Basketball program destroyed - long 11 years

[tcdog70]

Wrong. People still dont get that we would have hit rock bottom the next year with him as coach. I wish we had so that we wouldnt have this doubt by a few people today. Our admin tried to fix it before it hit rock bottom but instead hired an anchor. Their bad hire to replace him doesnt mean he didnt need to be replaced

Coach--as time has past--and you being a smart guy--just admit you were wrong on Stans. If he had stayed we would have continued to be a top 5 team in the SEC. the proof is in the pudding--his record would show only 2 (maybe 3) teams had a winning record against Him.. the fact that He beat the living shit at Ole Miss was reason alone to have at least given Him another year. Since then we had not had a Coach come close to Him. We always had a top player and sure He could have done better as a bench Coach. But we would have been a 20 win team every year.

[Liverpooldawg]

Meanwhile Western Kentucky is 11-7 and 3-4 in Conference USA under the guy that destroyed the program

The people that ran him off WHEN they did are the ones that destroyed the program.

[R2Dawg]

Not defending it, but our basketball history has been terrible overall since I remember being old enough to watch State which was in the mid 90s. 2 great seasons under Williams. A great season in 2004 under Stans. A nice tournament SEC tourney run under Stans in 2009. That?s basically the highlights of MSU basketball in my lifetime that I can remember. No matter who takes this job it?s difficult. This year is still less frustrating than the Howland years because we underachieved every year with him. This isn?t really an underachievement we just don?t have the players to compete with Bama or UT. We are going to be looking at a Rick Ray year though if we don?t beat UF Saturday. It?s a must win to keep our team bought in. The schedule gets lighter in February and we need to take advantage of that.

Over last 45 years yeah, we haven't been a great program but from 90 to mid 2000s we were a really good program. An we can be again with the right leadership/coach, etc. I don't know if Jans if the one or not, we'll see. If we could combine Howland talent getting with Jans floor coaching and maybe a good O asst coach, we are in business.

We gotta give Jans a chance.

I'm not giving up yet overall (this year not happening) but when you've been good a decade or longer, it can happen again.

[Cooterpoot]

Coach--as time has past--and you being a smart guy--just admit you were wrong on Stans. If he had stayed we would have continued to be a top 5 team in the SEC. the proof is in the pudding--his record would show only 2 (maybe 3) teams had a winning record against Him.. the fact that He beat the living shit at Ole Miss was reason alone to have at least given Him another year. Since then we had not had a Coach come close to Him. We always had a top player and sure He could have done better as a bench Coach. But we would have been a 20 win team every year.

Lolololol no. Stans was a train wreck and as soon as divisions were eliminated he had nothing to play for. The rest of the SEC decided to invest in basketball and we were done then. We've had a few years of good basketball but our program has never been a top program. 96 was it.

[KB21]

Jans can coach. He?s got to recruit players that have shoot/pass/dribble skill. We have athletes, but they are below average when it comes to skill.

[R2Dawg]

Basketball in today's age is easy to get turned around if you have good coaching, the biggest question is can you bring in recruits. I have faith is Jans as a coach, especially on the defensive side of the ball but I just don't know how many highly ranked recruits he can get to Starkville. Our best players are all currently Howlands guys, one thing Howland was doing was bringing in 4 star guys and even a few 5 star. I just don't see Jans getting those guys right now but that's how you win games in this league.

Look what happened at Bama when they hired Nate Oats. After Bama got rid of Gotfried, basketball was an afterthought over there with Saban dominating the discussion. Look at Pearl at Auburn. Auburn was more of a basketball wasteland than we've ever been and look what has happened with one hire.

[Cooterpoot]

We aren't skilled at all. We're not big either, especially at G. We need a portal/JC bonanza in a bad way.

[PGHBulldogBG]

Look what happened at Bama when they hired Nate Oats. After Bama got rid of Gotfried, basketball was an afterthought over there with Saban dominating the discussion. Look at Pearl at Auburn. Auburn was more of a basketball wasteland than we've ever been and look what has happened with one hire.

Pearl has made Auburn a completely different program. No coach was ever able to recruit there in the past the way Pearl does. He is also a good floor coach and gets the talent to equal wins. He was a great hire for them and their atmosphere is incredible. I’m hoping we will be saying this same thing about Jans and State in a few years.

[HancockCountyDog]

My position on this hasn't changed. If I had a time machine and my only option was to either allow Stansbury to be fired and endure the last 11 years or keep Stans and the future is unknown, I don't fire Stans.

I would have rolled the dice with him and I bet that our results over the last 11 years would be better than 1 NCAA trip in 11 years and 7 years of losing SEC records. Maybe not, but if I had the power to only make that binary choice - fire or not to fire, I don't fire. Anyone that says otherwise, hates Stans more than they love MSU.

[Coach34]

Lolololol no. Stans was a train wreck and as soon as divisions were eliminated he had nothing to play for. The rest of the SEC decided to invest in basketball and we were done then. We've had a few years of good basketball but our program has never been a top program. 96 was it.

Hood was leaving as was Sidney, Moultrie, and others. Drugs and rampant disrespect were rotting the program. Stands wasnt fired after going 21-10 on a whim.

[HoopsDawg]

My position on this hasn't changed. If I had a time machine and my only option was to either allow Stansbury to be fired and endure the last 11 years or keep Stans and the future is unknown, I don't fire Stans.

I would have rolled the dice with him and I bet that our results over the last 11 years would be better than 1 NCAA trip in 11 years and 7 years of losing SEC records. Maybe not, but if I had the power to only make that binary choice - fire or not to fire, I don't fire. Anyone that says otherwise, hates Stans more than they love MSU.

In hindsight, firing Stans was a pretty big mistake

[NCMSTFAN]

Look what happened at Bama when they hired Nate Oats. After Bama got rid of Gotfried, basketball was an afterthought over there with Saban dominating the discussion. Look at Pearl at Auburn. Auburn was more of a basketball wasteland than we've ever been and look what has happened with one hire.

Completely agree, Oats and Pearl are both good coaches but they are also good recruiters, that's the only way you will win in our league. Rounding up a bunch of mid major tough nosed players won't get the job done. I'm hoping Jans can get the recruiting figured out

[LC Dawg]

In hindsight, firing Stans was a pretty big mistake

Hiring Rick Ray to replace him was the mistake.
Actually, not having a ****ing clue who you were going to hire when Stansbury was fired was the biggest mistake.

[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.

[Coach34]

We used to go back and forth on Sixpack about Stands vs Mark Gottfried.

Gottfried moved on from Bama and got a job at NC State- made the Sweet 16 a couple of times.
Stands got WK- and has kept their program from making the NCAA's as they have under every previous coach since the 1970's

[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.

[EdwardDrayton]

We aren't skilled at all. We're not big either, especially at G. We need a portal/JC bonanza in a bad way.

Yep

[R2Dawg]

Completely agree, Oats and Pearl are both good coaches but they are also good recruiters, that's the only way you will win in our league. Rounding up a bunch of mid major tough nosed players won't get the job done. I'm hoping Jans can get the recruiting figured out

Yep, Pearl cheats to recruit but I guess that don't matter now. Basketball has changed in ways I don't like but we won't ever go back. I like our current work ethic and attitude, we just need some basketball skills to go with it. We are a couple good shooters away from being pretty dang good now.