Jalen Steele career over

[elitedawgs]

http://www.hailstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=209261954


Injuries have ended Jalen Steele's career.

[Thick]

http://www.hailstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=209261954


Injuries have ended Jalen Steele's career.

Actually that's what the school is putting out there, but I was told different. He walked out of practice last week, and that ended his career. This comes from a very good basketball source.

[hailmari]

When was his last ACL tear? I don't recall that one.

[Dawg61]

Damn this sucks. So the season hasn't even started and we're already down Ndoye, Daniels, Steele and I'm guessing Lewis and Wilson too. Rob Schneider says "oh no we suck again".

[CadaverDawg]

Damn this sucks. So the season hasn't even started and we're already down Ndoye, Daniels, Steele and I'm guessing Lewis and Wilson too. Rob Schneider says "oh no we suck again".

^^^This^^^

Sure you guys want a coaching search for football if and when Mullen is gone?

vWakeForestTightEndCoachOrWorse

[Coach34]

We beat OM and won a game in the Tourney last year without him. Other than a body- not much of a loss. He wasn't going to start this year

[smootness]

^^^This^^^

Sure you guys want a coaching search for football if and when Mullen is gone?

vWakeForestTightEndCoachOrWorse

Are you blaming this on Ray?

[smootness]

Damn this sucks. So the season hasn't even started and we're already down Ndoye, Daniels, Steele and I'm guessing Lewis and Wilson too. Rob Schneider says "oh no we suck again".

Lewis should be back midseason, and we should have Wilson then, too.

You act like these are all huge losses. Ndoye wasn't ever going to contribute much anyway. Daniels is a loss, but we already knew Steele was iffy.

We have Sword, Thomas, Ware, Davis, Applewhite, Ready, Borchert, R. Johnson, then we should add Lewis and Wilson later in the year, and could actually still add Daniels, too.

That's still far more than we had to work with last year.

[chef dixon]

Ready to watch Chicken posterize some scrubs this season

[engie]

Wish this would have happened last year so we could go ahead and get all the attrition out of the way at once...

Ray has got to do a better job of evaluating academics. 50% "miss" rate on signees is unacceptable IMO...

[smootness]

Ndoye isn't sitting out because of academics.

And he didn't really evaluate Daniels incorrectly. He legitimately only needed to pass one more test; he just didn't do it. Essentially every recruit in the country still has to pass classes after they sign, and Daniels didn't. And everyone who signed last year played.

[Dawg61]

It's not so much the loss of talent as it is the loss of an adequate bench. Ray HAS to have a full bench to be able to run his ideal style (which we've never seen). Going from 13 guys to 8 again completely handicaps the team.

[smootness]

It definitely will hurt depth, but if you add Cunningham, we're still at 9 guys as of right now. Most schools don't use a rotation of more than 10, and again, we should add at least one more mid-year.

This was always going to be a multi-year rebuilding job. To me, this year's result matter about as much as last year's, which is to say, not much. We were never going to win a bunch.

[Raytoraid83]

Rumor of him getting kicked off looking like the truth after these tweets...

@Jalensteele0: I hope my dude stay strong those snakes coming for him Next I heard they said 1 down 1 more to go.....

[civildawg]

Sounds to me like they trying to get rid of all Stans boys

[slickdawg]

Definitely some shit brewing.

Jalen Steele ‏@Jalensteele0 1h
Hilarious I'm not done playing just wanted to take a year off to get stronger and be strong for my senior year.


Jalen Steele ‏@Jalensteele0 36m
All I wanted was a redshirt and come back stronger next year but they got what they wanted.....

Jalen Steele ‏@Jalensteele0 43m
I came back last year to play ball and also for the people of Mississippi state we a family but there is always a home wrecker.

[civildawg]

His high school coach was dissing ray and state on twitter

[Raytoraid83]

His high school coach was dissing ray and state on twitter

Can you post them?

[Dawg61]

Definitely some shit brewing.

Jalen Steele ‏@Jalensteele0 1h
Hilarious I'm not done playing just wanted to take a year off to get stronger and be strong for my senior year.


Jalen Steele ‏@Jalensteele0 36m
All I wanted was a redshirt and come back stronger next year but they got what they wanted.....

Jalen Steele ‏@Jalensteele0 43m
I came back last year to play ball and also for the people of Mississippi state we a family but there is always a home wrecker.

