As much as Coach wanted to try and prove he is always right said:
I was at my daughter's soccer practice the other night, and 2 dads didn't get the memo that it was canceled....me being one, and the other was one dad i hadn't met nor seen....well, to make it short, it was a former player during my time at State....we took our daughter's across the fields to a private area and we practiced with our girls....just me, him and our girls....I don't know if its appropriate to state his name with his comments without his permission, seeing it was just the 2 of us talking....but most of you familiar with the late 90s teams should be able to figure out who it is....
conversation started about our current team, and Ill give you what he said, but the most interesting comments were Williams v. Stansbury....
first off, he thinks this team is in.....Sydney could very well be the cancer that causes Stansbury to lose his job.....his best team probably ever, and Sydney holding them back...
he also said almost verbatim, exactly what Shane Power said.....Stans is a much better coach than people give him credit for, and not as a great recruiter as many think....
His opinion of the whole fire/keep Stans is to keep him.....he told me, something like 3 most wins ever in SEC overall, 6 most wins in SEC history....( i wasn't sure the difference, but i got his point)....he said that there are only 2 coaches in the SEC that are better than Stans in SEC now, UF and UK....I made the point to him (i am not a Stans supporter) that the bottom line is, you are judged by Tourney appearances and success in it.....he totally agreed and that is when he went back to say that he thinks this team is better than its record shows, and Sydney has caused more losses and turmoil than games he has helped us win....and it very well could cost Stansbury his job......
He went further to say "right now" i say Stans needs to stay....he is 3rd best coach in this league, and it is a risky move to get rid of Stansbury right now (he used the term 'risky' several times).....he mentioned Pelphry as a guy that was fired prematurely and was a great coach...
now, he played with williams as head coach and stans as HC......he said much what C34 said about Williams.....the players respected him, and he was a hard ***.....he was the disciplinarian that is what this current team would need right now.....he said guys WOULD NOT take shots in games for fear of being pulled out of the game....on the other hand, he said Stansbury lets them "play" and that is the main difference between the two coaching styles....
One thing I have never known about Stansbury, and he mentioned that "what most people don't (didn't) know about Stansbury".....is that during the RW era, Stansbury did all of the scouting of the opposing teams, ALL the game planning, and writing up all the plays that would work for a particular game, also did all the recruiting and keeping in touch with the recruits, not RW.....in turn, he mentioned, because Stans did all that, then we had the Final 4 run, is what led to RW's arrogance that eventually cost him his job.....after the Final Four, RW became very arrogant, and did no recruiting (Stans did all of that too).....said RW became the coach that showed up only at practices and games....and it became very obvious to both the players, assistant coaches, and the AD.....and that is why RW was forced out....i thought that was interesting.....He did say, that he thinks that may be Stans problem, that he tries to do too much as a HC and doesn't pass along enough responsibilities to his assistants...
a couple of more interesting things he told me, when I said I think its a bad thing with a team when they have a players only meeting (much like Colin Cowherd says).....he went on and said they had a few players only meetings, including one during the FF run.....another story he told me, during the SEC tourney, 20 guys were crammed into a hotel room, and Stans addresses the team, and about 3 mins into him talking a loud roar of a snore lets out.....it was Dampier and he was sound asleep....the whole team busted out laughing....Stans never said another word, and they went out and beat Kentucky....(i am assuming that was the 96 championship game)....
again, I was gonna post this at some point, but I thought this thread was worthy for the reply....