What Can Rick Ray Accomplish Right Away?

After my initial rage that Mississippi State hired a guy that I'd never heard of to be the new basketball coach, I actually took some time to read up on Rick Ray. And you know what? I'm actually starting to like the hire. As I listened to his introductory press conference, I heard some things I wanted to hear, like: "hard-nosed, hustle, fight, and player development." Now, I wasn't completely blown-away because I never doubted he would lose the press conference, but still came away impressed.

But what can Rick Ray do for MSU immediately?

As it stands now, the Bulldogs will return six scholarship players for the 2012-13 season. Only 3 of those players saw significant playing time last season (Hood, Steele, Lewis). The other three are the injury plagued Shaun Smith, the incredibly raw Roquez Johnosn, and the unknown European Kristers Zeidaks. That's prosciutto-thin.

In most cases, you could blame that type of attrition on the coaching change, but this is a different case. Whether Rick Stansbury, Rick Santorum, Rick Ross or Rick Ray was coaching the Bulldogs next season, they were going to be thin. Moultrie wasn't coming back, Sidney was hopeless, and Deville Smith couldn't get it together.

Ray knows the current players on the team are his first priority, and he said as much in his press conference when he called them "the most important recruits" right now. That's good to know. I don't expect next season to be pretty from a wins and losses standpoint, but in order to avoid being a complete disaster Ray has to make sure Rodney Hood and Co. are here to stay.

Let's say he locks up all the current players. What's next?

Ray is already working on the next step, which is getting commitments from our current signees like the ever wavering Josh Gray. Gray is undoubtedly the most important recruit for MSU because he's a highly skilled point guard, something the Bulldogs don't currently have on the roster.

After "satisfying" signees, Gavin Ware and Fred Thomas, Ray should shift his focus to Alabama POY, Craig Sword, who scored 36 points in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star game.

Then there's, Devonta Pollard.

5-Star, McDonald's All-American, Mississippi's Mr. Basketball...You name it, and the 6'7 forward from Kemper County can probably put his name behind it. Rod Walker of the Clarion Ledger says Pollard hasn't spoken to Ray yet, but he expects to soon. I hope Ray does more than just talk to Pollard. I hope he lives in his living room, phone, car, and girlfriend's house for the foreseeable future.

While I don't think Mississippi State is much of a factor to sign Pollard anymore, even if we did I'd still like to see Ray sign an additional big man. Preferably a JUCO guy who can step in and give us some quality minutes right away.

Ok, ok. So what can Ray do with these players in Year 1?

I want to see effort that I didn't see in the last few years of the Stansbury campaign. I want teams to HATE playing Mississippi State. I want opposing coaches to have to prepare for something other than a high ball screen. Ray will get a pass in the W/L column for his first season, so his main focus should be implementing his system and showing improvement from the start of the season to the end, much like Tennesse did under first-year coach Cuonzo Martin last season.

I've always liked watching Purdue play basketball under Matt Painter, one of Ray's mentors. Hopefully, as the 2012-13 season progresses we will be able to see Mississippi State take strides to becoming a well-disciplined, smart basketball team. I don't expect us to be Purdue (at least not right away), but I'd like to watch State play and think, "We're not going to beat ourselves tonight."