Jalen has had 2 good halves of basketball his entire career. He's a senior coming off 2 knee surgeries and he's been suspended for failed drug tests. Now he's spouting off on twitter because he's been told there's no room for him next year? Good riddance, don't let the door hit ya

[civildawg]

I'm on phone but twitter handle is @fultonhoops

[CadaverDawg]

Are you blaming this on Ray?

No, just making a joke. Chill

[MarketingBully01]

So is this the year we can start judging Ray? If he doesn't win 15-17 games this year with the easy schedule he has, something is wrong.

[Coach34]

So is this the year we can start judging Ray? If he doesn't win 15-17 games this year with the easy schedule he has, something is wrong.

Absolutely

[JOHNHEVESYMADE]

Jalen wanted to redshirt because he is not 100% healthy for the upcoming season, he approached Ray and they denied his request. They wanted to push him through, EXPECT Jalen to graduate and go to another program for his last year. The PR spin that Jalen is ending his career is completely inaccurate.

[Coach34]

well good. I hope he graduates and does well at his next stop to finish his career

[coastdoglover]

It is all Stans fault, just get over it!

[TopDog58]

That does sound kind of crappy on Ricky Ray's part. He doesn't have a full team this year. What does giving Steele til next year hurt. Is he going to take the spot of another no star recruit of Ray's in the next class?

[Dawg61]

Jalen wanted to redshirt because he is not 100% healthy for the upcoming season, he approached Ray and they denied his request. They wanted to push him through, EXPECT Jalen to graduate and go to another program for his last year. The PR spin that Jalen is ending his career is completely inaccurate.

And there should be zero animosity from Steele towards Ray imo. Ray has already used the 2014-15 scholarship on an incoming freshman that year. He can't rescind that scholarship and give it to Steele. It's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Sucks for Steele hopefully he can land his feet at a good situation or maybe he can use the scholarship this year and get stronger and then be a "walk-on" for 2014-15. Atleast he'd stay in a familiar program where he'd see plenty of minutes.

[Dawg61]

That does sound kind of crappy on Ricky Ray's part. He doesn't have a full team this year. What does giving Steele til next year hurt. Is he going to take the spot of another no star recruit of Ray's in the next class?

Ray already has that scholarship accounted for. He's got 3 3* players already and probably looking for another. There's simply no room for Steele beyond this year.

[msstate7]

That does sound kind of crappy on Ricky Ray's part. He doesn't have a full team this year. What does giving Steele til next year hurt. Is he going to take the spot of another no star recruit of Ray's in the next class?

JS has had disciplinary problems (hot drug tests), injury problems, holdover from Rick, and he's an average player at best. I don't blame coach ray. Hate it for JS, but ray is doing what he thinks is best for the team

[Thick]

Jalen wanted to redshirt because he is not 100% healthy for the upcoming season, he approached Ray and they denied his request. They wanted to push him through, EXPECT Jalen to graduate and go to another program for his last year. The PR spin that Jalen is ending his career is completely inaccurate.

His career at MSU is over. That seems to be accurate.

[CJDAWG85]

Sounds like Ray wanted to make room for some new recruits as opposed to letting Steele fill one of the spots.

[CadaverDawg]

Steele is out?

Damn, now what the **** are we going to do?*

[smootness]

So is this the year we can start judging Ray? If he doesn't win 15-17 games this year with the easy schedule he has, something is wrong.

No, I said from the beginning he should get a complete pass on his first two years...as in, no matter the record, it doesn't matter. His tenure really begins in year 3.

[Jacksondevildog]

Ray has 1 scholarship available for next year and that is Malik Newman. Newman knows that. Horatio knows that. The players at MSU know that. That' s why Steele wasn't allowed to redshirt and get a scholly next season.

[smootness]

Newman is 2015, this doesn't have anything to do with him.

I'm sure he's leaving room for Makinde London, though.

[TheRef]

I think we will see some slight improvement over last year, but don't get too bullish on the win total though. I expect maybe 2-3 more wins this season over last season. So I'm not expecting much and I hope that I am pleasantly surprised by the team we put out this year. From what I can tell, Chicken and Fred are turning into the leaders on this team. I can't decide whether that is good or bad quite yet.

