You are really spinning that rick ray resume. There's literally dozens of assistants with better resumes.
You are really spinning that rick ray resume. There's literally dozens of assistants with better resumes.
Yeah -- one of the main candidates everyone wanted already lost to Ray last year.
And let's go ahead and assume that any assistant in the country was gonna jump at the chance to take over our dumpster fire -- where they weren't going to be supported regardless...
How many times do I have to ask you to define your position before you actually do it?
Also I never advocated cutting bait right now. I have said that there are really no indications of things getting better. And I understand the segment of fans that are ready to cut bait for the reasons I listed and some of the reasons they've listed. It's just the way I view the situation. Once ray proves to be an expert in identifying undervalued talent and developing said talent into high caliber sec basketball players, I'll buy in, but until then, to get pissed at folks for either questioning him or already fed up with him is being is just being at the other end of the spectrum.
I would rather have a proven d2 HC than an assistant that bounced around mediocre programs and recruiting mediocre talent.
I just absolutely refuse we are apparently the biggest dumpster fire in the history of MBB that couldn't even pry away a proven HC by doubling or tripling his salary. Think about how many major conference programs have hired HCs in the last couple of years and find the others that pulled a hire this far out of their ass.
Even Baylor pulled a guy with HC experience in the middle of their MURDER ordeal and pending major ncaa violations that nearly death penalty'd them.
But yeah, we are the worst dumpster fire and that explains everything.
Gosh, didn't mean to stir up a major summer debate on Rick Ray. I actually think Ray is a good floor coach and seems to be a sharp dude. But right now I just don't see him recruiting at a near high enough level for us to get back to an NCAA tournament. I mean the best players we have in Ware, Sword and Thomas are Stansbury recruits. Part of the problem though is also our administration if they are tying Ray's hands and insisting we do things the right way. Basketball recruiting, especially in the South, is just a very unsavory business and if we aren't willing to play the games others are then I guess we will just have to all accept a mediocre or less basketball program. People always talked around the fact that Stans was doing shady things in recruiting to get some of the players he did but all I know is we never had any NCAA problems in the entire 14 years he ran our program. If he would have been willing to surround himself with better assistant coaches that knew Xs and Os and could gel a team on and off the court rather than a staff of just recruiters he would still be our head coach.
Ray was about the 7th guy we offered the job to. It is what it is. People kept turning us down, and it wasnt because Stands could win 20 games at State
That's what pisses me off about the hire and Stricklin running a search. Jay Jacobs told the media he wasn't going to let Pearl give him no for an answer. I wish our AD was more cut throat and not so passive on situations like this
Joe Dean Jr. would make an excellent AD for MSU
Bio http://www.scacsports.com/informatio.../bios/dean_joe
Please stop acting like MSU is East Mississippi Community College. There's 500 candidates across USA that would take a million dollar SEC men's head basketball coaching job. Ray was perfect in Stricklin's eyes for what he wanted accomplished and winning wasn't on the top 5 things in his mind he wanted done. Till he finishes the football stadium and new ballpark we are not getting a new basketball coach.
I think that the "state of our program" excuse on the hire has been WAY overplayed. I know our program had some issues behind the scenes but nothing a few rules being laid down and short term house cleaning couldn't quickly correct. And no, we might not could have gotten the high end mid-major coaches because those guys, if they've proven themselves, are looking to move into high end D1 jobs but that doesn't mean we couldn't have gotten a high quality candidate. I actually think the restrictions our AD and administration wanted to put on the new coach coming in on how the program would be run probably scared off a lot more candidates than the dreaded "state of the program". I'm sure a LOT of coaches didn't want to take the job if you are going to handcuff them in trying to be successful in getting the players needed. I probably would have passed too.
The Rick Ray hire was lauded by a whole lot of people in basketball. But to fans, the fact that no one had heard of him means he's not a good coach, which then means we made a terrible hire, which then means Stricklin must not have cared about winning, which then means Stricklin is a horrible AD and has to go.
In reality, if we have some success this year, then perhaps you were all entirely wrong about every single bit of that.
Or you just need to see the house completely burned to the ground before you'll say there's a fire.
There was already a fire burning when Ray was hired. His approach seems to be to let it burn all the way to the ground so you can build it up the way you want it. Some wanted him to put it out and try to repair what was left of the house.
We'll see if he was right, but it's definitely too early still to make a judgement on that.
Croom NSFW
http://pfitpfun.files.wordpress.com/...muffintop1.jpg
Ray
http://i1.cdnds.net/13/11/618x1168/snooki-swimsuit.jpg
Cohen
http://37.media.tumblr.com/0861f1024...9m5ao1_400.jpg
Stop comparing Ray to Cohen
61.....you need to put a NSFW warning on that. I about vomited all over my whole setup...
Ray has his year coming to show us something. No more excuses- he's had his 2 years to rebuild. Now it's time to get better
And so was Polk -- according to 'crootin rankings that were consistently TOTALLY full of shit back in those days, much like basketball rankings are today beyond the top 100 or so obviously elite players in the country...
Recruiting rankings are a total joke in basketball. Too much margin for error with those few players. There are a BUNCH of coaches in basketball that are dominating on the court without ever having a top 50 recruiting class.
And I also loved Cohen. I loved Stans for a long time, too. My problem is that I'm biased in favor of our head coach, sometimes for too long. I freely admit that. But I do not believe this is too long. I said when Ray was hired that we couldn't judge him for 2 years. Now we can. If we have the same product on the court this year, me and everyone else who is considered a 'Ray lover' will agree with making a change. Period.