I've never pretended to have great sources. I don't run here in search of validation or to appear "in the know" whenever I hear something interesting regarding our athletic program.
With that said, there are some things that need to be said in order to combat some of the stupid **** being spewed by a handful of idiots. (I'm looking at you, Goat. I would look at MadDog, but his cataracts would prevent his geriatric self from seeing me)
1) Kenny Payne was never going to be hired. Ever. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. Did he interview? Yes. However, he was only given an interview because some former players and boosters were pushing for him to get the job. That came directly from someone in the athletic department.
2) I don't know if he ever had a formal offer, but Scott Drew was the first person we contacted. Prohm was second. We made three offers to Prohm, and he turned down all three. Bryce Drew was next. He turned us down as well. Ray was the first assistant coach we offered the job to. Chris Collins and Payne are the only other assistants I know for a fact we interviewed. This also comes from someone in the athletic department.
3) Hood asked to be released to Louisville before we ever hired a coach. As others on here have said, there is a strong chance he was gone no matter who we hired. I don't blame Ray for his transfer. Hood may not end up there, but that is where he originally asked to be released to. Talk at the time was Pitino has been tampering with him. More than one member of the media said they could see us accuse someone of tampering.
4) The day after Ray was introduced, I talked to the same aforementioned employee of the athletic department. The conversation went as follows: Me: "Do you think Hood will stay?" Him: "I think they all leave." Me: " Why?" Him: "They have never had to work. They're lazy." I don't buy into the notion players are wanting to transfer simply because Rays is not going to tolerate their ****, but you are lying to yourself if think there was anything resembling accountability under Stans.
5) Ray may not play the AAU game like Stans, but it is asinine to believe he "isn't going to recruit AAU." If you believe that, your and idiot. He has offered two guys so far (according to Paul), and both play AAU basketball. As RobbieRandolph has been quick to point out, he mentioned in his introductory press conference he had already talked to player's AAU coaches. The same athletic department employee I talked to earlier even said Ray was more of a recruiter than a coach. Said he would need to hire some good bench coaches. Hell, Ray was at Purdue when they signed Robbie Hummell, E'twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson. In the same class. Moore and Johnson are in the NBA. If Hummell had not been injured fifty times, he would be a sure-fire first rounder.
6) There has been a lot of talk about Wendell transferring. It is justified. I was in the library last week (I'm a student.) when I heard someone behind me babbling on and on about how he wasn't going to have his senior year ruined due to playing with just Jalen and a bunch of freshmen. He never mentioned Hood. Read into that what you may. Anyway, Wendell is know for being a somewhat of a *****, so this wasn't exactly a surprise. When the girl he was sitting next to asked where he would transfer to, and at the time he was adamant he was leaving, he said he would go to Alabama if we would allow him (We wouldn't. he admitted this.) or to Delta State because he "knows the coach there" and would be "guaranteed to start." That is verbatim.
Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend Ray is a great hire and he is going to win here. It is impossible to tell yet. What is possible to tell is this: Stans had to go. It was time. One of the main reasons we had to settle for Ray is because other coaches knew the program was in such terrible shape. When talking to media after Ray's press conference, Stricklin said something along the lines of: "You learn a lot about how your program is perceived when you conduct a coaching search. Sometimes it isn't always good." Reading between the lines, it is pretty obvious having discipline problems and a roster in flux scared off more than one coach. And on top of that, I'm pretty sure word about Hood's possible transfer was already out, so potential coaches probably knew they were going to take over a dumpster fire that may be losing its best returning player.
Stricklin has spoken repeatedly since Ray was hired about the need to clean the program up. Payne may have been able to land a talented recruit or two (I don't think two years of recruiting success at the best program in the country mean he could pull such guys here.), but he wasn't what we needed. You don't hire one of World Wide Wes' buddies to take over the most dysfunctional basketball program in the country. Let's be honest, we're Mississippi State. Aggressive marketing tactics aside, we aren't know for being overly ballsy. We were never going to try and build our program around one-and-dones. We don't have sex appeal. I will admit this is odd, though, considering we had some sort of contact with Scott Drew, who is a sleazeball himself. I'm guessing Stricklin was smart enough to realize going to two Elite Eights outweighed carrying Cal's clipboard.
Wes Rucker, a Tennessee beat writer, made a comment when he saw our players tweeting about the intensity of Ray's workouts that it took Tennessee players weeks, if not months, to adjust to Cuonzo's workouts. he said the Purdue guys were known for being tough. Ray may be a ****** head coach, but there is little doubt there is a new sheriff in town. He isn't going to tolerate the **** Stans did, and he is going to bring in players who want to play defense and bust their ***. They may be ****** players, but they are going to play hard.
For better or for worse, Ray is our coach now. He is going to do his damnedest to put a team on the court that plays hard. Can he sign the players needed to win? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, the people freaking about his hiring are going overboard. Every national basketball writer said they liked the hire. He has said all of the right things so far. His former players seem to love him. He may turn out to be the worst head coach in history, but he staked his reputation and future on a job no one else had the balls to take. (He is a rich man, though.) For that, I respect him.
And if I sounded like Coach34 here, well, I apologize. In this particular instance, I'm friend with someone who knows what the hell is going on, and I'm around the athletic department a fair amount. If I was not quite confident in what I was told, I never would have posted it.
As two well-known members of the media said while discussing the hire: "He is going to have nothing to work with, but it isn't his fault. He is taking over a trainwreck."
