10 game losing streak

[Johnson85]

Bingo.

We're losing a lot of fairly close games lately. We're improving, but it's improvement from "horrible" to just "bad".

It's very easy for a team that's undertalented and understaffed to lose their drive during a long season. Not saying it will happen next year with the players Ray is bringing in, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Ware, Sword, and FTF be much more effective next year if they have a full team complementing them. A shooter to help open things up for Sword and a big man to help on defense with Ware and this really is a much different team.

[Jacksondevildog]

I believe that everyone knows how dire the current situation is and how last year's situation was. The issue is that no one goes to the games anymore. They will stop buying tickets. Hell, I could have gotten a ticket package with a Kentucky, Ole Miss and Texas A&M ticket with a piece of pizza, coke and a hand job for 30 bucks. I feel that Ray is in a no-win situation. Many of our fans are pissed because we fired Stansbury. The other casual fans won't come because we suck. The dire hards are not coming now because they do not have any faith in Ray and many have been cut off from their "influence". I do understand that 18-10 or so will be marked improvement, but I don't see us averaging 7,500 per game because of that tectonic plate movement growth. I don't see how we will make money in hoops if this continues. People WILL stop buying tickets. They will invest their money into football and baseball because they see they are recruiting their tails off, winning and they are upgrading the facilities. I've even heard whispers that the administration is ok with us sucking in hoops because more focus and money can be put into the baseball upgrades. That is concerning if they are thinking that.

[engie]

Again -- the same argument about attendance was made from Stans last year to Ray's first about attendance and how we were bleeding money. I've posted the numbers before for basketball between FY2012 and FY2013 -- and the reality is, we aren't losing much in terms of overall $$.

[Jacksondevildog]

I remember the post that you made. I am just saying that people will stop buying tickets and supporting the program if they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. I am very vocal and critical of Ray, but I do want him to succeed. I like the guy, but I think he's a lazy recruiter. I do not think that we can expect to be an NCAA team and compete for an SEC title (if that's what we want as a program) and not play the AAU game. If we are content signing kids with offers from Rust College and Lipscomb, then we will be fighting on Lunardi's first 4 our for the NIT year after year. We don't have Bill Self coaching us right now.

[BeardoMSU]

Next year I want 20-22 wins and a minimum of .500 in the SEC

The SEC being such a hopelessly shitty conference is your only hope in either of these happening.
I like Ray, and I hope he can get it done, but I really don't get people's optimism about next year. Yes, we're adding more players, but how many of those guys can shoot the J? How many of those big men are good at defense? Adding quantity doesn't mean you're also adding quality. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see us improving that much next year. Basketball is the type of game where you need talent above coaching an hustle. Consider how many games Stans won with how shitty of a coach he was......one word: Talent.

[Coach34]

I think he is the exact opposite of a lazy recruiter. A lazy recruiter can take the easy way out and just buy a couple of local AAU recruits. Ray is having to search far and wide to find guys that don't have their hand out to play college basketball

[thedawg]

I think if Ndoye and Daniels arnt corpses they had 3-5 wins by themselves simply because Ware has some help.. If Gavin gets in foul trouble this year game over we lose period... If those two guys are even average it will help... Im optimistic they will be better than corpses because Ray will have over a year to develop both of them and he has proven to me he can develop guys to a certain degree.. Yes obviously we need shooters.. My hope here lies in that the Freshman shooter can come in and provide a spark off the bench.. I also hope we sign that kid out of GA as he looks to be able to shoot if nothing else.. I am also optimistic for an improvement in IJ and Jacoby as both have shown potential shooting the ball at times.. I dont think FTF will ever be a "shooter" but I think he can be better than he is now... I would like to see him develop into being able to consistently knock down a mid range jumper...

So the ball is in Rays court... Develop Develop Develop... the only new players we are counting on to reach our goals are two freshman shooters and hopefully we will be counting on them minimally

[Jacksondevildog]

Reports out of practice is that Ndoye is the second coming of Olajuwon. That should be an improvement for next year.

[engie]

I remember the post that you made. I am just saying that people will stop buying tickets and supporting the program if they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. I am very vocal and critical of Ray, but I do want him to succeed. I like the guy, but I think he's a lazy recruiter. I do not think that we can expect to be an NCAA team and compete for an SEC title (if that's what we want as a program) and not play the AAU game. If we are content signing kids with offers from Rust College and Lipscomb, then we will be fighting on Lunardi's first 4 our for the NIT year after year. We don't have Bill Self coaching us right now.

