Doesn't basketball have early enrollees like football...

[DAWG61]

and shouldn't Rick Ray be bringing in some for January? Atleast as walk-ons? I know Stokes for Tennessee played his first game in January last year. We have 7 basketball players left.

 

[Coach34]

and shouldn't Rick Ray be bringing in some for January? Atleast as walk-ons? I know Stokes for Tennessee played his first game in January last year. We have 7 basketball players left.

I think Stokes had eligibility issues and didnt get eligible to play until Christmas- not sure on that though. You NEVER hear of early entries in basketball though

 

[DAWG61]

Stokes just graduated HS early. No eligibility issues. Something has to be done with the basketball depth issue and i don't see Ray addressing it at all.

 

[MSNoOpinionsDawg34]

Stokes just graduated HS early. No eligibility issues. Something has to be done with the basketball depth issue and i don't see Ray addressing it at all.

Arent high schools still in session? So even if we got an early HS enrollee he'd have to finish the semester first right?

 

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

What in the world do you want him to do about having a bunch of injuries after school already started and in the middle of the season? Maybe he should put you out there. Let you look like a complete buffoon on tv once or twice. Maybe that'll knock some sense into you.

 

[Coach34]

Stokes just graduated HS early. No eligibility issues. Something has to be done with the basketball depth issue and i don't see Ray addressing it at all.

wtf is he supposed to do? If none of our signees can enroll early- there is nothing he can do about it. School has started- he can't just go recruit 3-4 guys and bring them in.

All the guys that are injured are still on scholarship- he can't magically create more scholarships either

 

[skb124]

Pretty sure Stokes sat out his senior basketball season also. How many kids are going to do that? And no kids are going to quit on their high school team halfway through the season to go to college. Get real bro. The Stokes case was an anomaly. Name another time that happened.

 

[DAWG61]

I would gladly...

represent my school if I was asked to. I've already graduated though and don't live in Starkville. What I want Ray to do is add walk on depth. He's been on campus for 9 months and has added zero walk-ons. Now he is on the verge of having to cancel/forfeit the rest of the season if he suffers a couple more injuries. Will you expect him to add walk-ons then or will you be ok with MSU forfeiting the season? Imo he's being negligible right now by not adding depth and forcing 7 guys to play almost without break. He's now risking further injury to an already depleted team. Don't get mad at me because I'm addressing the giant elephant in the room. Would you prefer I ignore it like everyone else including the coach?

 

[skb124]

Who is he supposed to add? Seriously, I want to know who he is supposed to randomly add right now.

 

[DAWG61]

He's had 9 months and been paid $750,000 already to figure that out. He's 2 injuries away from accepting anyone with two legs and arms at this point. Should he wait till then? How about you scan over 99% of the 340+ basketball schools and ask yourself how they have been able to add walk-ons but the largest public University in Mississippi hasn't been able to.

 

[Bump and Giggle]

What good does adding another Baxter Price or Tyson Cunningham? You want an entire starting lineup of players that can't sink a basket?

 

[skb124]

You didn't answer my question. At this point right now, who is he supposed to add? You act like its easy to just add players mid semester/ mid-year. At the point where you add walk-ons he wasn't expecting to kick off 2 players and have 4 players injured.

 

[DAWG61]

How does any high school or jr. high create a team? Hold open 17ing tryouts until you can add 3-4 players if that's what it takes. Holy **** it's not complicated at all. I guaran17ingtee you I could add 10 players better than Baxter Price in one 17ing afternoon. Hell I'll even make you a deal. You pay me one month of Rick Ray's salary if i can add 4 walk-ons in a week that are all better than Price and if i can't you can reenact Jean Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport fighting the kumite on my face.

 

[skb124]

So you really think that the people on campus that play in the hump all the time are just willing to give up their lives to go be walk-ons on a basketball team? One where they aren't going to play? One where they have to go to class everyday, have to practice everyday, have to lift weights everyday, and can't be the normal college student that they went to college to be? Your idea is good until you get into the thick of it. You have to be extremely dedicated to play a college sport, and most normal students don't want to do that.

And by the way, he did have open tryouts. He held them at 6 A.M. to see who would be dedicated enough to show up then. Obviously that knocked out a lot of players because they didn't have the desire to actually work to play a college sport. He did not add a single player then because there was no one worth taking.

So yes you could find 10 players better than baxter Price, but you wont find any players good enough to play for our team who is also willing to put in the time and effort it takes.

 

[DerHntr]

So you really think that the people on campus that play in the hump all the time are just willing to give up their lives to go be walk-ons on a basketball team? One where they aren't going to play? One where they have to go to class everyday, have to practice everyday, have to lift weights everyday, and can't be the normal college student that they went to college to be? Your idea is good until you get into the thick of it. You have to be extremely dedicated to play a college sport, and most normal students don't want to do that.

And by the way, he did have open tryouts. He held them at 6 A.M. to see who would be dedicated enough to show up then. Obviously that knocked out a lot of players because they didn't have the desire to actually work to play a college sport. He did not add a single player then because there was no one worth taking.

