The change is stunning. Other teams, such as Indiana, have gone from winning to losing without being abandoned by the fans. I've been watching sports all my life and I can't remember seeing a change this dramatic affect any other team in any sport.
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The change is stunning. Other teams, such as Indiana, have gone from winning to losing without being abandoned by the fans. I've been watching sports all my life and I can't remember seeing a change this dramatic affect any other team in any sport.
That's the way MSU fans are. We always have been like this. If you put a shit product out on the court, field, baseball diamond, or whatever our fans won't fill the stands. The Croom years eroded football support but as soon as Mullen came we started selling it out. Don't worry, as soon as basketball starts winning again the fan support will be back.
That's mainly because of the location of MSU. MSU fans probably travel further per fan to see sporting events than any major college out there. When you put a crap product out who wants to spend the hours and dollars traveling to see it? Now if the majority of the fans live within an hour of campus you might still go anyway. That's the way it had been for SC in football. No, they never had a great product until recently but when you are located in the largest city in the state where the bulk of your fans already live you can still get a good crowd to show up.
It's spring break, guys. The student section has been much more consistent than the rest of the Hump this year.
I'm still confused why people keep comparing our program to Indiana ? from the Tom Crean / Rick Ray comparisons to wondering our fans don't hang around when we are losing like Indiana bother me. Look, Indiana is a national basketball powerhouse in a basketball crazy state and has won a few national titles.please quit with these comparisons
Bottom line; MSU fans = fair weather fans. It has been that way for the 50 years that I have been a DAWG
It looks better than it did at the start of the game. Maybe it's not as bad as it looks. I think the location point in this thread is true. It's good to see the team coming back in this game. We've played well in spurts a lot of times this season. With all those recruits there, we need to finish this with a win today.
Getting to you Coach?
I will not attend another basketball game at the HUMP as long as Rick Ray is the coach there.
Problem is that people don't understand what brings good change. People think pulling their money out and not going to games helps. It really doesn't. Actually it gives administration to keep the coach because attendance in basketball doesn't hamstring us as much from an attendance standpoint and sales point as football does. Lose 5,000 in attendance at football and someone notices. Lose 5,000 at a basketball game and it doesn't put nearly as big a dent. If you want to make change, go to the game, let us suck, then it's easier not to give anyone excuses for sucking.
Pull your money out all you want, but in the end all you are doing is giving MSU less money to make change and hurting your university overall. People that use money to make their own change in a sports program that is much bigger than them don't get the big picture and it pisses me off.
You know what really hurts a program? Having 8 God damn scholarship players on a BCS conference team. A team might I add that's been in the top half of the SEC most of the last decade. There's absolutely no excuse for it with the punt of Transfers and quality JUCO guys out there. Period. End of ****ing story. He's just using this shit as a "woe is me" excuse for his inability to recruit and biting off more than he could chew being a head coach.
No what the problem is is that fans like you that think we should just grab a bunch of JUCOs and we will be magically better. You were probably in the club of people that actually thought we should walk into Sanderson and grab some guys because they would have made us better last year.
The problem we have is that our fan base is dumb and has ZERO ability to look objectively at situations. Is this what we wanted? No. Is it what some logical people expected? Absolutely. You had to know there would be recruiting difficulties because we blew the whole program up, winning difficulties because we had a thin roster, and attrition difficulties because of the culture that was bred during the last years of the Stansbury tenure.
Why should we expect more than what we have right now? What makes anyone think that we should be better? Is this situation like anything you've seen before? Some of you may think we have a great basketball history, but in all honestly we really don't. Couple of SEC Championships in years that we were clearly not the best team in the SEC, never out of the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament under Stansbury, some bad NIT losses very recently, guys being kicked off the team or failing drug tests, no NBA guys worth mentioning.
Geez people, wake up. Sure we did some good things, but Stansbury left us with nothing we could hang our hat on to use in our favor. It was all blown up. But somehow Rick Ray's tenure will ultimately off of whether or not he can get Malik Newman, or whether or not he can get JUCOs because that would help us so much more, or why he doesn't play a guy like D'Runnya Wilson who didn't play basketball for almost a year but we should just stick him in a week after playing football and let him work his magic and be the savior of the team. God our fan base is so stupid.
Its not just MSU. The state of Mississippi as a whole abandons teams when they aren't winning. Mind boggling.
Let's be honest. The reason why there is no support is because Ray is a black coach who is losing. If he was white I bet most the fan base would give him atleast 3 years. I don't understand the whole comparing ray to croom either.