No one with good seats is going to stop buying tickets because they don't want to give up their seats when State is good again. If they were, they would have done it in year one when the first 2 years' results were all-but-set-in-stone. Most of the people that afford those seats have perspective and knew the uphill battle we were facing. They may not show up often -- but they are going to keep buying tickets.

[Johnson85]

I don't see us averaging 7,500 per game

This seems a little ridiculous. How many student tickets do we allow? I can't criticize because I don't go to basketball games, but if I lived within 30 minutes I think I could make half the home games. It seems like just Starkville, Columbus, and students could get decent crowds on Wednesdays and that adding in people that travel on Saturdays would get us to 7500 on average

[Jacksondevildog]

We've always struggled with pre-SEC crowds unless we had a big name team coming in. Mid week SEC crowds have always been around average unless we were playing Kentucky or Ole Miss.

[RougeDawg]

Not having all scholarships filled for a BCS conference team after 2 years is beyond excusable. Some of you treat this situation like its a brand new program that just started playing competitive D1 basketball and a coach is having to settle for bottom of the barrel players. That's inexcusable at a SEC program. Period. La Tech and other mid major piece of shit programs are pulling better players than us. That's inexcusable. All the ray defenders act like his training wheels approach to coaching is acceptable at a major program. **** that. This is pathetic. I used to love MSU basketball, but after the digression I've seen this year I cannot stand to watch a second of that shit.

And yes Ray is coaching like he ha training wheels on. Still don't understand how Strick let him past the initial interview. I think we should all focus on our incompetent AD. He made this hire. It's not RR's fault he is in over his head. It's Stricks fault for not making the right hire.

[thedawg]

He would have all of his scholarships filled if Steele and Wendell werent assholes, the NCAA werent assholes, and Daniels would have qualified on time... the only one of those that he has any control over was not better seeing Daniels not qualifying

[quickstrike2]

Cohen would have only gotten 3 if he had been equally terrible again in the 3rd. No one can blindly say "he gets 4 years" until they know what next year brings. Ray lays the same goose egg he did this year with a full roster(it's not going to happen, but I'm giving a theoretical), he's done in year 3.

Of course, I expect Ray to have an NIT team next year -- so I expect him to still be here for year 4 and finally building the momentum our fickle fans should have given him from the beginning.

I agree. If he lays an egg next year in year 3 then he should probably be gone. I give Ray the benefit of the doubt and support him. He just wasn't the guy i would have chosen, and hadn't done anything yet to really show me any different. I fully expect him to have a NIT caliber team next year and show some signs of life.

[BeardoMSU]

Olajuwan? Only one of the greatest centers of all time...

[Jacksondevildog]

I was being sarcastic. Our fans always hear positive reports of practice and blow things out of proportion.

Olajuwan? Only one of the greatest centers of all time...

[BeardoMSU]

I was being sarcastic. Our fans always hear positive reports of practice and blow things out of proportion.

Ok, good, lol. You forgot your sarcasterics. I was gonna respond again with "Bold strategy, Cotton", but you beat me.

[BeardoMSU]

Speaking of 7' Africans that can ball, I wish John Riek was on this team. I'd be really interested to see what Ray could do with him. Stans hated playing zone, but still tried to put a 7'2" dude with bad knees and slow feet out there guarding pick'n'rolls...wtf? I think Riek would have done well as a rim protector in Ray's 1-3-1, but who knows.

[engie]

I agree. If he lays an egg next year in year 3 then he should probably be gone. I give Ray the benefit of the doubt and support him. He just wasn't the guy i would have chosen, and hadn't done anything yet to really show me any different. I fully expect him to have a NIT caliber team next year and show some signs of life.

Agreed with this 100%.

In a perfect world, we get rid of Stans in 2011. We have Gardner, Smith, Hood incoming -- to go along with Bryant, Steele, Bost, Moultrie coming back. We offer a new coach a job walking into a Sweet 16ish roster situation and a fanbase that's hungry to take the next step, where he could have severed ties with Sidney on day 1 if he couldn't get him to buy in. Our job is triple as attractive if we handle it that way and then maybe we actually get a Greg Marshall type of successful midmajor coach.

My point is, however, that while Ray wasn't anyone's first choice -- and everyone agrees that the search process itself was botched -- it doesn't mean that he's the wrong guy or that the search arrived at the wrong conclusion. Next year will begin to really tell that story conclusively.

[JOHNHEVESYMADE]

Why would Marshall leave for a tougher job? He makes close to 2 million and is in a weak conference. He's solidifying himself and his program as a top 5 mid major program throughout the country. I wouldn't leave if I were him unless a Duke/North Carolina/UCLA type program becomes open.