Basketball reality....

[DowntownDawg]

....I have been firmly in the camp of those that say that Stansbury has had good talent over the course of his tenure at MSU, but this year's team just does not have it. The talent that it does have is young and is not ready to contribute (due to the transfers). Look at our significant players:

Starters:
Dee Bost - May turn into a good player but is young, erratic and shouldn't be starting at this point in a quality program.
Barry Stewart - Not an SEC starter, maybe a 6th man type
Ravern Johnson - Apparently a good player, but again, not ready
Phil Turner - Not an SEC starter, no better than a 6th may type, maybe not even that
Jarvis Varnado - Legitimate SEC defensive talent, but not strong enough to consistently score and rebound. Needs help down in the post.

Significant players:
Riley Benock - Not an SEC player, bench or otherwise
Romero Osby - Legitimate Talent, but not ready yet to contribute at this level
Elgin Bailey - Appears to have the build to be a good player, but has shown very little to date. Should be contributing more than he is.
Brian Johnson - Injury prone, has underachieved, should be contributing more than he is.
Kodi Augustus - Apparently a headcase, but has the build to be a good player.
Twanny Beckham - Solid role player, too inexperienced to contribute.
Holcombe - Same as Beckham.

Simply put, if there is an Austin, Rhodes, Roberts, or Gordon on this team, they are too young to emerge at this point. There is definitely not an upper class talent like that outside of Varnado, who is a shot blocking specialist, and little else. Even if we still had the Delks and Hans, this would be a bubble team at best. The talent level has definitely decreased.

 

[Agentdog]

I think you nailed it. When Randy Stewart is your go to guy, you are hurting for scorers.

 

[wpnetdawg]

I'll have to disagree with one point. I believe Ravern is ready.

 

[OEMDawg]

You say that Osby (FR) and Johnson (So) aren't ready to contribute. Then, I guess the bigger question is when is The Recruiter ever going to recruit a freshmens that is ready to contribute? Arkansas has done it. UT has done it. Florida, Bama, LSU... Most recently, Richard Hendrix and Tyrus Thomas were dominating players in the SEC as freshmen. To a lesser extent, so were Randolph at LSU and Randolph Morris at Kentucky. Why can't **** Stains get a freshman worth a **** to come in that is ready to play? The young excuse is tired and old and it only seems to apply to a Stansbury coached team because he has no f'n clue how to substitute or manage a bench with talented players. There is no damn way in hell that Stewart and Phil Turner should be playing 35+ minutes a night, I don't care if half the team transfered out.

I disagree with you though, on Ravern Johnson. I think he could be our leading scorer and a very good player. But that's not going to happen as long as **** Stains allows Brick Stewart and Phil Turner to throw up 25 shots per game. So basically, players like Osby and Johnson are going to waste away their careers at MSU because their head coach has no clue what to do with them.

 

[DowntownDawg]

...But he hasn't taken over yet. Maybe he will step up in conference play.

 

[Coach34]

....I have been firmly in the camp of those that say that Stansbury has had good talent over the course of his tenure at MSU, but this year's team just does not have it. The talent that it does have is young and is not ready to contribute (due to the transfers). Look at our significant players:

Starters:
Dee Bost - May turn into a good player but is young, erratic and shouldn't be starting at this point in a quality program.
Barry Stewart - Not an SEC starter, maybe a 6th man type
Ravern Johnson - Apparently a good player, but again, not ready
Phil Turner - Not an SEC starter, no better than a 6th may type, maybe not even that
Jarvis Varnado - Legitimate SEC defensive talent, but not strong enough to consistently score and rebound. Needs help down in the post.

Significant players:
Riley Benock - Not an SEC player, bench or otherwise
Romero Osby - Legitimate Talent, but not ready yet to contribute at this level
Elgin Bailey - Appears to have the build to be a good player, but has shown very little to date. Should be contributing more than he is.
Brian Johnson - Injury prone, has underachieved, should be contributing more than he is.
Kodi Augustus - Apparently a headcase, but has the build to be a good player.
Twanny Beckham - Solid role player, too inexperienced to contribute.
Holcombe - Same as Beckham.

Simply put, if there is an Austin, Rhodes, Roberts, or Gordon on this team, they are too young to emerge at this point. There is definitely not an upper class talent like that outside of Varnado, who is a shot blocking specialist, and little else. Even if we still had the Delks and Hans, this would be a bubble team at best. The talent level has definitely decreased.

or the fact they arent being coached up? College basketball has Freshmen and Sophomores leading teams constantly all over the country. Why arent ours ever ready to step up and play? We have some highly recruited players on our team in case you havent noticed

 

[wpnetdawg]

I think he is completely capable of doing it if "Ricky" (sorry) would let him.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

And I've asked this for years. When do we start expecting our freshmens and sophomores to have immediate impacts like the other highly recruited freshmens and sophomores of other teams? When do we stop excusing Stans because "they're young" and "not ready?" Who the hell is in charge of getting them ready?