Chat with Scott Stricklin

[C222]

Quick question C222, were you happy with the Stricklin coaching search and him eventually coming to the decision that Rick Ray was the right man for the job?

I, like most people, had never heard of Ray when he was hired. I do have a little knowledge of the coaching search and I know that Scott had a hard time trying to get anyone to take our job due to the state of our program at the time of the search. I don't know everyone he went after but I do know a few and I do know that none of them wanted the job.

Having said that, I am going to support Ray and give him a chance to rebuild the program. I don't want the guy to fail just so I can say "See I told you we shouldn't have fired Stans." That group does nothing but hurt our program.

The crap about Frank Martin is just ridiculous. He never had to rebuild anywhere, but because he has been a head coach, he gets more years than Ray? Makes no sense.

You can win at MSU and if Ray doesn't, someone else will.

[MarketingBully01]

I, like most people, had never heard of Ray when he was hired. I do have a little knowledge of the coaching search and I know that Scott had a hard time trying to get anyone to take our job due to the state of our program at the time of the search. I don't know everyone he went after but I do know a few and I do know that none of them wanted the job.

Having said that, I am going to support Ray and give him a chance to rebuild the program. I don't want the guy to fail just so I can say "See I told you we shouldn't have fired Stans." That group does nothing but hurt our program.

The crap about Frank Martin is just ridiculous. He never had to rebuild anywhere, but because he has been a head coach, he gets more years than Ray? Makes no sense.

You can win at MSU and if Ray doesn't, someone else will.

C222, this is a post I can get behind. I support MSU and don't want Ray to fail either. In fact, I think if Ray has a crappy season next year it will rip the fanbase apart because I agree with Coach that he will get 4 years regardless because Stricklin set this up for four years and probably gave him his word on it as well.

I think if everyone would just realize we are all MSU fans we can still disagree but keep it civil.

Thanks for your honest well thought out post to my question.

[tcdog70]

That wouldn't surprise me one bit. All of that publicity from hiring Pearl more then likely will pay off in transfers so by year 2 he will have built up some talent.

You can't discuss with the Ray lovers, If you make them look bad they will ban. Engie's use of jibber jabber is amusing. Him and 34 are masters of jibber jabber and spin. They are actually decent posters on baseball and football, i guess their hate for Stansbury make them feel like they are ray's guardian angels. And woe be unto anyone that points out what a cluster ****(notice i didn't use Dumpster fire) the Ray hiring has been. Let's put Stansbury behind us and just look at the Ray error for what it is. SS said our Basketball program was low priority, and we are going to run it on the cheap. How stupid is that-please fire his ass and hire Joe dean Jr.

Engie has already spouted off about how much money we are going to make-so how about let's spend some on round ball?

[tcdog70]

Brady was still left starters like Earl, Maurice Carter, and Rogers Washington.

Try aGAIN.

You are correct, and Brady also had HC experience and a staff full of great recruiters, who knew how to coach and recruit in the South---Damn , we could have Hired Brady or Pierre or Kermit--all responsible for LSU's trip to the final four. But no, we hire a Clemson asst whose teams were 21-29. Shit-makes perfect sense.

[TimberBeast]

You can't discuss with the Ray lovers, If you make them look bad they will ban. Engie's use of jibber jabber is amusing. Him and 34 are masters of jibber jabber and spin. They are actually decent posters on baseball and football, i guess their hate for Stansbury make them feel like they are ray's guardian angels. And woe be unto anyone that points out what a cluster ****(notice i didn't use Dumpster fire) the Ray hiring has been. Let's put Stansbury behind us and just look at the Ray error for what it is. SS said our Basketball program was low priority, and we are going to run it on the cheap. How stupid is that-please fire his ass and hire Joe dean Jr.

Engie has already spouted off about how much money we are going to make-so how about let's spend some on round ball?

Great post.

[smootness]

If anyone thinks there is such a thing in our fanbase right now as a 'Ray lover,' then they are leaning far too strongly to the other side.

If someone constitutes another's opinion that we still need to give Ray more time (more than 2 years, which almost every new hire everywhere in every sport gets) as being a 'Ray lover,' then what does that say about how far you are to the other side?

[MarketingBully01]

If anyone thinks there is such a thing in our fanbase right now as a 'Ray lover,' then they are leaning far too strongly to the other side.

If someone constitutes another's opinion that we still need to give Ray more time (more than 2 years, which almost every new hire everywhere in every sport gets) as being a 'Ray lover,' then what does that say about how far you are to the other side?

Smoot, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks. Based on Stricklin's words and interviews, Ray is getting four years regardless. That is why I hope Ray is successful next year. The alternative would be too painful to watch.

[Coach34]

Smoot, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks. Based on Stricklin's words and interviews, Ray is getting four years regardless.

I been trying to tell ya'll that. He is getting 4 years- even if he goes 15-16

[MarketingBully01]

I been trying to tell ya'll that. He is getting 4 years- even if he goes 15-16

I always believed you especially since the Ray experiment was all Stricklin's brain child.

