Does Ray have any expectations, or does he get a pass forever?

[HancockCountyDog]

For those of you that really want Ray gone, you better hope he doesn't beat the confederates. If he loses to the greys, the pressure will be turned up. I know I couldn't root for the bears if they were playing ISIS, but it could be a 2008 Egg Bowl situation where it is a necessary evil;

[Jack Lambert]

I know I couldn't root for the bears if they were playing ISIS;

Watching that game would be like watching those old WWII movies where the German are fighting the Russians. You don't care who get killed.

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

I like Ray. I argued that he should be given a chance to show whether he can get it done or not. He needed to be given that chance, and to me he has now had that chance. He needs to go.

Last night they had him mic'd up. If you can, just go back and listen to the discussions he had with his team during TOs. When he is constantly telling his teams things like "just play good defense. Don't worry about offense, it will take care of itself.", you can get a pretty good picture of what he brings to the table as a coach. He stresses defense, which is not a bad thing, and his teams play very hard and pretty well defensively. But, I'm not sure he even bothers bringing a ball into the gym during practices because he sure as hell is not teaching his players anything about offense.

Those TO discussions confirmed that in my opinion. His view is to play hard on defense, then hope and pray one of this players can make a shot to save the game from on offensive standpoint. We cannot dribble. We cannot pass. We have no idea what floor spacing and passing lanes mean. We are clueless on how to actually break a press by any other means than "sprint as fast as you can and pray you beat the defense down the court". We cannot shoot. Our post players routinely have no idea what to do with the ball when they get it, as they have clearly not been taught or had any work on refining post moves. Zone offense seems to be above everyone's head, including the head coach's.

Memo to Coach Ray. Yes, defense is very important. However, no, the 17ing offense will NOT simply "take care of itself".

[Goat from MSU]

Does the person who told you know what is going on,what are the reasons for keeping Ray. There got to be a reason or are we digging our heels in the sand over this. I hope I am not right on this but does your friend need that glass stomach after all.

Im not hedging- I was told he is getting next year

im simply saying what I personally would do

[MabenMaroon]

297th in the country in total offense.
340th in assist to turnover ratio.
326th in 3 pointers made per game.

I didn't realize you could rank as low as 340th, shit, that is the other side of the earth low!

[Political Hack]

I know YMCA teams that commit fewer TOs.

[MabenMaroon]

I like Ray. I argued that he should be given a chance to show whether he can get it done or not. He needed to be given that chance, and to me he has now had that chance. He needs to go.

Last night they had him mic'd up. If you can, just go back and listen to the discussions he had with his team during TOs. When he is constantly telling his teams things like "just play good defense. Don't worry about offense, it will take care of itself.", you can get a pretty good picture of what he brings to the table as a coach. He stresses defense, which is not a bad thing, and his teams play very hard and pretty well defensively. But, I'm not sure he even bothers bringing a ball into the gym during practices because he sure as hell is not teaching his players anything about offense.

Those TO discussions confirmed that in my opinion. His view is to play hard on defense, then hope and pray one of this players can make a shot to save the game from on offensive standpoint. We cannot dribble. We cannot pass. We have no idea what floor spacing and passing lanes mean. We are clueless on how to actually break a press by any other means than "sprint as fast as you can and pray you beat the defense down the court". We cannot shoot. Our post players routinely have no idea what to do with the ball when they get it, as they have clearly not been taught or had any work on refining post moves. Zone offense seems to be above everyone's head, including the head coach's.

Memo to Coach Ray. Yes, defense is very important. However, no, the 17ing offense will NOT simply "take care of itself".

