head coach who’s at the helm of Stony Brook. Dustin Ford is a first-time college head coach, but the requisite makeup for the job is in his DNA.

He exuded the leadership qualities UA brass is giddy about during an introductory news conference April 15 at House Three Thirty in Akron . With a blend of humor, charisma and emotion, the guy can command a room, or, in this case, the cabaret at the old Tangier revamped by the LeBron James Family Foundation. It all stems from his upbringing.

“I don't know if I could do anything else,” Ford told the Beacon Journal after the news conference. “That doesn't mean I'm a good coach. I just don't think I could do anything else.