I am not writing this because I don't like Rick Stansbury. I"m doing it because I love Mississippi State. As an alumni of MSU, I want the best for it. And I believe a change in the basketball program would be best right now.
I already wrote a little about this topic last week. But I'll offer you some more, because it's important to note. The fact is, if you have an apathetic fan base you simply must fire the coach. Fans provide the money, and if they don't care they aren't about to spend money on tickets and merchandise.
And by apathetic I don't mean MSU fans don't care about the basketball program, they just don't care about this team. And please ask yourself this question: 'how hard am I pulling for this team to win opposed to basketball teams in the past?'
I truly believe fans don't care all that much about this team. I will use the following as my evidence.
1. The Kentucky game had the 19th largest crowd in Humphrey Coliseum history. Now the game was against Kentucky, and they were #1 in the nation. The largest crowd ever was in 2010 vs. #2 Kentucky. Hmmm, similar circumstances, yet one game gets the record and the other gets 19th best.
Good pal Justin Sutton would have you believe it was the economy or the fact the game was on a Tuesday that forced the smaller crowd. My response: 16 straight sellouts at Davis Wade - all during the "economic slowdown" and that record crowd in 2010 was on a Tuesday!!!
Ole Miss games account for 8 of the top 20 most attended games at the Hump, and 7 of those were played on Saturday. Out of the remaining 12 in the top 20, NINE of them occurred on a weekday ('96 UK, '03 UF, '04 AUB, '04 UK, '04 UT, '07 UF, '09 BAMA, '10 UK and '12 UK). So, I don't think that is a valid excuse.
2. All the people who tell me they don't care anymore about this team. I'm talking about folks who were fanatical from '02 - '05 about this team. You could say I'm just making this up, but honestly I'm not. When I hear the apathy from these folks I am very surprised because they are such big fans, but the lack of effort this team displays has left them with these feelings.
It's not because we aren't good either, because we are. State was 19-5 a few weeks ago. That should've had people excited, but it didn't. Everyone's been anxious all season, and this five game losing streak has got folks (including myself) jumping off the cliff. I'm not a big message board reader, but I've seen a ton of MSU fans on Six Pack, 247 and Gene's Page express their apathy for this team.
3. A simple poll.