So yes you could find 10 players better than baxter Price, but you wont find any players good enough to play for our team who is also willing to put in the time and effort it takes.

Plus we all know that the guys found at tryouts would then have to endure all of us on the interwebs saying they suck ***. I have to think that partially comes into play.

 

[DAWG61]

So because he held one tryout at 6am 3-4 months ago...

and didn't find anyone that means he never will the next time he has a tryout? What'd he do to spread the word before the tryout? Put an add in the school paper nobody reads anymore? 40 people probably knew about it. I guess if at first you don't succeed after not letting anyone know about it you should just quit trying. It's SEC basketball not the band. Saying who would want to dedicate themselves to that is like saying "who would get up at 6am to bang a playboy model everyday?"

 

[Coach34]

You have to be extremely dedicated to play a college sport, and most normal students don't want to do that.

And by the way, he did have open tryouts. He held them at 6 A.M. to see who would be dedicated enough to show up then. Obviously that knocked out a lot of players because they didn't have the desire to actually work to play a college sport. He did not add a single player then because there was no one worth taking.

So yes you could find 10 players better than baxter Price, but you wont find any players good enough to play for our team who is also willing to put in the time and effort it takes.

That's the thing he isnt understanding. These guys have to start going to 6am workouts. They have to stop drinking (well mostly stop) and can no longer smoke weed. They can't miss class because they went to a Fraternity party. They have to start going to mandatory study halls.

There are very few guys that want to make that kind of commitment just to be a walk-on.

 

[skb124]

Dude I don't even go to school there anymore and I knew about it. Are you seriously arguing now that not many people knew about it? It was released to the public that public tryouts were going to happen. But yea you are exactly right. Practicing your butt off everyday and getting no glory out of it and sitting on the bench is as awesome as banging a playboy model. Man you are an idiot. Did you really read what I posted earlier and not understand even a little bit?

 

[DAWG61]

Here's what I understand right now. Craig Sword just fouled out leaving us with 5 scholarship players and Baxter Price and Tyson Cunningham are in the game right now. You're right everything is fine here. We all should just trust in Ray. Nothing to see here.

 

[skb124]

Who said things were fine here? But for you to put this on Ray is almost comical. The fact that you think we shouldn't trust Ray at this point is just asinine.

And say we add 2 more walkons. We still would only have 5 scholarship guys with walkons playing.

 

[Arvydas Sabonis]

Here's what I understand right now. Craig Sword just fouled out leaving us with 5 scholarship players and Baxter Price and Tyson Cunningham are in the game right now. You're right everything is fine here. We all should just trust in Ray. Nothing to see here.

What an ignorant statement. Under your logic, Rick Ray is to blame for the current roster, and the team's inadequacies could be mitigated by doing a better marketing job relating to an open tryout, which people will flock to because running wind sprints, giving up 95% of your free time, and being publicly humiliated on national television (as well as on message boards), is the equivalent to having sex with a gorgeous woman?

You need to get back to the drawing board with this one.

As far as Ray is concerned, any analysis on his performance as a coach is moot. He was handed a less than unfortunate situation and has not had the opportunity to fully demonstrate his abilities as a (1) bench coach, (2) recruiter, or (3) program manager.

Only time will tell as to whether he was the right hire, but that determination does not rest on his current recruiting of walk-ons.

 

[DAWG61]

Sorry but all I'm seeing is what MSU is facing if 2-3 more players go down. Why let the house burn down before you call the firefighters? Just answer me one question please. What will Rick Ray do if 3 more players can no longer play this season? Your answer is why I won't shut the 17 up about it.

 

[skb124]

If a team were to lose 7 players to injury in one season leaving them with 4

players then I think they should just forfeit the rest of the season. I know this will not be a popular stance, but I would rather forfeit the games then fill a team of walkons that gets beat by 75 every game they play. It would look better to go ahead and cut your losses then to get publicly humiliated every game in my opinion.

Do you realize how rare it is what is going on with our program right now? This is something that just doesn't happen. And to put it on the coach is beyond absurd. I would assume that we would dress managers and play them if that were to happen.

 

[DAWG61]

The last thing I would want to see is MSU forfeiting a season because they can't dress enough players. That would be beyond embarrassing to me and we would never hear the end of it from every other SEC school till we are all long dead and gone. I wouldn't put anything on Ray if he would just add a couple 17ing walkons. I don't have any dislike for the man and I've been impressed with the fortitude of the players. Just add walkons. They don't even really have to play hopefully I just don't want to watch one more game where our 17ing bench consists of 3 guys in sweatpants and that's it.

 

[Arvydas Sabonis]

Sorry but all I'm seeing is what MSU is facing if 2-3 more players go down. Why let the house burn down before you call the firefighters? Just answer me one question please. What will Rick Ray do if 3 more players can no longer play this season? Your answer is why I won't shut the 17 up about it.

Ah yes, why let the house burn down? As opposed to...

But you're right, we better go grab some players quick. That way, in the improbable scenario that 3 more players go down, we'll be prepared to maintain our projected 14th place finish in the SEC, rather than "let the house burn down" and finish... 14th in the SEC.