[mic]

I'd rather have our 4 NCAA appearances and 3 NIT appearances in that time frame. This is just stupid. And I will address the other parts in the next post on why I think Ray had more talent to work with then Frank Martin.

I was just showing how stupid you all sound when you say that RR shouldn't be getting paid what he is.. He is already the lowest paid coach in the league.. And he will stay that way unless he wins In year 3 and 4..
And if you think RR had more talent than Frank Martin then you are the stupid one. Hell Frank had much more talent this year and only won 2 more games.. And yes we had more success over the past 10 years than USCe , but you all act like we were a top 20 sweet 16 team every year .. We weren't. We should have been with the talent, but we weren't..
Stans last 8 years he won 10+ SEC games once.. Our record was good because we played a cupcake OOC schedule...

[MarketingBully01]

I was just showing how stupid you all sound when you say that RR shouldn't be getting paid what he is.. He is already the lowest paid coach in the league.. And he will stay that way unless he wins In year 3 and 4..
And if you think RR had more talent than Frank Martin then you are the stupid one. Hell Frank had much more talent this year and only won 2 more games.. And yes we had more success over the past 10 years than USCe , but you all act like we were a top 20 sweet 16 team every year .. We weren't. We should have been with the talent, but we weren't..
Stans last 8 years he won 10+ SEC games once.. Our record was good because we played a cupcake OOC schedule...

Frank brought in his own talent this last year. We were only talking about the 2012-2013 year. Anything after that was on Ray and Martin.

[Coach34]

And if he goes 15-16....I'll be in front of the line calling for his head as I push CoastGezzer's wheel chair doing it. No excuses next year to not have at the minimum a winning record

[ghostofjackie]

Wish someone would ask him point blank about MSU-A&M branding, specifically jerseys.

The comment about hiring assistants for financial purposes was chicken shit. I'm ok with hiring assistants, that's not the issue here. But that's a ridiculous comment considering mid-major HC's make 1/4 what Ray does. USM's coach is 1000000x the coach Ray is and he makes a hair over $200,000. Ray made $1,000,000 out of the gate.

He said he can't hire a proven coach for "financial purposes". Well, I will NOT renew my season tickets next year because of "financial purposes". It's been fun....

[HoopsDawg]

And if he goes 15-16....I'll be in front of the line calling for his head as I push CoastGezzer's wheel chair doing it. No excuses next year to not have at the minimum a winning record

meh, he can schedule 12 or 13 wins like he did this year. He needs to go at least 7-11 in the SEC. That's not asking too much with 4 returning starters, 2.5 recruiting classes, and a full roster.

[HoopsDawg]

I was just showing how stupid you all sound when you say that RR shouldn't be getting paid what he is.. He is already the lowest paid coach in the league.. And he will stay that way unless he wins In year 3 and 4..
...

Ray wouldn't have taken the job for 750K a year? We couldn't use that extra 500K it would have saved us our first 2 years? Or the 1 million it would have saves us over the 4 year contract?

[mic]

Frank brought in his own talent this last year. We were only talking about the 2012-2013 year. Anything after that was on Ray and Martin.

Exactly. Back to my point as to which fan base should be more pissed.
USCe or MSU.. based on W/L , salaries, coaches resume, ect.. If Frank Martin would have been hired here at MSU and he had the record he has now after year 2 at USCe are you as pissed about the hire as you are with RR..?? Just goes to show that having to rebuild a program takes a while to do even if you are a coach with the resume Frank has..

I am just like everyone else, if RR doesn't win next year I will be the first wanting a change. And if he is still not winning in year 4 he is gone, but the program will be much more attractive to the next guy than it was when RR got the gig. We all just have to hope and pray that SS makes the right hire at that time.

[quickstrike2]

It seems to me that a lot of our fan base is either, PRO Rick Ray(mainly because they were so anti Stans) or ANTI Rick Ray(mainly because they were so pro Stans.) The rest (I fall in here) that are neutral on the matter are classified into one of those categories if they say negative or positive towards Ray.

[mic]

meh, he can schedule 12 or 13 wins like he did this year. He needs to go at least 7-11 in the SEC. That's not asking too much with 4 returning starters, 2.5 recruiting classes, and a full roster.

That's True he needs to. Stans did that basically every year, cupcake OOc schedule and go 9-7 8-8 in league play and was considered the greatest ever..

[Coach34]

meh, he can schedule 12 or 13 wins like he did this year. He needs to go at least 7-11 in the SEC. That's not asking too much with 4 returning starters, 2.5 recruiting classes, and a full roster.

I agree...do it the Stands way- easy OOC then win about 8 maybe 9 in conference

[HoopsDawg]

It seems to me that a lot of our fan base is either, PRO Rick Ray(mainly because they were so anti Stans) or ANTI Rick Ray(mainly because they were so pro Stans.) The rest (I fall in here) that are neutral on the matter are classified into one of those categories if they say negative or positive towards Ray.

I felt it was time for Stans to go. I was not happy with Stricklin for the hire or the hiring process. I was willing to give Ray a chance. So far, I have been disappointed. There have been some good things and some red flags too. But mainly, I am concerned with his recruiting. Other than Houston, we don't have a lot of help coming in.