Yep! The commentators kept mentioning he was yelling 31, 31 meaning guard the back like 3 on 1 and it made good sense, BUT! if one does the math, that means the rest of the team has to guard like 2 on 4, which seems to me to be an advantage for the opponents offense. And it seems that invariably we will force the opponent deep into the shot clock only to allow a back door cut make an easy layup or will foul the opponent sending them to the line.
I have wavered from both sides of the Coach Ray fence and right now, I am back on the negative side, this shit storm ( hurricane ) has got to stop, thought it was slacking up the past few weeks but it is becoming apparent that was the eye of the storm passing by and now the backside of the storm is kicking in. There is despair and then there is DESPAIR! Hate to be a fair weather fan but I am shifting all of my attention and effort to women's basketball, women's golf, softball and baseball until the fall football season rolls around.

[thunderclap]

Ain't no way Stricklin is gonna fire him after this year. Despite the fact that he was sitting at a desk in Starkville and watched close up what we let Sly Croom get away with.

[Dawg61]

Ain't no way Stricklin is gonna fire him after this year. Despite the fact that he was sitting at a desk in Starkville and watched close up what we let Sly Croom get away with.

That's why I think Strick should go too. It's obvious firing Ray this year is the only acceptable option yet Strick will choose to not and that will set us back another five years. It'll be a decade long before we make the NCAA tourney again.

[Coach34]

Does the person who told you know what is going on,what are the reasons for keeping Ray. There got to be a reason or are we digging our heels in the sand over this. I hope I am not right on this but does your friend need that glass stomach after all.

Person that told me works on campus

[HoopsDawg]

Ain't no way Stricklin is gonna fire him after this year. Despite the fact that he was sitting at a desk in Starkville and watched close up what we let Sly Croom get away with.

no one thought we would fire Croom one year removed from being named the SEC coach of the year. It's not good to speak in absolutes. Stricklin needs to let the season play out, evaluate his options, and then make the best decision for MSU.

[msstate7]

no one thought we would fire Croom one year removed from being named the SEC coach of the year. It's not good to speak in absolutes. Stricklin needs to let the season play out, evaluate his options, and then make the best decision for MSU.

That wasn't SS. Byrne didn't hire croom.

Not saying SS won't fire ray, but less likely imo

[HoopsDawg]

That wasn't SS. Byrne didn't hire croom.

Not saying SS won't fire ray, but less likely imo

I realize that. I'm speaking of message board posters. No one on the message boards thought we would fire Croom and we did.

I'm not ready to write Stricklin off b/c of one mistake. Byrne made mistakes too. Byrne is the one who killed the atmosphere in the Hump by moving the students away from mid court and also shouldn't have fired Hank Flick.

[TopDog58]

I like Ray. I argued that he should be given a chance to show whether he can get it done or not. He needed to be given that chance, and to me he has now had that chance. He needs to go.

Last night they had him mic'd up. If you can, just go back and listen to the discussions he had with his team during TOs. When he is constantly telling his teams things like "just play good defense. Don't worry about offense, it will take care of itself.", you can get a pretty good picture of what he brings to the table as a coach. He stresses defense, which is not a bad thing, and his teams play very hard and pretty well defensively. But, I'm not sure he even bothers bringing a ball into the gym during practices because he sure as hell is not teaching his players anything about offense.

Those TO discussions confirmed that in my opinion. His view is to play hard on defense, then hope and pray one of this players can make a shot to save the game from on offensive standpoint. We cannot dribble. We cannot pass. We have no idea what floor spacing and passing lanes mean. We are clueless on how to actually break a press by any other means than "sprint as fast as you can and pray you beat the defense down the court". We cannot shoot. Our post players routinely have no idea what to do with the ball when they get it, as they have clearly not been taught or had any work on refining post moves. Zone offense seems to be above everyone's head, including the head coach's.

Memo to Coach Ray. Yes, defense is very important. However, no, the 17ing offense will NOT simply "take care of itself".

Due to the lazy hire of retaining George Brooks. He wasn't even a good assistant under Bury. Even worse player.

[engie]

This whole thing illustrates, that while Opie is far better than LT, he will never be a great AD. The hoops hire process was poorly conceived, resulted in a bad hire and Opie feels compelled to prove he was right and cram that square peg into the round hole. This is a Templeton type attitude.

