Jalen Steele career over

[smootness]

IMO if Coach Kermit Davis was remotely interested in the MSU job and Stricklin didn't give him a look, Strick should be fired on the spot. He would have been the perfect hire for MSU because A) he graduated from MSU and B) he is a known commodity that could have made this program successful for the next guy to take it over.

This makes no sense. What does being a known commodity have to do with anything? The AD's job is to hire the best candidate, and I think Stricklin may have done that. I definitely like Ray's potential over a guy like Kermit Davis.

Mark Fox was a known commodity.
Kelvin Sampson was a known commodity.
Matt Doherty was a known commodity.
Billy Gillispie was a known commodity.

Meanwhile, there have been plenty of guys who were hired as essential no-names, or at least guys with very little track record who had phenomenal success...guys like Coach K and Billy Donovan.

We shouldn't have hired Rick Ray, we should have hired an obviously great coach like Kermit Davis. Good grief.

[MarketingBully01]

Ray is an unknown commodity with no head coaching experience and no ties to the south. From an obvious stand point from these points alone, you have to give him several years to grow into being a coach and establishing high school contacts in Mississippi. Add to that the rebuilding situation he came into, add a few more years. All I am saying is hiring a head coach as a known commodity with ties to the south would have been a much better and easier transition and we might have made the NCAA tournament within a five year window.

[TheRef]

Ray is an unknown commodity with no head coaching experience and no ties to the south. From an obvious stand point from these points alone, you have to give him several years to grow into being a coach and establishing high school contacts in Mississippi. Add to that the rebuilding situation he came into, add a few more years. All I am saying is hiring a head coach as a known commodity with ties to the south would have been a much better and easier transition and we might have made the NCAA tournament within a five year window.

Technically he has ties in the South with him coming from Clemson. He's been able to pull in some fairly good recruits from not only the South but from across the nation (Findlay Prep (NV) for example)

[MadDawg]

So we fired a coach for not winning enough and hired a coach nobody expects to do anything for a long time. Makes perfect sense.

[Raytoraid83]

Technically he has ties in the South with him coming from Clemson. He's been able to pull in some fairly good recruits from not only the South but from across the nation (Findlay Prep (NV) for example)

LOL

[MarketingBully01]

Yep, about sums it up for me as well RealMadDog. Doesn't make much sense does it...

[engie]

Year 3 -- same standard as Stansbury. I don't care what the excuses are -- that is my expectation. Shouldn't be too much to ask with the class that was left for him with Sword, Ware, and Thomas. That's a good core.

[maroonmania]

So I really don't know why we shouldn't see significant improvement this year. We have a core of good players all returning with experience now in Sword, Ware, Thomas, Bloodman, Borchert, RJohnson and Lewis if he gets back healthy. Now add in new players like Ready, Applewhite, and JDavis plus Tyson Cunningham is back as well and we should be a very competitive team. The only key thing we are missing seems to be outside shooting. Borchert and maybe Thomas are about the only outside shooting threats we have now that Steele is gone.

[MarketingBully01]

I agree Maroonmania. That is why I am expecting 15-17 wins with that Stans built schedule. That wouldn't even make the NIT however it would show a lot of improvement and that we are headed in the right direction. My biggest point is that expecting 15-17 wins should be what our fans should be expecting in year 2 not a mulligan on top of a mulligan. Doesn't make sense.