[Barking 13]

I don't care how many wins Ray has, as long as he can get the dumpster fire out that Stans left and build something positive out of it... 4 years total.. if he can't get it done by then.. it's over... but I think the dude has it going in the right direction, just has shit for luck (last year).. I look for marked improvement this year... not just in wins, but in attitude and play...

[TheRef]

I don't care how many wins Ray has, as long as he can get the dumpster fire out that Stans left and build something positive out of it... 4 years total.. if he can't get it done by then.. it's over... but I think the dude has it going in the right direction, just has shit for luck (last year).. I look for marked improvement this year... not just in wins, but in attitude and play...

Agreed, with the discipline that Ray is putting into the team we should have anticipated the mass exodus of Stans players. I think year 3 and year 4 will be telling of how he has transformed the team. I'm just ready for basketball season (not because of football, but because I go slightly insane during basketball games).

[C222]

Newman is 2015, this doesn't have anything to do with him.

I'm sure he's leaving room for Makinde London, though.

Or William Lee..... so someone else will have to be gone if one of them decides to commit.

[Coach34]

Ray is going to get at least 4 years unless something crazy happens

[engie]

I want to see a good deal of visible improvement this year with a record approaching/surpassing .500 overall and with the attrition we've already seen, I'm not sure how likely that is going to be...

Bottom line is that starting in year 3(for me), Ray is held to the same standard as Stansbury was...

[smootness]

I want to see a good deal of visible improvement this year with a record approaching/surpassing .500 overall and with the attrition we've already seen, I'm not sure how likely that is going to be...

Bottom line is that starting in year 3(for me), Ray is held to the same standard as Stansbury was...

I think that's fair for this year. Given our OOC schedule, we should be able to begin approaching .500...but I still don't think it's a given we win more than 7 non-conference games. We still just don't know exactly what we'll have.

And I think year 3 is when we should begin to look at our record and really evaluate...but I certainly don't think it's fair to hold him to the same standard as Stans at that point, which would mean it's a disappointment if we don't make the Tourney. You just can't bring in a guy with no name recognition and the absolute steaming pile we left him and say, you better make the NCAA Tournament within 3 years.

To me, honestly, year 5 is where I would say we better be at least on the bubble. That may seem crazy to some, but I just don't think some people understand what he was left with exactly. Yes, you can overhaul a roster more easily in basketball, but it still takes time to rebuild. We still aren't the kind of basketball school who will just bring in recruits on our name alone.

Now, I don't think he should be given at least 5 years regardless. If we're still struggling to get to .500 in year 3 or 4, then it's probably time to make a change. But as long as he's improving the product on the court and starting to bring in some talent, I don't have a lot of expectations for a while.

[Barking 13]

he gets a Mulligan for last year... three years and it's time to evaluate... (total of 4)

[trob115]

For me , year 3 will be the year that we should start making judgment on Ray. We will be improved this year , but will still struggle some this year. If we can get London or Lee , I expect us to make the tourney next year.

[JOHNHEVESYMADE]

So Ray gets another pass for all the injuries? Do we just sweep under the rug that only ONE of FOUR signees are able to play this year? We only have 9 scholarship players right now. We have ONE center that is currently healthy. At what point do we start making Ray accountable for his actions?

[MadDawg]

I think he should at least have until 2019. That's only fair.

[TheRef]

So Ray gets another pass for all the injuries? Do we just sweep under the rug that only ONE of FOUR signees are able to play this year? We only have 9 scholarship players right now. We have ONE center that is currently healthy. At what point do we start making Ray accountable for his actions?

Considering the shitstorm that he inherited, two down years are to be expected when he is cleaning and rebuilding a program. So yes, Rick gets another pass this year. No way possible we can be competitive this year. Year 3-4 will be telling. But year 1-2 should not be used for evaluation of coaching.

[engie]

Considering the shitstorm that he inherited, two down years are to be expected when he is cleaning and rebuilding a program. So yes, Rick gets another pass this year. No way possible we can be competitive this year. Year 3-4 will be telling. But year 1-2 should not be used for evaluation of coaching.

But we've GOT to stick with the same formula that has worked for us in the past with the hiring/firing of "beloved" coaches**

[Dawg61]

Considering the shitstorm that he inherited, two down years are to be expected when he is cleaning and rebuilding a program. So yes, Rick gets another pass this year. No way possible we can be competitive this year. Year 3-4 will be telling. But year 1-2 should not be used for evaluation of coaching.

