The hiring of Rick Ray

After Scott Stricklin fired Rick Stansbury he had Marcus Grant, Phil Cunningham and George Brooks clean out their offices. What has interested me is how Scott decided to hire Rick Ray. Scott interviewed Kermit Davis at the final four. The first time Scott interviewed Rick Ray was at the final four on Friday. He was announced as our head coach on Sunday. Bill Self the head coach of Kansas had called Scott to interview his top assistant Joe Dooley. Dooley had been Selfs top assistant for years and very much wanted the MSU job. Scott would not interview him. Scott offered the job to 4 other people before Rick Ray. People would not take the job because of their concern in following Rick Stansbury and his winning an average of 21 games a year. Scott also said we would not involve AAU basketball and wanted to "clean up the program". Of course the program was never on probation under either Richard Williams or Rick Stansbury but we currently are on probation in football under Dan Mullen. Which brings me to Rick Ray. How did Scott decide to hire a coach at Clemson who was coming off a 16 and 15 record? He had no connections to Mississippi or the SEC. He had never been a head coach before or sucessfully recruited players from the South. I asked many successful high school and college coaches right after we hired him and nobody had heard of him. At this point Rick Ray is our coach but in the future if he is not our head coach do you feel confident with Scott Stricklin making the coaching hire?

No reason to hash it out but I have 0 confidence in Stricklin doing much of anything other than marketing and some fundraising.

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Originally Posted by campmore

After Scott Stricklin fired Rick Stansbury he had Marcus Grant, Phil Cunningham and George Brooks clean out their offices. What has interested me is how Scott decided to hire Rick Ray. Scott interviewed Kermit Davis at the final four. The first time Scott interviewed Rick Ray was at the final four on Friday. He was announced as our head coach on Sunday. Bill Self the head coach of Kansas had called Scott to interview his top assistant Joe Dooley. Dooley had been Selfs top assistant for years and very much wanted the MSU job. Scott would not interview him. Scott offered the job to 4 other people before Rick Ray. People would not take the job because of their concern in following Rick Stansbury and his winning an average of 21 games a year. Scott also said we would not involve AAU basketball and wanted to "clean up the program". Of course the program was never on probation under either Richard Williams or Rick Stansbury but we currently are on probation in football under Dan Mullen. Which brings me to Rick Ray. How did Scott decide to hire a coach at Clemson who was coming off a 16 and 15 record? He had no connections to Mississippi or the SEC. He had never been a head coach before or sucessfully recruited players from the South. I asked many successful high school and college coaches right after we hired him and nobody had heard of him. At this point Rick Ray is our coach but in the future if he is not our head coach do you feel confident with Scott Stricklin making the coaching hire?

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Originally Posted by gtowndawg

No reason to hash it out but I have 0 confidence in Stricklin doing much of anything other than marketing and some fundraising.

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+1

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Originally Posted by campmore

After Scott Stricklin fired Rick Stansbury he had Marcus Grant, Phil Cunningham and George Brooks clean out their offices. What has interested me is how Scott decided to hire Rick Ray. Scott interviewed Kermit Davis at the final four. The first time Scott interviewed Rick Ray was at the final four on Friday. He was announced as our head coach on Sunday. Bill Self the head coach of Kansas had called Scott to interview his top assistant Joe Dooley. Dooley had been Selfs top assistant for years and very much wanted the MSU job. Scott would not interview him. Scott offered the job to 4 other people before Rick Ray. People would not take the job because of their concern in following Rick Stansbury and his winning an average of 21 games a year. Scott also said we would not involve AAU basketball and wanted to "clean up the program". Of course the program was never on probation under either Richard Williams or Rick Stansbury but we currently are on probation in football under Dan Mullen. Which brings me to Rick Ray. How did Scott decide to hire a coach at Clemson who was coming off a 16 and 15 record? He had no connections to Mississippi or the SEC. He had never been a head coach before or sucessfully recruited players from the South. I asked many successful high school and college coaches right after we hired him and nobody had heard of him. At this point Rick Ray is our coach but in the future if he is not our head coach do you feel confident with Scott Stricklin making the coaching hire?

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You can't really blame Ray for the poor record at Clemson b/c he wasn't the head coach or even the top assistant. He was the #2 bench coach was he not?

This hire is 100% on Strick .. And I agree my confident level in SS as our AD isn't very high..
But saying that we are still better off with RR as our head coach than Stands..

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Originally Posted by mic

This hire is 100% on Strick .. And I agree my confident level in SS as our AD isn't very high..
But saying that we are still better off with RR as our head coach than Stands..

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Well, I guess the 1 year grace period for Ray is over, LOL.

When do you plan on replacing Stricklin?

Oh. This thread again.

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Originally Posted by HoopsDawg

Well, I guess the 1 year grace period for Ray is over, LOL.

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where did I say that.?? he will get his 3 or 4 years if we aren't there then , we move on..
I swear the RR haters almost seem like they want us to lose...