Omniscience is quite the gift, if you'd be willing to let the rest of us borrow some of it**

No one knows what Strick's attitude is. Let's not sit here and pretend that Strick hasn't made hard decisions when the time comes. He's been anything but a "yes" man. Anyone alleging this of him hasn't been watching the same things that I have apparently.

He torched a couple of lifelong bulldogs for underperformance in athletics in any sport. Hazelwood(alum)? Out. Fanning-Otis(after 17 years)? Gone. Jay Miller(after 9 years at MSU)? Out. Everyone knows the story with Stansbury. Dynamiting Dudy Noble? He's doing it. Let's not pretend it doesn't take cajones to concoct that plan and follow through with it... Softball/tennis renovation -- underway. Moving the golf teams to a new clubhouse at Old Waverly -- likely at the cost of the local course(and met with much negativity among factions) -- Did it, and it'll probably end up making us a powerhouse in the sport.

I thought Hazelwood got one year too long, and hindsight says Stansbury was put out at the wrong time(one year too early or too late -- depending on your POV -- but given that we crashed and burned anyway, it would have been a better case to allow him to be the one that did it). The rest of them were fired exactly when they needed to be fired. And outside of MBB, the new hires have been tremendous... So, let's just wait and see what the rest of the year brings...

[engie]

no one thought we would fire Croom one year removed from being named the SEC coach of the year. It's not good to speak in absolutes. Stricklin needs to let the season play out, evaluate his options, and then make the best decision for MSU.

Exactly.

Let's see how it ends before we make decisions -- about decisions -- that have not, in actuality, yet been made...

[Goat from MSU]

You kinda stated that the other day ,but what are the reasons for keeping him ,must be because of writing off the first year. They need to be looking at the long term and a empty Hump. What happens at the end of the season will be felt 5 years down the road either way. If you would like to share those reasons they give for keeping him we are all ears.

Person that told me works on campus

[Goat from MSU]

Do you know something C34 does not?

Exactly.

Let's see how it ends before we make decisions -- about decisions -- that have not, in actuality, yet been made...

[engie]

Do you know something C34 does not?

I know decisions about futures aren't made mid-season and is way outside of Stricklin's normal MO. Common sense says that Strick is going to publicly support Rick Ray right up until the very day that he fires him...

We have to look no further than Stansbury's actual resigning to get the answer to the question. No one knew it was happening until after the season(because it wasn't). More particularly, after the postseason meeting between Strick and Stans, where Strick laid out ultimatums for him to accomplish to stick around, Stans felt insulted, and refused those ultimatums, and walked.

Strick wasn't expecting to have to make that coaching hire at that time. It's clear that it caught him off guard. He was very naive at the time. He knows full well right now that it's a pretty good chance he has to make a move soon... There's no excuse not to have out $2mil feelers already to potential "home run" hires just to see who is biting...

[Political Hack]

I know decisions about futures aren't made mid-season and is way outside of Stricklin's normal MO. Common sense says that Strick is going to publicly support Rick Ray right up until the very day that he fires him...

We have to look no further than Stansbury's actual resigning to get the answer to the question. No one knew it was happening until after the season(because it wasn't). More particularly, after the postseason meeting between Strick and Stans, where Strick laid out ultimatums for him to accomplish to stick around, Stans felt insulted, and refused those ultimatums, and walked.

Strick wasn't expecting to have to make that coaching hire at that time. It's clear that it caught him off guard. He was very naive at the time. He knows full well right now that it's a pretty good chance he has to make a move soon... There's no excuse not to have out $2mil feelers already to potential "home run" hires just to see who is biting...

If Strick doesn't fire Ray after this season, his fate is tied to Ray's as far as I'm concerned. And if he wants to chain himself to a sinking ship, go right ahead... Tired of getting gump when we need some gumption.