I wouldn't say he gets a full pass this year. If he's still taking 40 point beatdowns from Vandy and Mizzou his seat will start warming considerably. Team needs to show improvement in offense/defense too especially shooting. If they are still shooting something putrid like 27% as a TEAM Ray will be feeling plenty of heat. I think Malik Newman will have a lot to do with how long Ray is HC here.

[smootness]

So Ray gets another pass for all the injuries? Do we just sweep under the rug that only ONE of FOUR signees are able to play this year? We only have 9 scholarship players right now. We have ONE center that is currently healthy. At what point do we start making Ray accountable for his actions?

Who cares about this year? His rebuilding job isn't so we can see the fruits in 2013-2014. Ndoye will play for us, and Daniels may come in mid-year. We only signed 3 guys; he kicked Denson to the curb.

What actions are you speaking of?

[TheRef]

Who cares about this year? His rebuilding job isn't so we can see the fruits in 2013-2014. Ndoye will play for us, and Daniels may come in mid-year. We only signed 3 guys; he kicked Denson to the curb.

What actions are you speaking of?

I think he's talking about his disciplinary actions that Stans didn't have the balls to do. This is what we should expect for a bit with players that intend on coming to MSU. Some will wash out just simply due to the discipline that Rick Ray is trying to instill in this team.

[smootness]

It didn't seem like he was talking about discipline at all, and he seems upset with Ray, not Stans, as though he is blaiming him for injuries and for having guys missing time for various reasons.

[Dawg61]

I think he's talking about his disciplinary actions that Stans didn't have the balls to do. This is what we should expect for a bit with players that intend on coming to MSU. Some will wash out just simply due to the discipline that Rick Ray is trying to instill in this team.

Good luck finding the Butler style player in the Deep South. Not saying it can't be done but that same mentality Ray is trying to enforce isn't working out so great for Anthony Grant at Alabama. It's a different game down here. Remember Ray is a Purdue guy. Recruiting and coaching is much different in basketball in the Big10 area.

[Raytoraid83]

Good luck finding the Butler style player in the Deep South. Not saying it can't be done but that same mentality Ray is trying to enforce isn't working out so great for Anthony Grant at Alabama. It's a different game down here. Remember Ray is a Purdue guy. Recruiting and coaching is much different in basketball in the Big10 area.

We have a winner^^

[MarketingBully01]

This is a huge gamble considering we don't know what we are getting. Doesn't it make the most sense to hire a proven head coach in order to rebuild a team? That way you at least have a known quantity. People comparing this situation to Tom Creane and Indiana are a bit off base because at least Tom Creane was a known quantity at Marquette. What happens when in year 4 or year 5 and we are still losing and getting blown out like we did this past year? Then we just wasted even more time (4 years) then we did previously.

I am a huge basketball fan and love basketball more then any sport. I am just afraid that this hire will turn out to be more like Stan Heath then a Tom Creane. That is also what makes me more worried about how the head football coaching situation will turn out if Mullen decides to leave or is fired. Stricklin would be in charge of making the hire. And that should scare all Bulldog fans.

[Raytoraid83]

Agreed but differences between the two is there already a name for the football job, Stricklin forced Stan out without having a backup plan.

[TheRef]

Agreed but differences between the two is there already a name for the football job, Stricklin forced Stan out without having a backup plan.

Agreed on not having a backup plan. But it NEEDED to happen. Discipline was nowhere to be found on the team. The players had no respect for Stansbury. They did not refer to him as Coach, Coach Stansbury, Mr. Stansbury, or even Coach Rick. It was simply Rick. Now was he good at recruiting? Yes. Did he have high talent teams? Sometimes. Did they ever produce? Nope. Everyone outside of the program knew that something needed to happen. It's the "What have you done for me lately" situation and Rick had no legs to stand on.

[MarketingBully01]

Agreed but how hard is it to put together a back up plan? How hard is it to test the waters and see who might be interested in the job? At the very least if you give Stans one more year and he bottoms out, you have good reason to fire him.

