BOISE, Idaho – In the moments immediately before and after Montana State’s third straight Big Sky tournament championship became official, Robert Ford III pointed to the sky, pounded his chest and then heaved the game ball to the heavens, where it disappeared like Prince’s guitar – the last bit of magic from the diminutive guard who dominated three straight days in Boise to lead the Bobcats to the most unexpected of their back-to-back-to-back crowns.
“I actually don’t know where it went,” Ford said about the game ball, which ended up stuck in the Idaho Central Arena scoreboard. “When I threw it, it just never came back. I don’t know where it went. This is unreal. … We were ranked seventh, we weren’t predicted to do this. Just to show everybody that we’re here and believing in our coaches, that’s the biggest thing.”
The story of this year’s Bobcat team prominently features first-year head coach Matt Logie, who came to Bozeman from Division-II Point Loma Nazarene and mentored a team that entered the Big Sky Tournament at 14-17 to three wins in three days. It includes plenty of other people, from holdovers Tyler Patterson and Sam Lecholat to newcomers like Brian Goracke, Brandon Walker, John Olmsted and Eddie Turner III. All contributed to one of the most unlikely Big Sky tournament runs ever.
But above all, this year’s Bobcats team has been defined by Ford, who was named tournament MVP on Wednesday night after putting up a line of 22 points, nine rebounds, four assists and five steals in Montana State’s 85-70 win over Montana in the title game.
It was a fairy-tale ending to a winding career for the point guard from Portland who’s life before college had be impacted by deep tragedy. Ford spent his first two years at Clackamas Community College, averaging a near-triple-double each season – 18.8 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.3 assists as a freshman; 23.3, 10.7 and 7.8 as a sophomore. Despite those stats, the 6-footer ended up in the Big Sky at Idaho State, where he was named all-Big Sky honorable mention in the shortened COVID season before losing much of his fourth college season to injury.
With two years of eligibility remaining thanks to a medical redshirt and the COVID year, he transferred in the conference to Montana State, arriving as Danny Sprinkle was in the process of sanding and varnishing his second great tournament-winning team. Ford backed up Darius Brown II, coming off the bench to add jolts of speed and unpredictability as the Bobcats won 25 games, beat Northern Arizona in the Big Sky title game and pushed Kansas State before losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The success led to an offseason of upheaval in Bozeman. Sprinkle left for Utah State. Brown and Great Osobor followed. RaeQuan Battle, the defending tournament MVP, transferred to West Virginia. Ford also entered his name in the portal, but withdrew and chose to go back to Montana State to play for Logie, who had no experience as a Division-I head coach. Patterson and Lecholat were the only other returners who played meaningful minutes on Sprinkle’s last team, which made Ford a leader by default and magnified the impact of his experience as Logie built a completely new roster around that trio.
“He has set the standard for our culture when it comes to work ethic,” Logie said. “He’s a guy that, you know, we introduced some concepts to in the off season to help him grow his game and he poured himself into it to improve. He has set the standard for competitive spirit and what that looks like, not just in games, but in practices and so, you know, he has really been a leader in so many different ways that make teams successful.”
Empowered with that leadership role, Ford has been the heart of the Bobcats since play tipped off this season, averaging 15.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.9 steals per game – all team-highs except for assists, where he was second behind Turner. His total of 100 steals through Wednesday’s game was one of the highest in the country and a Montana State single-season record.
More than the numbers, he’s been an inspiring figure on the court, with his stature, his career path and his unceasing hustle combining to make him the perfect avatar of Montana State’s underdog personality in Logie’s first season.
Nobody in the conference hits the floor harder or more often than Ford, who’s never afraid to throw his 6-foot, 180-pound frame into a mess of bigger bodies in the paint to grab a rebound or spin in a tough layup. On defense, his quick feet and gunfighter’s hands – some of the fastest I’ve ever seen – make him a constant menace, picking opposing point guards, lurking behind bigs to steal their offensive rebounds, apparating into passing lanes and being first to the floor to secure any loose balls his activity creates. He had four or more steals in 13 games, including the Bobcats’ two final contests at the conference tournament.
With the ball in his hands, he puts defenders on their heels with hummingbird-quick between-the-legs dribbles, exploding out of them towards the rim or stepping back for a jumper and thriving like Patrick Mahomes in broken plays with his creativity and athleticism.
In a defining sequence Wednesday, Ford put up a wayward floater from the left side of the rim, tracked it down on the right side after it bounced off the back iron, kept his dribble going to the corner and swished a 3-pointer when the Griz forgot him there in the chaos.
Later in the half, musclebound Griz big man Laolu Oke dropped him to the floor with a hard screen, only for Ford to get up and finish the possession. Shortly after, he drained a step-back jumper, jumped the ensuing in-bounds pass to rip the ball free from Brandon Whitney, then finished that possession with an audacious hanging layup.
It was all a part of a ridiculous 53-32 second half scoring differential that wiped out MSU’s six-point halftime deficit and ensured that only the second Cat-Griz title game in conference history ended the same as the first one, when an underdog Montana State team shocked Larry Krystkowiak and the Griz all the way back in 1986.
Minutes after the final buzzer, as the on-court celebrations finally started to die down, Ford limped back to the Montana State bench, the punishment of playing a full season of his reckless, passionate style apparent in his halting walk.
It was the walk of a man who has earned something valuable, and who has given up a lot to get it – but it was also the walk of a man who ensured that his name will never be forgotten at Montana State, and that his circuitous career will end in the NCAA Tournament.
“I guess just trying to help my team win where I can. You know, it’s a team game,” Ford said. I feel like everyone did that this whole week. We’ve all been fighting for each other, staying together, being boys, and it’s just great. It’s great to see the team success. It just doesn’t feel real.”
