Basketball program destroyed - long 11 years

[StarkVegasSteve]

In hindsight, firing Stans was a pretty big mistake

No it wasn't. If you think that then it shows you don't know all the behind the scenes stuff that was going on those last few years. I know everyone saw the fight, but Sidney was a constant problem every day. They'd have to drag his ass out of bed to actually get him to show up to practice. Hood tried to quit 3 times his Freshman year. Those are the big things, we also had drug issues, attitude issues, and culture issues. Stans should've been fired after the fiasco in Hawaii. We were going nowhere. Keeping Stans would've been kicking the can down the road a little more. We would've not have been an attractive job in two years just because Stans stayed

The issue has been, is, and will always be that WE DIDN'T HAVE A MF CLUE WHO WE WERE GOING TO HIRE WHEN WE FIRED RICK. And then, we panic hired the 3rd bench asst at Clemson. Which, is the most indefensible thing Scott Stricklin ever did. I will never understand who was consulting him or who he ran that hire by that ok'd it.

[HancockCountyDog]

No it wasn't. If you think that then it shows you don't know all the behind the scenes stuff that was going on those last few years. I know everyone saw the fight, but Sidney was a constant problem every day. They'd have to drag his ass out of bed to actually get him to show up to practice. Hood tried to quit 3 times his Freshman year. Those are the big things, we also had drug issues, attitude issues, and culture issues. Stans should've been fired after the fiasco in Hawaii. We were going nowhere. Keeping Stans would've been kicking the can down the road a little more. We would've not have been an attractive job in two years just because Stans stayed

You are missing the point. No one is arguing about whether Stans deserved to be fired. The issue is that with hindsight being 20/20 - and the only option was firing Stans or not firing Stans, you would still want him fired and go through the last 11 years as opposed to just rolling the dice with him? That doesn't make sense.

Sure Stans could have turned in a worse 11 years than the last 11 we have had, but that doesn't seem likely, I mean it would be pretty hard to do worse than our last 11 years.

[StarkVegasSteve]

You are missing the point. No one is arguing about whether Stans deserved to be fired. The issue is that with hindsight being 20/20 - and the only option was firing Stans or not firing Stans, you would still want him fired and go through the last 11 years as opposed to just rolling the dice with him? That doesn't make sense.

Sure Stans could have turned in a worse 11 years than the last 11 we have had, but that doesn't seem likely, I mean it would be pretty hard to do worse than our last 11 years.

Well you're talking to the wrong person on that. I wanted to fire him after 09, but he lucked up and won the SEC Tournament. Then I wanted to fire him after 11, but we had Hood and Moultrie coming in with Bost coming back.

I will always say that firing him wasn't the mistake. The mistake was the next hire. He could've always just hired Kermit. He would've crawled on broken glass to Starkville.

[HancockCountyDog]

Well you're talking to the wrong person on that. I wanted to fire him after 09, but he lucked up and won the SEC Tournament. Then I wanted to fire him after 11, but we had Hood and Moultrie coming in with Bost coming back.

I will always say that firing him wasn't the mistake. The mistake was the next hire. He could've always just hired Kermit. He would've crawled on broken glass to Starkville.

Sure, i get that, but looking back - and your choice was keeping Stans or suffering through just Rick Ray - you would still pick firing Stans?

I mean at some point, your love of MSU has to eclipse the anger towards Stans. I mean for me, I really don't care who the coach is, I just want to watch us play meaningful basketball games in February/March. We did that all the time with Stans, not so much the last 11 years.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Sure, i get that, but looking back - and your choice was keeping Stans or suffering through just Rick Ray - you would still pick firing Stans?

I mean at some point, your love of MSU has to eclipse the anger towards Stans. I mean for me, I really don't care who the coach is, I just want to watch us play meaningful basketball games in February/March. We did that all the time with Stans, not so much the last 11 years.

We played just as many meaningful games in February/March under Howland as we did under Rick and won about the same amount. Just like with Stansbury, we lost any game that actually mattered, won most of the games we were supposed to, and had head scratching losses.

I don't hate Rick. He did a fine job in his 15+ years. We made the tournament 6 times, which is fine, and we won some meaningless division championships. But we never made it past the first weekend. He also coached in an era where on average 4 of the other 6 division teams were complete and utter dogs***. Auburn didn't even know the had a basketball program, Ole Miss' ceiling leaked, and Arkansas, Alabama, and LSU all had like one or two good years in that stretch. The East dominated every year.