Ray was the type of hire IMO that was not going to excite anyone, was going to take a heck of a long time to bare any fruit, and was going to have a lot of growing pains no matter how you look at it. This type of hire is a huge gamble and from the way I have seen fans talk Strick will face no consequences if this back fires. He could have set us back so far in the conference (in a weak conference at that) that we won't capitalize on how down the SEC is.

IMO if Coach Kermit Davis was remotely interested in the MSU job and Stricklin didn't give him a look, Strick should be fired on the spot. He would have been the perfect hire for MSU because A) he graduated from MSU and B) he is a known commodity that could have made this program successful for the next guy to take it over.

I love MSU and I will cheer for the basketball team but for the life of me I still don't understand this direction we took.

[TheRef]

Agreed but how hard is it to put together a back up plan? How hard is it to test the waters and see who might be interested in the job? At the very least if you give Stans one more year and he bottoms out, you have good reason to fire him.

So watching the team collapse every year at the end wasn't enough to show that he had bottomed out? We had Sweet 16 talent and he drove us to where we didn't even get invited to the NIT. I'd say that he had driven us into the ground enough to deserve firing. Just my two cents.

[smootness]

IMO if Coach Kermit Davis was remotely interested in the MSU job and Stricklin didn't give him a look, Strick should be fired on the spot. He would have been the perfect hire for MSU because A) he graduated from MSU and B) he is a known commodity that could have made this program successful for the next guy to take it over.

This makes no sense. What does being a known commodity have to do with anything? The AD's job is to hire the best candidate, and I think Stricklin may have done that. I definitely like Ray's potential over a guy like Kermit Davis.

Mark Fox was a known commodity.
Kelvin Sampson was a known commodity.
Matt Doherty was a known commodity.
Billy Gillispie was a known commodity.

Meanwhile, there have been plenty of guys who were hired as essential no-names, or at least guys with very little track record who had phenomenal success...guys like Coach K and Billy Donovan.

We shouldn't have hired Rick Ray, we should have hired an obviously great coach like Kermit Davis. Good grief.

[MarketingBully01]

Ray is an unknown commodity with no head coaching experience and no ties to the south. From an obvious stand point from these points alone, you have to give him several years to grow into being a coach and establishing high school contacts in Mississippi. Add to that the rebuilding situation he came into, add a few more years. All I am saying is hiring a head coach as a known commodity with ties to the south would have been a much better and easier transition and we might have made the NCAA tournament within a five year window.

[TheRef]

Ray is an unknown commodity with no head coaching experience and no ties to the south. From an obvious stand point from these points alone, you have to give him several years to grow into being a coach and establishing high school contacts in Mississippi. Add to that the rebuilding situation he came into, add a few more years. All I am saying is hiring a head coach as a known commodity with ties to the south would have been a much better and easier transition and we might have made the NCAA tournament within a five year window.

Technically he has ties in the South with him coming from Clemson. He's been able to pull in some fairly good recruits from not only the South but from across the nation (Findlay Prep (NV) for example)

[MadDawg]

So we fired a coach for not winning enough and hired a coach nobody expects to do anything for a long time. Makes perfect sense.

[Raytoraid83]

Technically he has ties in the South with him coming from Clemson. He's been able to pull in some fairly good recruits from not only the South but from across the nation (Findlay Prep (NV) for example)

LOL

[MarketingBully01]

Yep, about sums it up for me as well RealMadDog. Doesn't make much sense does it...

[engie]

Year 3 -- same standard as Stansbury. I don't care what the excuses are -- that is my expectation. Shouldn't be too much to ask with the class that was left for him with Sword, Ware, and Thomas. That's a good core.

[maroonmania]

So I really don't know why we shouldn't see significant improvement this year. We have a core of good players all returning with experience now in Sword, Ware, Thomas, Bloodman, Borchert, RJohnson and Lewis if he gets back healthy. Now add in new players like Ready, Applewhite, and JDavis plus Tyson Cunningham is back as well and we should be a very competitive team. The only key thing we are missing seems to be outside shooting. Borchert and maybe Thomas are about the only outside shooting threats we have now that Steele is gone.

[MarketingBully01]

I agree Maroonmania. That is why I am expecting 15-17 wins with that Stans built schedule. That wouldn't even make the NIT however it would show a lot of improvement and that we are headed in the right direction. My biggest point is that expecting 15-17 wins should be what our fans should be expecting in year 2 not a mulligan on top of a mulligan. Doesn't make sense.