A new era is underway in Arkansas' capital. The Little Rock Trojans — five-time NCAA Tournament participants, owners of one of the great 12-over-5 upsets in bracket history — begin 2026-27 with a new head coach, a new conference, and a program-wide reset aimed at getting back to March. After a disappointing 2025-26, athletic director Frank Cuervo promised a renewed vision for Trojan basketball. Travis Ford is the man hired to deliver it.
Ford was hired in March 2026 after the university dismissed Darrell Walker following eight seasons. The 2025-26 Trojans went 12-20 overall and 9-11 in the Ohio Valley Conference — a team picked to win the 11-team league that finished seventh and bowed out with a 72-62 loss to Lindenwood in the first round of the OVC tournament. Cuervo's message was blunt: the expectation is to consistently compete for championships and earn NCAA Tournament berths in the program's new home, the United Athletic Conference, which Little Rock joined after the 2025-26 season following four years in the OVC and 31 seasons before that in the Sun Belt.
Ford brings a deep résumé to the Jack Stephens Center. The former Kentucky guard has been a head coach at UMass, Oklahoma State and Saint Louis, with multiple NCAA Tournament appearances and a reputation as a program builder who recruits hard and plays an up-tempo, aggressive style. He's joined by associate head coach Van Macon and assistants Ted Crass, Jordon Kedrowski and Christian Nunez — a fresh staff for a fresh start.
The program's gold standard was set in 2016. Chris Beard's lone season in Little Rock produced a 30-5 juggernaut that stormed to the Sun Belt title and, as a 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, stunned fifth-seeded Purdue in double overtime — one of the most thrilling upsets of that entire bracket. The run ended against Iowa State in the second round, but the Trojans had announced themselves on the biggest stage in program history.
That wasn't the program's first March magic, either. In 1986, Little Rock beat Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament's first round to reach the Round of 32, establishing the Trojans as a program that could punch above its weight. Across five NCAA appearances — 1986, 1989, 1990, 2011 and 2016 — Little Rock has twice reached the second round, and the 1986 and 2016 runs remain the twin peaks of program lore.
The coaching lineage is one of the most colorful in the mid-majors. Steve Shields (2003-2015) is the winningest coach in program history at 192-178, building a consistent Sun Belt contender. Porter Moser stopped through from 2000 to 2003 before his later fame. Wimp Sanderson brought SEC pedigree in the late 1990s. And the program once handed the keys to Hall of Famer Sidney Moncrief for a single, painful 4-24 season in 1999-2000. Beard's 30-5 lightning strike in 2015-16 remains the outlier — one perfect year that changed everything.
Walker, the man Ford replaces, was a Trojan through and through — a former Arkansas star, the 12th overall pick in the 1983 NBA Draft, a member of the Chicago Bulls' 1993 championship team, and a former NBA head coach with the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards. He won two regular-season titles in Little Rock but never reached the NCAA Tournament, finishing 113-133 over eight seasons. The 2025-26 collapse — preseason favorites to seventh place — made a change inevitable.
The on-court pieces Ford inherits are intriguing. Johnathan Lawson, the former Memphis and Creighton guard, led the 2025-26 Trojans at 15.4 points per game while shooting nearly 42 percent from three — a proven high-major talent who can carry an offense. Tuongthach Gatkek and Cameron Wallace anchor the glass, and Braxton Bayless runs the point. It's a roster with real pieces; the question is whether Ford's system unlocks them.
The Jack Stephens Center is the program's home: 5,600 seats in the heart of Little Rock, where the Maroon Mob student section gives the Trojans one of the OVC's — now the UAC's — best home-court edges when the building is full. Maroon, silver and white, a proud mid-major identity, and a city that rallies when the team gives it a reason.
The trophy case is deeper than many realize. Little Rock has won ten conference regular-season championships — 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1996, 2009, 2016, 2020 and 2024 — spanning four decades of contention. Five conference tournament titles punched the five NCAA tickets. This is a program that has won, consistently, in three different leagues.
The UAC move is the great unknown and the great opportunity. A new league means new rivals, new road trips, and a clean slate — no history of losing to anyone, no scar tissue. Ford's mandate is to make Little Rock the program that defines the conference's basketball identity from day one, the way the Trojans once defined stretches of the Sun Belt.
What defines Little Rock is the belief that March belongs to them — because twice, it has. The 1986 Notre Dame stunner, the 2016 Purdue classic: proof that when the Trojans get to the tournament, they don't just show up. Ford's job is to build the machine that gets them there regularly. The city is watching, the building is ready, and the reset button has been pressed.