I used to fight this battle all the time too, just like you are doing. But save your energy. Use it to go out and recruit more people to be MSU fans, thus more people to choose from, more money, etc. MSU's fanbase is just small, it's no better or worse than anybody else's. They all have their idiots. People are just people, even at Ole Miss.
But remember, to ever get fans in the first place, the Alabama's (football) and Indiana's (basketball) and LSU's (baseball) had to DO something on the field to get them there. It certainly helps to have fans before winning, but that isn't reality. Alabama/Auburn/etc. built their fanbases over years of consistent winning, something MSU hasn't had except in baseball. And look.....we have one of the best fanbases in the nation in that sport.
(my best Finebaum sigh right here)
I can't believe there are actually self-hating whiteys like you still out there that would believe what you just posted. Or you may be one of those extremely racist black folks. Either way you're damned idiot. If anything, the color of Ray's skin actually HELPS him more than hurts him in 2014.
@Fader21 Good grief.... Surely you don't believe this...
This is such a dumb statement, it is hard to respond to. But, I will try.
1) A lot of fans didn't like the handling of the change. Like it or not, Stans had a lot of supporters. He is an extremely likable guy that was very close to a lot of fans.
2) I know a lot of Jackson-area fans that now go to Jackson State games (instead of MSU games), since they like Coach Brent. He is a very likable guy that is approachable by basketball fans. Oh, and he is black.
3) I know a lot of MSU basketball fans that now just go to high school games. I have been to more hs games than MSU games (and I have 4 lower level tickets). Takes less time and is more enjoyable.
4) MS is a hunting state. I have a lot of friends that are going hunting on Saturdays (now) instead of MSU games. You better give them a good product to get them out of the woods - no matter the color of the coach. Same goes for golfers.
5) Some are just tired of watching our team lose - again, no matter the color of the coach.
6) Some had gotten frustrated with our basketball program under Stans, so they are sour on basketball - and Stans is white.
I would keep on going, but you get the point. Having a black coach has nothing to do with it. If we were winning, they would love him. That's the way of the coaching world.
It also sends a message to the athletic department...the fans demand more from the bball program then hustle and effort. It also informs the coaching staff that the end is near if things don't change real quick. Wonder what Stricklin is thinking right now?
Right now he's thinking of strategies to get more people to games in ways that have nothing to do with our team's ability or performance because everyone is coming back next year. I don't care if the product is bad. If I had the monetary means and I only lived an hour from campus I would be there every single home game and if I lived within two hours I would certainly at least be there for weekend home games.
People don't understand that this boycotting games and pulling money out is a self perpetuating circle that only action on our part will get us out of. We can't recruit, so we suck on the court. We suck on the court, so people don't go to games. When good recruits come to games, they see no fans, so they don't want to come to our school because the fans don't care and don't show up to support the team. So we can't recruit and the cycle starts back again. Then before you know it all we have is 3 or 4 years of bad to mediocre basketball to sell to another coach and recruits, no fans at games, and less money to work with if we do want to make change. How much sense does that make?
Is it NIT or bust for Ray next year? I have never heard of a coach in a BCS conference losing 14 in a row to close the season and keeping his job, but somehow Stricklin is going to sweep it under the rug. I see us winning 6 conference games next year simply because of a full roster. We will miss Borchert in all types of way and our outside shooting will be dismal again. This won't work and it's time for coach and Engie to admit Ray won't take us anywhere. There's a reason he's jumped around to so many jobs and went 16-15 in his last year at Clemson.
I used to be a big hoops fan. Back when the game was interesting aka not AAU athletes being athletic. Even if we were "good" I don't think I would like the product. The sport just doesn't do it for me anymore. It's boring to watch now, across the whole NCAA landscape.
A) We will not miss Borchert. Yes, he can shoot a little but he couldnt guard me. He is slow as shit and didnt battle in the paint. I've had people that have actually been to practice tell me that Daniels is the best big we have right now. Including Ware. Endo is gonna be ok as well and give us some minutes with his 6'11 ass down in there.
B) So when Ray bounces around as an asst it's a bad thing- but when Robert Kirby does it's because he's a great asst? Good to know
They ****ing suck. When has Indiana been as bad as we are even in their off years? Im sorry, but I'm not driving more than an hour to watch Ray's group of misfits lose to every single shitty SEC team that is put forth. I won't support losing. Last night's game pissed me off more than any other game this year. We had a terrible SEC team beat at home, on senior night, and Ray's group of misfits found a way to blow it.
If Ray can somehow find a way to get his guys to play even close to a level to be proud of, I would make my usual 2-3 games a year.