Pat Kelsey isn’t the first coach to parlay winning a Mid-Major conference in the South to the head coaching job at UMass.

Twelve years ago, Travis Ford was charged with a similar task as he tried to elevate the program to the next level.

In 2005, Ford was tabbed to replace Steve Lappas, who’d been fired after the season. In his fifth year at Eastern Kentucky, Ford led the Colonels to the Ohio Valley Conference title and the NCAA Tournament, where they briefly put a scare into Kentucky before the Wildcats prevailed. He was hired at UMass shortly after.

It was a path similar to Kelsey, who took Winthrop to the Big South title and the NCAA Tournament.

Ford played at Kentucky, while Kelsey was at Xavier about 85 miles north across the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

Both coaches’ ties to the Northeast were limited before UMass. Ford talked about making the adjustment.

“As far as the coaching, nothing changes no matter what level you are. You have to get to know your new team,” said Ford, who left for Oklahoma State after three seasons at UMass, and just finished his first season at Saint Louis. “When you’re coming from a different area, you have to build relationships in that area recruiting. For me, it was getting to know all the prep schools and the prep school coaches.

“We recruited New York very hard, an area I had not recruited before, but was excited to build those relationships,” Ford continued. “It takes time. It’s a process. It’s not something that happens over night. I was fortunate I had guys like (assistant coach) Adam Ginsburg, who really knew the area extremely well, and (assistants) Steve Middleton and Tim Maloney, to help me navigate it.”

Ford guessed that Kelsey would take a similar approach to assimilating himself into the community.

“From what I know of Pat, he has a similar personality. He’s got a lot of energy and is very outgoing,” Ford said. “(Former athletic director) John McCutcheon and (former associate athletic directors) Tim Kenney and Thorr Bjorn did a great job of getting me out in the community to get to know the area. It was really important for me to do that.”

Ford, who will lock horns with the Minutemen in Amherst in the 2017-18 season, expected Kelsey will successful at UMass.

“He’s a good fit. He bring a lot of energy to UMass and our league. He’s a very good coach,” Ford said. “I don’t know him that well, but I know him well enough to know he’ll be a very successful head coach.”

Kelsey, who arrived at UMass on Wednesday, will be officially introduced at a press conference, Thursday at 4 p.m.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage