Rick Ray. It's over. Goodbye.
- Thread starter rugbdawg
- Start date
I think so too. But what if he loses out? I think Scott would have no choice then and it's very possible that we do lose out.
Yep. I'd say most everyone here is an average fan. There are plenty of people who have opinions I don't agree with, but I don't think those people are stupid. Other than hatfield.
I go to some practices, follow the team, and go to all the games I can, because I love basketball and love Mississippi State. I attended practice when Richard Williams was here and when Rick Stansbury was here, although I didn't go but a few times under Stansbury. Rick Ray has very intense practices, as intense as Richard Williams'. He has drills to improve every aspect of team play. My impression is that he really knows basketball. He knows X's and O's, and he makes good in game adjustments. He is a good coach. What he has to work with are a team of athletes, but none of them are very skilled. Chicken may be the best pure athlete starting in the SEC. Gaviin Ware is a beast, has some skills, but not a great athlete. I wish I. J. Ready was 6-3 and 190, he would be great, but he is 5-10 and 160, so doesn't have the strength to penetrate with the best point guards. Fred Thomas is a head case. He is very fragile emotionally and can either be red hot or ice cold and you don't know which Fred will show up. Travis Daniels has some skills, but is timid most of the time. Houston is a 6-7 version of Chicken. N'Doye needs time to develop offensive skills. Bless his heart, Roquez Johnson battles down low at 6-6 190, but is a problem on defense unless playing man to man. He is another athlete who plays basketball. Based on the skills I see, Rick Ray has done well with what he has. His problem is recruiting, but he was hired by Scott Stricklin with the direction of not getting involved with the AAU circuit. He is being brought to task by legitimately upset fans about the team's performance, but Rick Ray's hands should not be tied behind his back. Put the onus on where it belongs, Scott Stricklin.
You forgot to blame the referees.
Its amazing to me how a guy who is getting paid 7 figures a year to coach a basketball team has NO responsibility for any poor results. It's always someone else's fault with you. Until, of course, they aren't here anymore and then the mudslinging starts.
Just so you know, that BS you're spewing about the AAU circuit has been discussed here and it has yet to pass the smell test. For starters, every recruit Rick Ray's staff has signed played AAU ball. Ray and his staff have attended AAU tournaments.
You are the classic throw something up against the wall and hope it sticks even if you know it's not true poster.
Finally, quit wasting your time going to basketball practice.
Ray and Co. recruit AAU players like everyone else, but I don't think they deal in any shady business associated with AAU basketball. I think that much is true.
We weren't as bad as people say we were, but Stans played the game well. I talked to a former MHSAA baller who said what we offered was significantly lower than most any other offer, but it came with Stansbury befriending your father, mother, your uncle, and your coach. No one apparently invested as much emotionally as Stans, and that's pretty well documented.
I think everyone can appreciate Ray's roll-up-your-sleeves attitude towards everything. He's a professional in every sense of the word. But I'd take someone with less X & O knowledge for someone with better salesmanship.
We weren't as bad as people say we were, but Stans played the game well. I talked to a former MHSAA baller who said what we offered was significantly lower than most any other offer, but it came with Stansbury befriending your father, mother, your uncle, and your coach. No one apparently invested as much emotionally as Stans, and that's pretty well documented.
I think everyone can appreciate Ray's roll-up-your-sleeves attitude towards everything. He's a professional in every sense of the word. But I'd take someone with less X & O knowledge for someone with better salesmanship.
I do not believe that what people are talking about is recruiting players that play AAU ball, but instead, fostering relationships with AAU coaches and all that entails. It was never 100% accurate, but you used to have a pretty good idea what school or schools a kid would go to based upon what AAU team he played for.
Your hustling and tenacious defense notwithstanding...
I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous to think that any SEC program is going to give up Men's Basketball as a program, no matter how in the crapper they are.
You could go ahead we get somebody else. Two questions though:
1. Who is out there, available, and willing to come here?
2. How long do you reasonably expect a turnaround to take? I'm talking low goals. I'm talking about NIT. So yeah, how long before an NIT appearance if you replaced Ray at the end of this season?
3. What's your plan if said coach doesn't reach said goal in that timeframe? Another upheaval? Let's say that's 3 years from now. We go from a school with 2 coaches in 25 years to one with 4 coaches over the course of 8?
I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous to think that any SEC program is going to give up Men's Basketball as a program, no matter how in the crapper they are.
