....all of you "Who here expected to be in the NCAA's before the season started?" folks are just reaching. I didn't expect to be in the NCAA tournament before the season started, but then the season started, and the SEC was down and we had better pieces than expected. Fans' and media expectations before the seasons begin are irrelevant, when determining whether to give credit or hold somebody accountable. The bottom line is that we have had a bunch of great opportunities to get there this year, and we have blown it. Two double OT games that we should've won - not to mention those horrible losses to San Diego and Charlotte. As far as I'm concerned, Stansbury would've deserved alot of credit had we made the dance, but he deserves no credit now that we won't. The season is, at best, a wash. And look at what Kennedy is doing with his team: An alcoholic, racist, womanizer playing with the worst tradition and the worst arena and home atmosphere in the conference with the youngest team out of 344 teams in the nation, and with three very key players hurt, has basically equaled and will likely surpass our season. That should tell you that there were plenty of opportunities to be had this season. This is not the SEC of 5 years ago.
To reignite the Stansbury fire...
- Thread starter DowntownDawg
- Start date
....all of you "Who here expected to be in the NCAA's before the season started?" folks are just reaching. I didn't expect to be in the NCAA tournament before the season started, but then the season started, and the SEC was down and we had better pieces than expected. Fans' and media expectations before the seasons begin are irrelevant, when determining whether to give credit or hold somebody accountable. The bottom line is that we have had a bunch of great opportunities to get there this year, and we have blown it. Two double OT games that we should've won - not to mention those horrible losses to San Diego and Charlotte. As far as I'm concerned, Stansbury would've deserved alot of credit had we made the dance, but he deserves no credit now that we won't. The season is, at best, a wash. And look at what Kennedy is doing with his team: An alcoholic, racist, womanizer playing with the worst tradition and the worst arena and home atmosphere in the conference with the youngest team out of 344 teams in the nation, and with three very key players hurt, has basically equaled and will likely surpass our season. That should tell you that there were plenty of opportunities to be had this season. This is not the SEC of 5 years ago.
....all of you "Who here expected to be in the NCAA's before the season started?" folks are just reaching. I didn't expect to be in the NCAA tournament before the season started, but then the season started, and the SEC was down and we had better pieces than expected. Fans' and media expectations before the seasons begin are irrelevant, when determining whether to give credit or hold somebody accountable. The bottom line is that we have had a bunch of great opportunities to get there this year, and we have blown it. Two double OT games that we should've won - not to mention those horrible losses to San Diego and Charlotte. As far as I'm concerned, Stansbury would've deserved alot of credit had we made the dance, but he deserves no credit now that we won't. The season is, at best, a wash. And look at what Kennedy is doing with his team: An alcoholic, racist, womanizer playing with the worst tradition and the worst arena and home atmosphere in the conference with the youngest team out of 344 teams in the nation, and with three very key players hurt, has basically equaled and will likely surpass our season. That should tell you that there were plenty of opportunities to be had this season. This is not the SEC of 5 years ago.
...the man has done alot for MSU and for our basketball program. However, things are beginning to get stagnant. I am big into the "coaching life cycle" theory. After 10-11 years, there is a decent chance that the coach's life cycle may be up, for whatever reason, whether or not it's a lessening of a work ethic on the coach's part, sliding into a comfort zone and refusing to make needed changes, seeing recruiting diminish, etc. I think we are seeing some of all of that with Stansbury. If you can't make a Sweet 16 run next year, then I think it's fair to say that we've hit our celing with him, and we are not going to go any further. And if firing him means wandering in basketball hell for a year or two, then so be it. We've hung onto to two coaches that were as successful or more successful in their sport, and look where that got us.