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Originally Posted by campmore

Scott offered the job to 4 other people before Rick Ray. People would not take the job because of their concern in following Rick Stansbury and his winning an average of 21 games a year.


Scott also said we would not involve AAU basketball and wanted to "clean up the program". Of course the program was never on probation under either Richard Williams or Rick Stansbury but we currently are on probation in football under Dan Mullen.

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That first sentence is incorrect. Other coaches didnt accept the job because of the rumors of extensive drug problems and a severe lack of discipline within the program. Now then, your 2nd sentence is correct. And the way that presented to some of the coaches turned them off to the job also.

Lastly, we havent been on probation in basketball because it's damn near impossible to go on probation in basketball. Bruce Pearl has to be the biggest idiot out there. When boosters can distribute money to fund AAU programs, and those funds distributed to players- you have to be a moron to get caught buying players.

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Originally Posted by mic

I swear the RR haters almost seem like they want us to lose...

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almost???

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Originally Posted by campmore

After Scott Stricklin fired Rick Stansbury he had Marcus Grant, Phil Cunningham and George Brooks clean out their offices. What has interested me is how Scott decided to hire Rick Ray. Scott interviewed Kermit Davis at the final four. The first time Scott interviewed Rick Ray was at the final four on Friday. He was announced as our head coach on Sunday. Bill Self the head coach of Kansas had called Scott to interview his top assistant Joe Dooley. Dooley had been Selfs top assistant for years and very much wanted the MSU job. Scott would not interview him. Scott offered the job to 4 other people before Rick Ray. People would not take the job because of their concern in following Rick Stansbury and his winning an average of 21 games a year. Scott also said we would not involve AAU basketball and wanted to "clean up the program". Of course the program was never on probation under either Richard Williams or Rick Stansbury but we currently are on probation in football under Dan Mullen. Which brings me to Rick Ray. How did Scott decide to hire a coach at Clemson who was coming off a 16 and 15 record? He had no connections to Mississippi or the SEC. He had never been a head coach before or sucessfully recruited players from the South. I asked many successful high school and college coaches right after we hired him and nobody had heard of him. At this point Rick Ray is our coach but in the future if he is not our head coach do you feel confident with Scott Stricklin making the coaching hire?

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If you pull archives, I was the one on SPS who broke the news that we were in contact with Dooley. I was told he was our guy. I supported the decision to fire Stands, and I'm willing to give Ray time but I've seen regression so far this year.... It doesn't look good for Ray especially since he doesn't have the support of our big boosters.

Apparently the job was Bryce Drew's and he had told his family as much until SS gave him the, "Oh yeah, no AAU for us anymore!" Then he politely declined. I wonder if we go back after him and if he would even consider us, assuming it doesn't work out with RR in another year or two.

We needed another thread on this...

http://www.elitedawgs.com/showthread...lf-Coast-Coach

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Originally Posted by Bucky Dog

Apparently the job was Bryce Drew's and he had told his family as much until SS gave him the, "Oh yeah, no AAU for us anymore!" Then he politely declined. I wonder if we go back after him and if he would even consider us, assuming it doesn't work out with RR in another year or two.

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AAU is the feeder system for college basketball. There are no recruits without AAU. Surely Stricklin isn't that na?ve.

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Originally Posted by HoopsDawg

AAU is the feeder system for college basketball. There are no recruits without AAU. Surely Stricklin isn't that na?ve.

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Our Admin did a few interviews with former players about "what brought them to State"....we made a deliberate decision to move away from that formula. To me, this looks like an experiment to see if we can really do it "the right way"

Yep, and this will blow up to the point where the next head coach will literally have no where to go but up. Talking about Bob Boyd bad. You can't run a program and be successful in college basketball without playing the game. I mean heck this shit has been going on since the Jordan days in college basketball. When you are recruiting against the likes of Cal and his posse. This choice of a direction should get Stricklin fired. It was just bad all the way around.

If you want to play Division 1 basketball you've got to play the AAU game. If Stricklin wants to do this way let's move to Division II or NAIA and call it a day . The bottom 5 guys on scholarship on our roster (although probably nice guys) should be playing at Delta state or Belhaven . Recruiting talent is the only way to draw the our fanbase back and get butts back in the seats

Bryce Drews brother is Scott Drew, the head coach at Baylor . If anyone knows how to use and abuse the AAU circuit it's Scott Drew . that dude has pulled in some major talent at Baylor . It's amazing how they can sign some of the players they do

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Originally Posted by Coach34

Our Admin did a few interviews with former players about "what brought them to State"....we made a deliberate decision to move away from that formula. To me, this looks like an experiment to see if we can really do it "the right way"

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It's really sad to see Ray put in this shitty position. It's going to ruin his career and he appears to be a pretty good coach. You just can't win without players and it's almost impossible to get players without playing the AAU game. Sad for everybody involved and I hope it catches up with Strickland.