You could go ahead we get somebody else. Two questions though:
1. Who is out there, available, and willing to come here?
2. How long do you reasonably expect a turnaround to take? I'm talking low goals. I'm talking about NIT. So yeah, how long before an NIT appearance if you replaced Ray at the end of this season?
3. What's your plan if said coach doesn't reach said goal in that timeframe? Another upheaval? Let's say that's 3 years from now. We go from a school with 2 coaches in 25 years to one with 4 coaches over the course of 8?
I think RR knows the seat is warming up or he wouldn't make comments like this is really his first rebuilding year. Since he brought it up......the first year includes a loss to Arkansas State, McNeese State, that Upstate team, scored 9 at U-Pig and so on. If Ole Miss beats us at home it will finish the team and the few fans left. Another year and another **** sandwich.
What the hell were you listening to? Ray "don't worry about the offense guys the offense will take care of itself". Please fire Ray THIS YEAR!
Let's see whose available that is a better coach than Ray?
There is my garbage man, the Mexican guy that cuts our neighbors yard, the semiretarded guy that walks up the street muttering to himself, the girl that bags groceries at Kroger, etc. Take your pick and any of them would work cheaper than a million a year and lose games to SC Upstate and McNeese State.
Ray has done our players a damn disservice with how little any of them have improved in three years. That is my gripe almost even bigger than the losses.
I agree with this. When it comes to basketball coaches entering a tough situation, I tend to view them in a very similar light as the actual players. You're going to get some every now and then that come in and blow the roof off the building during their first year, but more often, you're going to get ones that take a little time to show progress. The thing is, though, even when you're watching ones that are going to take some time to develop, the good ones have a tendency to show flashes of brilliance.
For a young player, that means an occasional 20 pt game, making a great pass, or something along those lines. For a coach, I'm looking for player development, obvious improvement in team basketball IQ, and occasional 2-3 week stretches of really solid overall play. In Ray's case, I just can't say that we've seen much of that at all in nearly 3 full years, and that is concerning.
Ray said this after the Arkansas State game. He's been up front about it.
"We've got to start giving a return on the investment," Ray said. "The administration, everybody's invested in this program. We have to start giving a return on that investment."
"We've got to start giving a return on the investment," Ray said. "The administration, everybody's invested in this program. We have to start giving a return on that investment."
That's the one area where I feel that comparisons to Croom are night and day. Sly had a tendency to blame everyone in the world but himself throughout his entire tenure at MSU. Aside from just a couple comments from Ray about needing to have patience, however, I have never heard him once blame the prior staff, the fans, or really anyone else.
Ok... so you're over the edge now and no longer interested in reason... still, I'll bite.
The civil servants, landscapers, checkout girls, and socially awkward people in your life could absolutely coach a team to losses against McNeese State and Upstate Carolina, and if they could do it, I'm reasonably sure you could too. I'm also reasonably sure that they couldn't have beaten Florida St. They couldn't have beaten Tennessee. They couldn't have beaten LSU.
I'm not saying those are signature wins. I am saying that instead of being an idiot, try answering the question.
You can't just blow something up without a plan to put something in its place.
The civil servants, landscapers, checkout girls, and socially awkward people in your life could absolutely coach a team to losses against McNeese State and Upstate Carolina, and if they could do it, I'm reasonably sure you could too. I'm also reasonably sure that they couldn't have beaten Florida St. They couldn't have beaten Tennessee. They couldn't have beaten LSU.
I'm not saying those are signature wins. I am saying that instead of being an idiot, try answering the question.
You can't just blow something up without a plan to put something in its place.
Isn't that exactly what Stricklin did that led to the dumpster fire we have now?
Also if we have the ability to beat Florida State, Tennessee, and LSU then why in the 17 did we lose to SC Upstate, McNeese, and Arky State? Could it be coaching? Win those 3 games like we should have and I would be supporting Ray now.
I do not see how anyone can look at our team and say they are well coached right now.
I love how people think that if you have an intense practice that makes you a good coach. I guess Coach O should have won more games as OM's head coach. We have no offensive game plan at all - we run no plays, motion around before turning the ball over - not good coaching. And, if a team "plays hard" they are good. Stans last team would beat this team by 30 with Renardo walking up the court. You better have talent like Dee Bost and Arnette Moultrie plus a shooter like Ravern. Talent is what wins games - and Ray cannot recruit for whatever reason.
