Rick Stansbury and Dan Mullen are quite similar

[SallyStansbury]

Not meant negatively, but quite the opposite.

Stop reading if you have the attention span of a 4 yr old**

Both are hard headed control freaks. Both have won more games at MSU than we are used to winning. Both should be thanked and respected, but not revered.

Both have a control freak habit of choking down the offense as games wind down. This works well when the teams we play are near orbelow our talent level. Recent examples for basketball include the game today and a couple of others earlier in the year. We go into the Stansbury stall, slow it down and hope for the best. This strategy works at times, but kills us against equally talented ormore talented teams like Baylor or Kentucky. For football, we do the same thing, choking down the offense against teamslike LaTech this year, or UAB last year, seemed to work outfor us with victories, but against betterteams likeLSU (close...1ft with Tyson Lee) AU (1 yrd with Relf)or Arkansas (mult overtimes) it just doesn't.

I would suggest to Rick and Dan please hire an offensive assistant coach who could help with our play calling and get the hell out of the way and allowhim to dohisjob.

Stansbury's biggest strength is his recruiting and knowledge of how to work the AAU recruiting system. Mullen's biggest strengths appear to be running a strong program with "relentless effort" with Balis, can win attitude, and hiring good D-coordinators.

Full disclosure* I am essentially happy winning against the crap teams going for 20-22 wins in basketball and "making the tournament" and the same for Mullen, consistent wins over teams like Wake Forest and Olemiss with Music City or Independence Bowl are rewards and fine enough. I almost feel greedy asking for wins against teams like LSU (football) or Kentucky (basketball) but it pisses me off to see us get so close only to be choked down on offense by the coaches that give us essentially good seasons, but fail to win bigger games with their offensive strategies. Curious if anyone else sees it this way and as an MSU fan who has seen worse years in both sports, should we just be thankful for what we have? Happy New Year.

 

[missouridawg]

Not even a little bit.</p>

 

[CadaverDawg]

I think my frustration comes more from what we <span style="font-style: italic;">could </span>do, than what we do. I am beyond happy with tournament appearances and Bowl Games, but I also see offense as being the primary thing that will ever keep us from making that next step. Defense wins Championships....when it has at least a little bit of offense to go with it. Our play calling in football this year was bad...real bad. Relf definitely owned a few teams and CAN be very effective when healthy, but I just feel like a good throwing QB like Russell would give us some many more offensive opportunities if we game planned around him. I'm no coach though, just my opinion of the situation. As long as we keep winning and going to post season I will not complain too much.

 

[SallyStansbury]

I think we can agree on that.

Why do you think Coach Stans refuses to allow Coach Cunningham or Coach Grant or the tall guy who coached Hood in high school or Kirby back when, to help out with our offense? Or why doesn't he hire someone to assist with things on the offensive end, because nothing has changed in the past 10 yrs and doesnt' look like it will.

Really, the effectiveness of our offense is dependent upon how many of our perimeter players can "create" their own shot of break down the defense enough to get the ball into whichever big has his hand up calling for the ball.

 

[MSUDawg25]

Stansbury usually has us at a very high talent level when compared to other good teams. We will usually play a tight game with the best teams in the nation (occasionally beating them), but we will lose 1 out of 8 or so against less talented teams.

Mullen's teams are nowhere nearly as talented as the top teams in the nation but always play tough against them. He has yet to beat a top team, but has yet to lose to a less talented team.

That said, comparing basketball to football is the epitome of apples to oranges.

 

[missouridawg]

recruited and/or put up with Renardo Sidney for 3 years.

Nor would he have put up with Kodi Augustus for 4 years either.

That's were my disagreement in the asssessment starts.

 

[Coach34]

Stansbury usually has us at a very high talent level when compared to other good teams. We will usually play a tight game with the best teams in the nation (occasionally beating them), but we will lose 1 out of 8 or so against less talented teams.

Mullen's teams are nowhere nearly as talented as the top teams in the nation but always play tough against them. He has yet to beat a top team, but has yet to lose to a less talented team.

That said, comparing basketball to football is the epitome of apples to oranges.

we are doing a great this season- no doubt...and he 100% gets credit for that....but we lost something like 25 of 30 vs the rpi Top25 not that long ago...."usually" is a bit of an embellishment

 

[Dawgbreeze]

I think we can agree on that.

Why do you think Coach Stans refuses to allow Coach Cunningham or Coach Grant or the tall guy who coached Hood in high school or Kirby back when, to help out with our offense? Or why doesn't he hire someone to assist with things on the offensive end, because nothing has changed in the past 10 yrs and doesnt' look like it will.

Really, the effectiveness of our offense is dependent upon how many of our perimeter players can "create" their own shot of break down the defense enough to get the ball into whichever big has his hand up calling for the ball.

Cunningham and Brooks have a lot to do with our offense and we have run a lot of good sets this year because we have some inside scorers. Just another misinformed opinion that thinks nobody is watching. Kirby had little to do with the offense at MSU and none at Georgetown. His main job is to recruit.

 

[MSUDawg25]

usually compete = keep the game close

occasionally win = when things go our way

ETA: Ohhhh... I see. You thought i was praising Bury. I will definitely spend the rest of my night convincing you that Mullen sucks and Stans is awesome.

 

[SallyStansbury]

Nor did I ever play basketball or coach basketball so lets get all of that out of the way. While we are on the subject, have you ever been and Athletic Director?

I do attend a good number of the home games though and have for a good many years. What I see out of our offense is a lot of standing around and passing around the perimeter. I hear Coach Stans yesterday going on the post game showw about how great the offensive sets were that Utah State ran, how they shot 45% from the field, hung in there with us, a more talented team. I think of Akron and their bounce passes and movement away from the ball, etc....When we have Dee, Bryant, Hood and now especially Smith who can penetrate and break down a defense it diminishes the fact that we really don't have a plan on offense.

Next time you are at practice, please have your buddies work with Deville Smith to limit his turnovers and carelessness (not being a coach, or having played basketball,I wouldn't know what could be done; however I expect there is something that could be done?....I am being serious), because he shredded Baylor's perimeter D and I would like to have seen more of him when our offense was floundering in the final 5 min of the game. I know he is a turnover risk, but he is a good option to make our offense better, especially when Bost is going 1-9 or whatever it was yesterday.

 

[DAWG61]

just suggest Deville over Bost in the final 5 minutes vs Baylor? You do realize he only played 7 minutes the entire game had like 0 points and a couple turnovers. He's young and not ready. Speed and quickness has blinded a lot on this board in regards to Deville Smith. He has improved his 3-point shooting and free-throw % lately though up to 20% and 50%. If he gets those numbers up to 35% and 70% with a 2/1 assist to turnover ratio I will agree with having him on the court more. Till then he is a liability in my eyes.