Why did Bob Boyd suck so much at MSU?

[GratefulDawg.sixpack]

Boyd was the coach when I was first exposed to MSU basketball (win over UM in 1984) as a kid. He had a few good players that were Hatfield's recruits (Kalpatrick Wells, Terry Lewis and Jeff Malone) and a couple that were his own recruits (Ken Harvey and Chauncey Robinson). I can remember his teams being putrid and not able to score easily. Why did they suck so much? Could he not recruit? Was a fish out of water in the South? I'd assume that a low scoring brand of basketball was not attractive to recruits, and at the time, the few great recruits from Mississippi were leaving the state.

He wasn't a bad coach at Southern Cal. He had a few dynamite teams that had the bad luck of sharing a conference with the greatest dynasty ever, UCLA. But he also had his share of Trojan teams with losing records, including one that lost 14 in a row to end a season.

Why did we hire the guy in the first place? Still hung over from Ron Greene leaving us to go to Murray State a few years earlier? His resume in his last years at USC do not strike me as ones that instill confidence in a coach's ability to build a program.

http://www.usctrojans.com...o_pdf/10-11-mg-section-6

 

[maroonmania]

either wouldn't or couldn't recruit the MS kids to stay in-state and play basketball at MSU. There is a lot more talent in numbers laying around Los Angeles so it doesn't take near the effort to get some players out there.

 

[baseballnerd]

Kenny Payne.
When he was unable to sign Kenny Payne (chose Louisville), a great in state recruit, he quit. He even said that was on of the reasons he left. But remember, Richard Williams was on his staff.

 

[GratefulDawg.sixpack]

His tenure in basketball, along with Bellard and Felker in football are what helped breed that poor ol' Mississippi State malaise in the 1980s. That was hard to shake.

Thinking about it more, there were some good basketball coaches in the SEC in those days: Eddie Sutton, Don DeVoe, Wimp Sanderson, Hugh Durham, Sonny Smith, C.M. Newton and Dale Brown. Only MSU, UM and UF had clunkers at that time.

 

[basedog]

He didn't realize you had to go on the road to recruit, while at SoCal he never had to leave the city limits. He also never fit in the culture at Msu or the South. His offense was the same every year, he could play a slow game with the athletes he had at SoCal and it just didn't work at Msu. He knew the x's and o's but was pretty hard headed plus he had a ego that was the size of California.
Btw, I was a young assistant coach at NLU when Boyd was hired, I called him to apply for a job and that story is for another day.

 

[Coach34]

about Boyd wanting to recruit over the phone more than anything. He was just basically collecting a check.

And they also said he used to just dawg-cuss Richard Williams something awful- but did recommend him for the job.

 

[TUSK.sixpack]

it was called "basic" in some coaching circles...<div>
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[was21]

asdf

 

[HumpDawgy]

I recall he coached before there was a shot clock, so we would take the ball down the court and just hold it.

 

[99jc]

Starkville High, Starkville Academy, and Sturgis. I played against all 3 of them and could guard and score on all of them and i basically suck at BB. Does that answer your question.

 

[Shmuley]

nm

 

[rezdawg]

We'd cheer after we held the ball for over a minute. The opposition would get sick of it. God help them if we got an offensive rebound. That went a long way to make me appreciate the shot clock.

 

[thedog]

about the relationshipp between Boyd and Brown. By the way, they became acquainted in the PAC 10 when Brown was an assistant at WashingtonState. Both were recruiting a pair of players from south Louisiana, Lazard and Batiste. Boyd is said to have had a tape recording of Jordy Hultburg and Brown offering each $10,000 to go to LSU. He would not turn Brown in due to their friendship. The two players would up going to Nichols State and into obscurity.