Rick Ray. It's over. Goodbye.
- Thread starter rugbdawg
- Start date
I love how some of you guys are so sure he won't be fired. Ray has had 2 or 3 weeks of good basketball in 3 years. The women are putting more buts in the seat than the men. I'd say you are most likely right and he's back next year but to act like anyone is certain dumb.
I had lunch a few weeks ago with a former president of the bulldog club and he made light of the basketball attendance. So, that alone tells me the right people are taking note. One thing Mullen did right away was bring hope and optimism in the program. Our basketball program needs that badly right now. I trust the powers to be recognize this as well.
Even George Costanza knows you don't resign from a job paying million dollars a year. MSU Basketball is Rick Ray's "Penske File"
Barring a miracle, Grant is toast. I'm sure Bama regrets giving him another year.
The thing that pains me the most is I like Ray and the players as people and I hate knowing the players see we don't want them on the court anymore. It sucks for them that they will not have a good memory of MSU fans when it really isn't their fault. Now Ray on the other hand was at least paid handsomely for his services. I don't feel bad about it for him.
A local radio show host in Jackson, Jon Wiener made a funny and good point yesterday about Rick Ray. Everyone usually begins their statement with "I like Rick Ray and I want him to win but...."
I'm curious when one of the beat writers is going to nut up and ask Stricklin about it. Is he ready to give Ray the dreaded vote of confidence? I'm sure with Ray being Scott's first big hire that he wants him to succeed badly. What he surely is smart enough to avoid is going down the drain with him. But really....Bonner, Lowery, Walker....one of you guys needs to get the AD on the record about his hire.
^^^^ SS has said little about basketball as a whole since Ray's hiring parade.
I think we're pretty rational as a whole. We gave Croom 5 years and we suffered through Cohen's first 5 with only some static in the background. I don't think you'd get a more understanding crowd at many more P5 schools. I just don't like to be left in the dark. It appears we have no clue, and for all I know we could have concrete plans or none at all... I'd just like to hear his take.
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We've already lowered our budget significantly. Any lower and we'd be in the red... Which would mean we wouldn't have those positive funds from basketball to drop into baseball.
Baseball is and will always be on the back burner behind football and men's basketball. It's not a revenue sport.
Baseball is and will always be on the back burner behind football and men's basketball. It's not a revenue sport.
Wow…the lack of basketball knowledge here is strong.
Obviously, you all weren’t at the game (The Hump is a joke now…no support means no home court advantage which means the visiting team has the advantage) so did you even watch it on the television as I did 500+ miles away? If so, Rick Ray was mic’ed up and despite what you guys state, he knows the game. He was micromanaging the team constantly. It’s mostly on the players, the same ones that look up in the empty stands and wonder where their support is. The same ones that constantly have unforced turnovers, have hot/cold streaks, shoot air balls, etc.
I was a student during the rebuild years of Williams and even when MSU was THE worst team in the SEC (currently, MSU is 10[SUP]th[/SUP] out of 14, fyi); there was better crowd support then. It’s a joke and a true embarrassment. Why would ANY high profile player want to come to such a lame environment where fans continually bash a coach that was handed the worst turd sandwich of a program in modern MSU history? Cohen had to take over a solid foundation, as did Mullen with incoming recruits. Nevermind the sports are not even comparable.
As Rick Ray has said, he considers this his 1[SUP]st[/SUP] “real” season, due to the attrition and injuries the team has dealt with for two years. Probably not a good idea to actually verbalize the obvious to the dumb masses, as it will make the fair-weather types more justified in their lame “Fire Ray” position, but he is correct.
This loss was totally on the players and indirectly on the (lack of) fans. Home court advantage is bigger in basketball than any other sport. Nowhere is the crowd such an influence on the team(s), the refs, etc. And it has been a vast wasteland in the Hump. What else is there to do on a game night in Starkville?!? If the UK game is not a sellout, then season ticket holders should lose their seats. At least you have the opportunity to watch some future NBA guys play some ball.
Go State!
Obviously, you all weren’t at the game (The Hump is a joke now…no support means no home court advantage which means the visiting team has the advantage) so did you even watch it on the television as I did 500+ miles away? If so, Rick Ray was mic’ed up and despite what you guys state, he knows the game. He was micromanaging the team constantly. It’s mostly on the players, the same ones that look up in the empty stands and wonder where their support is. The same ones that constantly have unforced turnovers, have hot/cold streaks, shoot air balls, etc.
