Coach, you can get MSU and 20+ points tonight

[coastdoglover]

Ought to be easy since you guys think we are much better

[TheRef]

Wow. You seriously think that he meant that we could beat UK @ Rupp in year 2 of a long-term rebuild? Do I think we are better? Yes. Do I think we could beat UK? No. We need a perfect game and UK needs to have the worst game it has had in a long time in order for us to win against UK. No one who is sane thinks that we could beat UK tonight. All I'm going to be looking for is effort, limiting turnovers, and not putting up stupid shots. The post will be hard to control for us since UK has such dominant big men. This will definitely put our manhood on the line and we will see the mentality of the team this week with a game against UK on the road then come back home to face our arch-rivals without their best player. I think MSU loses and it won't even be close.

[smootness]

Well, they beat us by 30 last year, so beat that, and I guess we're right.

And UK is better this year than last as well.

[Coach34]

We gonna keep playing this game Grandpaw? I been spanking your ass at it for about 8 years now. I notice you arent making any snide comments about Cohen anymore are you?

Calm down and go eat some supper now that it's almost 4:30

[Political Hack]

there's no such hing as a long term rebuild in basketball. you do it in 2-3 years... four years TOPS. Football the bare minimum is 3 years.

[Coach34]

there's no such hing as a long term rebuild in basketball. you do it in 2-3 years... four years TOPS. Football the bare minimum is 3 years.

Some rebuilds take longer than others. We had to nuke our program- which cost us an extra year. Years 3 and 4 for Ray will certainly give a much clearer picture of what he can do than what we are showing currently.

[C222]

Is there anything worse than the Stansbury lovers? Man, ya'll are an annoying group.

[engie]

Because we beat Calipari-coached teams all the time under the previous regime**

[BeastMan]

there's no such hing as a long term rebuild in basketball. you do it in 2-3 years... four years TOPS. Football the bare minimum is 3 years.

I agree with this 100%. Speaking of that, why does MSU sometimes think it's acceptable to "tear down a program" before you rebuild? Nobody else does that yet we have done it in football and basketball in the last 10 years and it has caused years of pain in each respective sport. The coaches job should be to come in and win with what you have period. He should take more pride in getting problem guys of the past to buy in as opposed to just run all of them off and start from scratch and guarantee years of struggle? Auburn football was in the toilet 2 years ago and Malzahn didn't tear down anything. I do think that we needed a change in both instances but I'm not a fan of the self-imposed death penalties that Croom and Ray did. That's a bit strong but you get the point.

[TheRef]

Because we beat Calipari-coached teams all the time under the previous regime**

Haha. I notice the sarcastrics. Calipari is 7-0 against MSU.

[drunkernhelldawg]

Because we beat Calipari-coached teams all the time under the previous regime**

We played them better than just about anyone else

[drunkernhelldawg]

Ought to be easy since you guys think we are much better

This is a stupid and ridiculous post. Don't livie in the past.

[drunkernhelldawg]

I agree with this 100%. Speaking of that, why does MSU sometimes think it's acceptable to "tear down a program" before you rebuild? Nobody else does that yet we have done it in football and basketball in the last 10 years and it has caused years of pain in each respective sport. The coaches job should be to come in and win with what you have period. He should take more pride in getting problem guys of the past to buy in as opposed to just run all of them off and start from scratch and guarantee years of struggle? Auburn football was in the toilet 2 years ago and Malzahn didn't tear down anything. I do think that we needed a change in both instances but I'm not a fan of the self-imposed death penalties that Croom and Ray did. That's a bit strong but you get the point.

Great post. I hope nobody tries to answer it, however, as it's already been beaten into the ground a bunch of times.

[Coach34]

I do think that we needed a change in both instances but I'm not a fan of the self-imposed death penalties that Croom and Ray did. That's a bit strong but you get the point.

I'm gonna have to disagree here. Ray didnt impose anything. In at least 4 cases, the players ran themselves off because they couldnt stop smoking dope. They were removed per the school's official drug policy. Not Ricj Ray's policy. They refused to buy in and had been tainted by the previous regime. Now maybe Ray could have warned the guys before the drug tests like members of the previous coaching staff- but that kind of defeats the purpose of what he and his staff are trying to do

[engie]

We played them better than just about anyone else

Moral Victory U**

Convenient measuring stick too -- considering that the UK games were the rare ones that Stansbury teams actually "got up" for toward the end of his tenure. They would piss me off to no end -- because they would show how elite we should be game in and game out with the talent we had -- if we would have consistently played hard.

[engie]

I'm gonna have to disagree here. Ray didnt impose anything. In at least 4 cases, the players ran themselves off because they couldnt stop smoking dope. They were removed per the school's official drug policy. Not Ricj Ray's policy. They refused to buy in and had been tainted by the previous regime. Now maybe Ray could have warned the guys before the drug tests like members of the previous coaching staff- but that kind of defeats the purpose of what he and his staff are trying to do

I'm with you on this one. Cohen tore that program down as well -- but no one brings that one up.

I'm still in agreement with Hack and Steve though -- in that ultimately -- it doesn't take a "longterm" rebuild in basketball. Year 3 = Stansbury expectations for me. End of story. We need to be knocking on the door to the tourney next year. At the very least, I'll need to see some more clear progress and expectations of a tournament team to be in favor of giving him year 4.

[Schultzy]

There was nothing left to tear down.

[MetEdDawg]

+20 looking pretty damn strong right now. Foul trouble may allow them to get us pretty good in the 2nd half, but as has been stated before, if you aren't on board with Ray after seeing this basketball team up by 3 at the half at Rupp Arena on opening night of conference play, you have an agenda that doesn't correspond with the betterment of MSU.

This team has ZERO BUSINESS being in this game with a ranked Kentucky team on the road. But we scrap and play hard for Coach Ray and it's showing right now. Would be a very big win for this program if we were somehow able to pull this off.

[coastdoglover]

You never spanked my ass on anything. In fact you were so inaccurate on the basketball search that you must have forgotten about that. The only thing you did consistently was bash Stansbury. Yep, he is gone. I am over it but in year 3 of Ray next year let's see if your predictions are accurate. This Kentucky team cant shoot and I have been pleased with our effort, but we are still a long way from being a top echelon team and the SEC doesn't have many.

We gonna keep playing this game Grandpaw? I been spanking your ass at it for about 8 years now. I notice you arent making any snide comments about Cohen anymore are you?

Calm down and go eat some supper now that it's almost 4:30

[smootness]

we are still a long way from being a top echelon team and the SEC doesn't have many.

We were by the end of the Stans era, too.