Starting to feel like our FB and BB programs are ...

[maroonmania]

the antithesis of one another. Think about it, in BB we have quite a number of highly recruited kids who appear to have little respect for authority or their coaching staff, are apparently not working that hard off the court (S&C for sure) and most don't appear to the casual observer to being laying it all on the line on the court. Also its looks like there is very little chemistry or unity among teammates (see brawling in the stands) or that they are even interested in achieving anything as a team.

In FB its pretty much the opposite where we very few highly recruited guys on the team and they play for a coaching staff who demands and gets their respect. Almost up and down the line the players keep their nose clean and do what is expected of them as a representative of MSU. They work their tails off in the offseason conditioning program and give it their all on Saturday gamedays. Appears there is also great team chemistry and you hear very little pettiness getting out about who is getting playing time or who is disgruntled about this or that. It looks like they have each other's backs and are all pulling together to achieve a common goal, that being to win championships.

I know in FB you don't deal with some of the garbage you get in BB that the AAU creates and players doing nothing but trying to get to the NBA as early as possible but dang I wish just some of what our current Football program has could rub off on our Basketball program.

 

[Goat Holder II]

if Mullen stays. Give us time to get the same sample size. Rick won big when he had good heady players too. I like Mullen's job so far of building the program (here we go) the RIGHT way, ie players that really want to be here and work hard, but sooner or later, if we keep winning 8/9 games, fans will want to see improved recruiting. When he gets those guys, his ability to control them will decrease. We shall see.

Again, we are Mississippi State and that's reality. We aren't Alabama football or North Carolina basketball. We don't have that same kind of 'stroke'. The X factor is getting a guy in here who can win consistently and still keep the power long enough to really put us on the map. No coach has done it yet. Mullen may be that guy, but first he has to keep winning with lower level recruits and two, he has to stay a while.