I need a good vent. If there's anything that I feel the need to lash out on, it's the coach of Mississippi State's basketball team. Yes I'm talking about "The Rick Stansbury." First off understand that while I do support Mississippi State Athletics, this man has left me scratching my head and questioning that support on too many occasions. To anyone who reads this, I hope you'll have a better view of why I criticize this man so much. Am I asking you to jump on the bandwagon? No. I'm just tired of a divided fanbase. Half us don't want Rick as the man that directs this program. The other half will defend him to the end. Here's my argument.
Some MSU fans see this man as an excellent recruiter. I'm with them on that. Rick has brought some good talent to Starkville. However, if MSU gets just as good recruits as the teams they play, then how come State doesn't have players get drafted. I can count 2 players that have ever been drafted on a Stansbury coached team. Lawrence Roberts(transferred from Baylor..so Rick didn't recruit him out of high school) and Jarvis Varnado(best shot blocker in college basketball history...someone had to draft him). Both of these players are currently playing overseas, to my knowledge. The best recruits Rick has ever had committed were Travis Outlaw, Monta Ellis and Jonathan Bender. The first 2 start in the NBA, the other has retired from the NBA. So you could say that the best recruits Rick has ever had committed to play at MSU never even stepped on campus. Also, I question the character of some of the recruits Rick does get to campus, which leads me to my next bullet point.
Character issues have been a problem on this team since Rick has been at MSU. If you drink water daily, then you know about the fight that happened between Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey earlier this year.(The latter transferred...which I'll get to in a minute) People easily remember that, but they also tend to forget that at least 4 players on State's current team have been suspended by Rick at some point in their careers.(Sidney, Dee Bost, Kodi Augustus and Ravern Johnson) Ironically, all of those players are starters. Which goes back to my last point, Rick must see talent when recruiting these guys, but does he not see the baggage they might be carrying? This leads me into my next point.
When the players that Rick recruits get in trouble, their suspension only seems to be 1 to 2 games maximum. Sidney fights on national television and gets a 2 game suspension. Ravern Johnson, Kodi Augustus and Dee Bost bad mouth the coach in the media and through social networking and they get one game suspensions. Have a backbone Rick. You run your team, not your players. On to the next issue.
The number of players that transfer due to different issues is staggering. I'm going to name the ones I can think of and give you their destination and what they did with their time there. Steven Cowherd(averaged about 5 points in 2 years at South Alabama..you could say he was a bust) Jerell Houston(averaged 10 pts a game over 2 years at Tenn. St....decent player, bad character) Bernard Rimmer(finished senior season leading North Georgia in scoring at 14.5 ppg) Vernon Goodridge(Averaged 7 points at Lasalle as a senior is a developmental prospect in the NBDL) Gary Ervin(Averaged above 10 points for Arkansas over 2 year, both of which they made the NCAA tournament) Jacquiese Holcomb(Averaged 7 points at West Texas A&M..bust) Walter Sharpe(Stud at UAB, drafted by Pistons in 2nd Round of NBA Draft...character issue) Ben Hansbrough*(see below) The Delk Twins(both had successful careers at Louisville and Troy respectfully) Twany Beckham(walking on at mighty Kentucky) Phil Turner(good junior year at Delta State before he was kicked off of their team) and lastly Elgin Bailey(tbd at Southeastern Louisiana...but he's probably in a bar fight in Nawlins as I type). So on Hansbrough....this guy said that the reason he transferred is due to MSU not having a practice facility. I think that's crap. I think he knew how bad of a coach Rick was and knew that he'd never reach his potential at State. Evidence you might ask for. He's the leading scorer on his 8th ranked Notre Dame team, that plays in the toughest conference in America. Oh and he's also a player of the year candidate in that conference..no biggie. He saw the writing on the wall.
I don't want to bore most of you with more issues I have with Rick Stansbury, but I'm going to. He runs the motion offense. That's it. No other offensive sets have been run in any game that I've ever watched since he's been in Starkville. He stresses defense and rebounding, although we are in the SEC statistics cellar this year in both categories. He's not a competitor. Under Rick, State has been known to be up by 20 points in a game only to let the lead slip away and either barely win or like last Saturday lose to a very poor Auburn team. He gives the starters a rest when State gets up big, then takes them out for long stretches. The other team then makes big scoring runs against the backups. He doesn't stress the importance of winning against really crappy teams in out of conference play. I'm not even gonna begin to name some of the Idaho Tech's of the world State should have crushed. This hurts the RPI. So for all you fans that say man "We played Kentucky so good in the SEC Championship last year, we should have made tournament, we got screwed." Remember that if you don't lose to Rider or Western Kentucky, you don't need to beat Kentucky to get in. He lets walk-ons on the team who are friends of the program or their daddy invested a lot of money in the program so they could be on the team. I'm sorry but the 2 5'6 kids that are walk ons this year do not make the starters any better in practice. I know plenty of people on campus that could have made the team as walk ons. Heck some of them were better than the players on scholarship. Lastly, the guy is just lazy. There's no excitement in the program, even when State has had good teams. The fans don't want to watch a poorly coached product. The university pays this man 1.2 million dollars a year to coach basketball. Dan Mullen made 1.3 million his first year. Look at the football program now.
Understand that I don't expect frequent Final Four trips or even Sweet Sixteen trips for that matter. I just expect a competitive product. I want to be proud of the team State puts on the floor, not explaining why players always fight and there are so many transfers. I know this blog will not make Rick lose his job and I don't necessarily want it to. But the ship needs to be righted and I'm not so sure Rick needs to be the captain.
Thanks for reading and Motion!,
McKinley
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