I was a student during the rebuild years of Williams and even when MSU was THE worst team in the SEC (currently, MSU is 10[SUP]th[/SUP] out of 14, fyi); there was better crowd support then. It’s a joke and a true embarrassment. Why would ANY high profile player want to come to such a lame environment where fans continually bash a coach that was handed the worst turd sandwich of a program in modern MSU history? Cohen had to take over a solid foundation, as did Mullen with incoming recruits. Nevermind the sports are not even comparable.
As Rick Ray has said, he considers this his 1[SUP]st[/SUP] “real” season, due to the attrition and injuries the team has dealt with for two years. Probably not a good idea to actually verbalize the obvious to the dumb masses, as it will make the fair-weather types more justified in their lame “Fire Ray” position, but he is correct.
This loss was totally on the players and indirectly on the (lack of) fans. Home court advantage is bigger in basketball than any other sport. Nowhere is the crowd such an influence on the team(s), the refs, etc. And it has been a vast wasteland in the Hump. What else is there to do on a game night in Starkville?!? If the UK game is not a sellout, then season ticket holders should lose their seats. At least you have the opportunity to watch some future NBA guys play some ball.
Go State!
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Ray is awful man. And the players suck because Ray can't recruit. He's gotta go.
There is no comparison to Cohen, except that he inherited a depleted team. And Croom had a bowl game mixed in there as well. Interestingly, it seemed as though Croom would get another year until the absolute debacle at Ole Miss, i.e. he didn't get that one last year to turn things around. Things seem to have worked out....
I was on the fence before this season and leaned toward the find somebody else crowd for the first half of the season.
After the last few weeks, though, I see flashes, just glimpses of hope. I'm down for one more season.
That's it, though. No more 'measured' improvements. No more 'moral' victories. There needs to be a winning record next year and probably an NIT appearance. Other than that, I think it's over.
I mean... it's not like they weren't in the position to win last night. How many times did guys miss an open layup? How many unforced turnovers were there?
It's not like guys didn't have open looks.
Yes, recruitment is on him and he's recruiting the guys that are bricking layups and missing free throws, but it's not like he's not putting his guys into the position to make plays.
After the last few weeks, though, I see flashes, just glimpses of hope. I'm down for one more season.
That's it, though. No more 'measured' improvements. No more 'moral' victories. There needs to be a winning record next year and probably an NIT appearance. Other than that, I think it's over.
I mean... it's not like they weren't in the position to win last night. How many times did guys miss an open layup? How many unforced turnovers were there?
It's not like guys didn't have open looks.
Yes, recruitment is on him and he's recruiting the guys that are bricking layups and missing free throws, but it's not like he's not putting his guys into the position to make plays.
Yep I agree with this, but most don't really understand rationale discussions. Ray can't make Ware's open 10 foot shots or FT's.
I agree, but it needs to be on the record, along with some followup questions that of course won't be answered (like expectations for year 4 including but not limited to wins and postseason play). It just needs to repeatedly be made clear that there is unrest, which is not the media's job of course, but it is their job to ask questions about the state of the program and they would have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not know where the basketball program sits right now. Athletic departments in general seem to think they are dealing with a bunch of fools when it comes to these things, and that no one could possibly make athletic decisions outside of the brain trusts employed at said athletic department. This is not limited to Mississippi State.
Anyone else think we are getting open looks because teams know damn well we won't hit the shot? I don't know about you guys but I used to rarely get up in the grill of anyone in the Tin gym that I knew could not hit the side of a barn.
Rays suck massive *** and another year of this ineptitude could yank the plug on the barely alive program we do have.
Not knowing
how to bring the ball up the court vs a press is on Ray. Players not moving around in the half-court is on Ray. Having ****** players is on Ray.
how to bring the ball up the court vs a press is on Ray. Players not moving around in the half-court is on Ray. Having ****** players is on Ray.
I agree with this stance too, but unfortunately I don't think Ray will ever dig himself out of the hole he's in with our fans. It sucks and it's not fair, but I don't think he's the best we can do so I'm ultimately not arguing with it. If I thought he was the second coming of Bobby Knight (minus chairs) I'd have a totally different opinion on whether our fans should give a **** or not.
