Ford was the first freshman under head basketball coach Dean Smith to start in his first collegiate basketball game. During the season, he averaged 16.4 points and 5.2 assists per game - both of which were UNC freshman records that would stand for more than 20 years. Ford led UNC to a second-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season standings, and then to a championship win over North Carolina State University in the 1975 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament. This win broke N.C. State's 2-year winning streak as ACC Champions. Ford averaged 26 points in the tournamentand was named tournament MVP - the first freshman in ACC history to achieve that honor.