Stansbury is the most successful coach in MSU history, didn't you know that. Yeah right, that's like a restaurant saying they have the best burger in Eupora. As long as we have fair weather basketball fans at MSU, Stans is a good coach as long he keeps up his current pace. Our fans can turn off the switch faster than anybody. "Oh well, we weren't supposed to be good anyway", "It's baseball season","We're MSU, what can we expect?" Forgot the matter that our team basically choked away opportunity after opportunity in an easy SEC and forget the fact that we are void of anybody who can bench press 150lbs ... and will be again next year. But somehow all that isn't Stans' fault. It's not his fault we're averaging about 2 transfers per year? I still think if it weren't for Roberts and Shane Power transferring into the program, he'd be gone by now.
IF we did, I think it will surprise a lot how little interest there will be for his head corching services. He'll snag on somewhere big and recruit like a mofo, which is where his strengths lie. ie. David Hobbs
Take a look at some of the guys he's recruited. Tyrus Boswell - head case Robert Jackson - giant crybaby Walter Sharpe - head case Augustus - not man enough to play D Jerrel Houston - who knows Gary Ervin - another baby Goodridge - who knows And add in all the other guys who transferred for various reasons. He might be a good recruiter. I don't know. But I know he is awful at players' character evaluation.
it seems the bar has been lowered over the last 5 years. Now 8 and 9 seeds are okay. We're all crossing our fingers hoping we just get in. I want to go back to those earlier years where getting in the tourney didn't cross my mind. Playing for top seeds (5, 6 or better) was my concern because those seeds give you the best statistical chance of making the Sweet 16.
I'm not saying I expect that every year. But every few years we should be a 6 seed or better, with the off years being 8 or 9 seeds.
I'm not saying I expect that every year. But every few years we should be a 6 seed or better, with the off years being 8 or 9 seeds.
...to me, it's that he has consistently displayed an inability to handle players with big egos, or to turn "me" guys into team guys. And while I realize that there are certain situations that just can't be helped, i.e. probably a Walter Sharpe, he's got too many like that.
Jonathan Bender, Mario Austin, Travis Outlaw, and Monta Ellis. He came extremely close to adding a fifth in Scotty Hopson this year. Yeah, I know that three of those guys went pro and never played, but I don't see how anyone could question his recruiting ability.
is NO CONTINUITY. Every year its the same thing with head cases and defections and prima donnas tranferring, quitting or leaving early for the draft (even though, i.e. Gordon, they don't get drafted). We essentially have to say we're young almost every year due to this which gives a built in excuse to keep expectations low when, in fact, our coach produced the problem by either repeatedly recruiting kids he can't get along with or not doing what he should to properly relate to them. Either way its the coaching staff's fault. Stansbury recruits pretty well but not well enough to replace underclassmen starters every year like we've been doing lately. Seems to me one of the reason we have so much trouble winning close games is that our guys make some of the worst mistakes at critical times at the end of games because they don't have the experience or poise to do the things needed to win. At this point I'm almost apathetic to keeping him or not. We could certainly do worse but I do feel his program probably peaked in 2004 and we are sort of on a gradual decline since then. Its not good when your newly selected go to guy in the crunch due to the fact he's the only seasoned player is a guy we stole from MTSU a few years ago. Another thing about Stans is that while he is a very proficient defensive coach, he is well below average on the offensive end and seems to have no feel for substitution patterns in games. Even if we finish 9-7 in the SEC this year, because the league is so weak you can relate that to finishing about 6-10 or 7-9 in the SEC most years.
who expected this team to be in the ncaa tourney before the season started must be a hell of a gambler
WE are part of that down SEC that yall keep mentioning. The SEC was seen as weak from the get go this year and we were still picked fifth in the West after losing 3 starters (two of which were All-SEC). I can agree that there needs to be some heat on Stansbury next season but any of you that see this season as a failure for not making the NCAAs have completely lost perspective. Using the logic that some are using then Pearl, Pelphrey, Gillespie, and Stallings all should be fired since they are all off the pace they set last season. Who gives a **** if Shan Foster, Chris Lofton, and Patrick Beverly graduated huh? Fire them too.