 

[DAWG61]

My 14th placed team still practices, plays actual games and develops the players that are left for next season. Your 14th placed team just quits and can't even practice so no more developing till next season. Nice player development strategy you've got going for Ware, Sword and Thomas.

 

[Brad Stevens.sixpack]

My 14th placed team still practices, plays actual games and develops the players that are left for next season. Your 14th placed team just quits and can't even practice so no more developing till next season. Nice player development strategy you've got going for Ware, Sword and Thomas.

So what you are saying is we should get a few more walkons in case of a few more injuries, so we don't have to forfeit the season? And then, we can develop those mid-season walkons who weren't disciplined or desiring enough to show up for a 6 a.m. tryout a few months ago?

On top of all the reasons already listed, your average Sanderson-gym-rat has a poor GPA. Walk-ons usually lift team GPA.

Skb124 has a point. If we get to the point where we have 7 injuries, it's just the worst luck possible. Settle down, life will go on. We will be alright.

 

[DAWG61]

Yes on your first question. Nope not at all on your 2nd question. I'm not talking about developing the walkons. The scholarship players we would still have left are the ones needing the games, practices and development. They can't do any of that if MSU just cancels the season. Ware, Sword, Thomas and Johnson need all they can get. You would rob them of that because you don't want to get beat by 75 points? Wtf I can't believe it's even gotten to the point of discussion about MSU forfeiting a season.

 

[Arvydas Sabonis]

So what you are saying is we should get a few more walkons in case of a few more injuries, so we don't have to forfeit the season? And then, we can develop those mid-season walkons who weren't disciplined or desiring enough to show up for a 6 a.m. tryout a few months ago?

On top of all the reasons already listed, your average Sanderson-gym-rat has a poor GPA. Walk-ons usually lift team GPA.

Skb124 has a point. If we get to the point where we have 7 injuries, it's just the worst luck possible. Settle down, life will go on. We will be alright.

Stick to Butler, Brad. You obviously don't have any idea of the overall talent level in Starkville, MS. Sure, you may have to devote some time to explaining what a "pivot foot" is, but it'll be worth it. These guys were LIGHTING IT UP in 3A Mississippi Basketball when they were in 10th grade before they quit the team to concentrate on baseball.

 

[Brad Stevens.sixpack]

Yes on your first question. Nope not at all on your 2nd question. I'm not talking about developing the walkons. The scholarship players we would still have left are the ones needing the games, practices and development. They can't do any of that if MSU just cancels the season. Ware, Sword, Thomas and Johnson need all they can get. You would rob them of that because you don't want to get beat by 75 points? Wtf I can't believe it's even gotten to the point of discussion about MSU forfeiting a season.

You do realize if we lose 3 more players that one or more of the scholarship players you listed would most likely be the injured? Don't get me wrong, I don't want to forfeit the season. I want to see MSU succeed. Jalen is still out a few more weeks (I think), but hopefully he will be back to provide some depth. I think the point that I and others are attempting to make is this: all players right now are getting significant minutes and great experience for next year. That is one great positive. If some strange way we get MORE injuries, we do not want to play unconditioned college students who have no knowledge of our offensive/defensive strategies, game plans, etc. Let's just hope it doesn't get to that scenario.

 

[Brad Stevens.sixpack]

Stick to Butler, Brad. You obviously don't have any idea of the overall talent level in Starkville, MS. Sure, you may have to devote some time to explaining what a "pivot foot" is, but it'll be worth it. These guys were LIGHTING IT UP in 3A Mississippi Basketball when they were in 10th grade before they quit the team to concentrate on baseball.

Arvydas, my sincere apologies. Dawg61 is right - Rick Ray is being extremely irresponsible and ignorant for not adding the high quality, SEC-contributing student-athletes disguised as students that roam campus at Mississippi State University.**

 

[esplanade91]

3 of the 4 people either out for the season or at least 8 weeks would otherwise be STARTERS. If you watched the game tonight, the commentators said it best. Our freshmen are SEC basketball players FORCED to play while they should be on the bench learning how to play COLLEGE basketball.

I have a friend who was asked to walk-on, and he'd be playing over Cunningham... But it's not worth it to him because Ray basically told him he would have to dedicate his life to bball. He loves bball more than anyone I know personally, and he could have started for a handful of A10/Horizon type schools... But it's not what he wanted. Talk bad about Baxter, but no one, and I mean no one, loves basketball as much as that guy. There lies the difference in Baxter Price and the guys you keep claiming you would have added to the team.

Grin and bare it. The future is bright.

Close this god foresaken thread.

 

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

Your opinion on this issue is just wrong.

Even though I'm not sure its actually possible by definition for an "opinion" to be wrong since its not a fact or even a thing asserted as a fact, your argument for adding Kappa Sig pledges to the basketball team so that, well actually i have no idea what exactly you think 5'11" Robert Biggerstaff who scored 11 points per game as a power forward at Jackson Prep will add to our team of injured players and freshmen, is just plain wrong.