Cut him loose and spend every $1 we saved when we reduced our budget to market the absolute dog **** out of the 2016 season. Give away 5 iPads every game. Give away a car at the end of the season to someone who came to every game. Make everything at the concession stands $1. Whatever it takes.
My only worry is that the kids currently at MSU have never known what it's like to have The Hump as a focal point of spring semester entertainment. Our marketing staff is going to have to do SOMETHING drastic to get people in the stands even if we do somehow overcome the bad threshold and just become mediocre like Stans' teams.
Cut him loose and spend every $1 we saved when we reduced our budget to market the absolute dog **** out of the 2016 season. Give away 5 iPads every game. Give away a car at the end of the season to someone who came to every game. Make everything at the concession stands $1. Whatever it takes.
My only worry is that the kids currently at MSU have never known what it's like to have The Hump as a focal point of spring semester entertainment. Our marketing staff is going to have to do SOMETHING drastic to get people in the stands even if we do somehow overcome the bad threshold and just become mediocre like Stans' teams.
I want MSU to win regardless who is the coach. If Ray can't get it done he needs to go. Its three years and he is still below 500. It is time.
If we get a coach that people are excited about or have hope in, fans will show up.
Think about how sad that statement is. If all Ray can muster is a NIT appearance after 4 years of basically the same starting lineup, he needs to be fired. Unless something drastic happens 2 years from now will be ray's worst team.
Well... in that case, allow me to introduce Ray to the real world
The one where no one gives a flying 17 what situation you inherited or what the prior guy did before you. He was hired and paid to be MSU's head basketball coach beginning in 2012, not this season. If Scott didn't feel that it was fair to hold Ray's feet to the fire(Make the NCAA tournament) in year 1, that's fine and understandable. I don't want to hear this crap about that he should have gotten a 2 year reprieve with practically zero expectations due to the "turd sandwich" that he inherited, however.
Plenty of folks get paid to take over bad situations every day, and I don't know of many where the boss is going to say... "Oh, you know what? You're coming into a really tough situation, so let's just take a couple years to get your feet wet". Especially not when you're getting paid $1.2M a year to do it. Also, let's not forget that the turd sandwich that Ray inherited also included 3 mid-high level prospects that I have no reason to believe that he would have landed otherwise. Again, as bad as this team is, imagine them without Sword, Ware, and Thomas.
Finally, you mention that the sports aren't even comparable when comparing basketball to football/baseball, and I completely agree. A basketball program is easier to turn around by a wide margin as you literally only have to land 1-2 solid players/year in order to eventually become competitive. Ray has simply not done that as of yet and believe me that we're about to be shown by both Auburn and A&M as to how easy it is to become good when you consistently recruit at a high level. Ray appears to be learning in that regard, but he needs to pick up the pace pronto
The one where no one gives a flying 17 what situation you inherited or what the prior guy did before you. He was hired and paid to be MSU's head basketball coach beginning in 2012, not this season. If Scott didn't feel that it was fair to hold Ray's feet to the fire(Make the NCAA tournament) in year 1, that's fine and understandable. I don't want to hear this crap about that he should have gotten a 2 year reprieve with practically zero expectations due to the "turd sandwich" that he inherited, however.
Plenty of folks get paid to take over bad situations every day, and I don't know of many where the boss is going to say... "Oh, you know what? You're coming into a really tough situation, so let's just take a couple years to get your feet wet". Especially not when you're getting paid $1.2M a year to do it. Also, let's not forget that the turd sandwich that Ray inherited also included 3 mid-high level prospects that I have no reason to believe that he would have landed otherwise. Again, as bad as this team is, imagine them without Sword, Ware, and Thomas.
Finally, you mention that the sports aren't even comparable when comparing basketball to football/baseball, and I completely agree. A basketball program is easier to turn around by a wide margin as you literally only have to land 1-2 solid players/year in order to eventually become competitive. Ray has simply not done that as of yet and believe me that we're about to be shown by both Auburn and A&M as to how easy it is to become good when you consistently recruit at a high level. Ray appears to be learning in that regard, but he needs to pick up the pace pronto
The best thing we can do is win in November and December. Don't care if we play 9 different little sisters of the poor.
With all due respect, coaches that "know the game" are a dime a dozen. I doubt their are many sitting on college benches across the land that dont. Some may be better recruiters. Some may get more out of what they have to work with. But they all pretty much "know the game".