We will be in the NCAA tournament next year and probably the next year too if Stansbury can keep guys from leaving. And yes I know that is a big IF.</p>
We will be in the NCAA tournament next year and probably the next year too if Stansbury can keep guys from leaving. And yes I know that is a big IF.</p>
...but is most definitely not a success. Like I said, it's a wash. It's a worthless season with noting to be proud of.
And nobody is saying Rick should be fired this year, and thus, by extension, the Pearl, Pelphrey, Gillespie, and Stallings analogy fails. All I am saying is that preseason expectations are irrelevant. We had a bunch of opportunities and blew them. And the "we're young" excuse doesn't work in this division and/or league. See Kennedy, Andy.
And nobody is saying Rick should be fired this year, and thus, by extension, the Pearl, Pelphrey, Gillespie, and Stallings analogy fails. All I am saying is that preseason expectations are irrelevant. We had a bunch of opportunities and blew them. And the "we're young" excuse doesn't work in this division and/or league. See Kennedy, Andy.
The SEC being weak this year doesn't mean that every team in the SEC is having a down year besides us. Winning the SEC shouldn't have been a cake-walk or a shoe-in for us. We've had several opportunities this year that we have flopped on. We're having a down year.
Keep Varnado next year, and I think we should be a real contender for the SEC title and a high seed.
Keep Varnado next year, and I think we should be a real contender for the SEC title and a high seed.
Post about getting rid of Stansbury are just as dumb as the few idiots at Ole Miss wanting to fire Mike Bianco. They look at us as dumbasses for thinking of getting rid of Stans, just like we think they are dumbasses for thinking about getting rid of Bianco. Enough.
I agree completely that we SHOULD be in the NCAA tourney next season. I just don't understand this outrage at Stansbury over us not making it this season. Every MSU fan with half a brain cell, even Coach34, knew this was going to be a rebuilding season. If you want to be upset at anyone, be mad at Barry Stewart for missing every single potential game winner he has attempted this season. If not for Barry's late game "heroics" we would be 19-8 and NCAA bound.
....I just don't buy that garbage. I don't care what expectations were. We ended up having several opportunities and we blew them. Don't fall back on that crutch of "nobody expected us to make it." That doesn't matter.
I am so tired of hearing about how MSU almost got 3 great players to come. Now you are listing how 4 great players almost came.Seinfeld said:
The reality, what someone should actually be evaluated on, is that only 1 of those 5 came to MSU.
Just base his ability to recruit with who he actually gets into an MSU uniform. That is the only thing that actually matters, so why not evaluate his abilities based on that?
and be left out. Just because that's how it works. And we'll be sitting here thinking about those 2 overtime losses and the difference that would have made.
BUT i also think that overall, Stansbury has done a good job coaching this year with a very young team. Next year we should be fierce.
BUT i also think that overall, Stansbury has done a good job coaching this year with a very young team. Next year we should be fierce.
... I realize, as a MSU fan, it's your religious obligation to do a false equivalency comparison to Ole Miss, but it ultimately does nothing to strengthen your argument.
It just makes you sound like Ole Miss makes you paranoid.
It just makes you sound like Ole Miss makes you paranoid.
If we win out we will be 11-5 and maybe 2nd in the SEC. We are SQUARELY in the conversation then. Not that I think that's going to happen. If we go 3-1 we're at least in the conversation due to no 10-6 SEC team ever being left out previously (Yes, I know that is probably going to change this year.)
At 22-10 and 11-5 with victories over Florida, Tennessee, Ketucky, and South Carolina......hell yeah we would be in the discussion. Either that or only two SEC teams would deserve bids. I think we would probably still need a win in Tampa if that scenario were to play out but to say we are not even in the picture in that case is going overboard.
How's that? You ARE every bit as dumb as those wanting to get rid of Bianco... Not to mention Stans has actually won the SEC is his time here-- which just happens to be one of the main complaints the rebels are making against Bianco.
Both great coaches. Both very successfuls. Both have dumbasses who want them fired.
That is all.</p>
Both great coaches. Both very successfuls. Both have dumbasses who want them fired.
That is all.</p>