With that said, there are some things that need to be said in order to combat some of the stupid **** being spewed by a handful of idiots. (I'm looking at you, Goat. I would look at MadDog, but his cataracts would prevent his geriatric self from seeing me)
1) Kenny Payne was never going to be hired. Ever. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. Did he interview? Yes. However, he was only given an interview because some former players and boosters were pushing for him to get the job. That came directly from someone in the athletic department.
2) I don't know if he ever had a formal offer, but Scott Drew was the first person we contacted. Prohm was second. We made three offers to Prohm, and he turned down all three. Bryce Drew was next. He turned us down as well. Ray was the first assistant coach we offered the job to. Chris Collins and Payne are the only other assistants I know for a fact we interviewed. This also comes from someone in the athletic department.
3) Hood asked to be released to Louisville before we ever hired a coach. As others on here have said, there is a strong chance he was gone no matter who we hired. I don't blame Ray for his transfer. Hood may not end up there, but that is where he originally asked to be released to. Talk at the time was Pitino has been tampering with him. More than one member of the media said they could see us accuse someone of tampering.
4) The day after Ray was introduced, I talked to the same aforementioned employee of the athletic department. The conversation went as follows: Me: "Do you think Hood will stay?" Him: "I think they all leave." Me: " Why?" Him: "They have never had to work. They're lazy." I don't buy into the notion players are wanting to transfer simply because Rays is not going to tolerate their ****, but you are lying to yourself if think there was anything resembling accountability under Stans.
5) Ray may not play the AAU game like Stans, but it is asinine to believe he "isn't going to recruit AAU." If you believe that, your and idiot. He has offered two guys so far (according to Paul), and both play AAU basketball. As RobbieRandolph has been quick to point out, he mentioned in his introductory press conference he had already talked to player's AAU coaches. The same athletic department employee I talked to earlier even said Ray was more of a recruiter than a coach. Said he would need to hire some good bench coaches. Hell, Ray was at Purdue when they signed Robbie Hummell, E'twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson. In the same class. Moore and Johnson are in the NBA. If Hummell had not been injured fifty times, he would be a sure-fire first rounder.
6) There has been a lot of talk about Wendell transferring. It is justified. I was in the library last week (I'm a student.) when I heard someone behind me babbling on and on about how he wasn't going to have his senior year ruined due to playing with just Jalen and a bunch of freshmen. He never mentioned Hood. Read into that what you may. Anyway, Wendell is know for being a somewhat of a *****, so this wasn't exactly a surprise. When the girl he was sitting next to asked where he would transfer to, and at the time he was adamant he was leaving, he said he would go to Alabama if we would allow him (We wouldn't. he admitted this.) or to Delta State because he "knows the coach there" and would be "guaranteed to start." That is verbatim.
Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend Ray is a great hire and he is going to win here. It is impossible to tell yet. What is possible to tell is this: Stans had to go. It was time. One of the main reasons we had to settle for Ray is because other coaches knew the program was in such terrible shape. When talking to media after Ray's press conference, Stricklin said something along the lines of: "You learn a lot about how your program is perceived when you conduct a coaching search. Sometimes it isn't always good." Reading between the lines, it is pretty obvious having discipline problems and a roster in flux scared off more than one coach. And on top of that, I'm pretty sure word about Hood's possible transfer was already out, so potential coaches probably knew they were going to take over a dumpster fire that may be losing its best returning player.
Stricklin has spoken repeatedly since Ray was hired about the need to clean the program up. Payne may have been able to land a talented recruit or two (I don't think two years of recruiting success at the best program in the country mean he could pull such guys here.), but he wasn't what we needed. You don't hire one of World Wide Wes' buddies to take over the most dysfunctional basketball program in the country. Let's be honest, we're Mississippi State. Aggressive marketing tactics aside, we aren't know for being overly ballsy. We were never going to try and build our program around one-and-dones. We don't have sex appeal. I will admit this is odd, though, considering we had some sort of contact with Scott Drew, who is a sleazeball himself. I'm guessing Stricklin was smart enough to realize going to two Elite Eights outweighed carrying Cal's clipboard.
Wes Rucker, a Tennessee beat writer, made a comment when he saw our players tweeting about the intensity of Ray's workouts that it took Tennessee players weeks, if not months, to adjust to Cuonzo's workouts. he said the Purdue guys were known for being tough. Ray may be a ****** head coach, but there is little doubt there is a new sheriff in town. He isn't going to tolerate the **** Stans did, and he is going to bring in players who want to play defense and bust their ***. They may be ****** players, but they are going to play hard.
For better or for worse, Ray is our coach now. He is going to do his damnedest to put a team on the court that plays hard. Can he sign the players needed to win? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, the people freaking about his hiring are going overboard. Every national basketball writer said they liked the hire. He has said all of the right things so far. His former players seem to love him. He may turn out to be the worst head coach in history, but he staked his reputation and future on a job no one else had the balls to take. (He is a rich man, though.) For that, I respect him.
And if I sounded like Coach34 here, well, I apologize. In this particular instance, I'm friend with someone who knows what the hell is going on, and I'm around the athletic department a fair amount. If I was not quite confident in what I was told, I never would have posted it.
As two well-known members of the media said while discussing the hire: "He is going to have nothing to work with, but it isn't his fault. He is taking over a trainwreck."
