Would We Have Been Better Off Keeping Stansbury?

If you're a fan of the blog, you might be saying, 'hold the phone Croom boy, weren't you driving the Fire Stansbury Bus?'. Yes, yes I was.

I will hand it to justinrsutton, he questioned whether or not Mississippi State would be able to find a suitable replacement for Stans. He was right. I still question Stricklin's ability to "sell" Mississippi State to potential coaches, but the fact is Justin was right - MSU could not bring in a proven coach. That's no indictment of Rick Ray, it's just to say that State fans - including myself - were expecting someone with a little better resume.

Deville Smith has left the program, Josh Grey wants out of his letter of intent, Rodney Hood is contemplating his future at MSU. At least two out of those three wouldn't have happened if Stansbury was still the coach. So would we be better off?

My answer is no. It appears as though we are going to take our lumps for forcing Stans out. Grey and Hood may end up in maroon and white next season, they may not. We don't know....but we do know that a coach who is going to instill discipline and work ethic will be heading up the basketball team.

Stansbury was unable to control the team. In my opinion, he had lost what it takes to be the really good coach he once was. Rick Ray seems like the kind of coach who will create an environment the team was missing last year. State may lose some players and recruits, but in the end we won't have a product on the court that we are embarrassed by.

Maybe the main problem - Renardo Sidney - is gone and Stansbury would have been able to change the effort and attitude problems we saw. I would imagine Stricklin talked to Stans about that, and I have to believe 'ole Rick just said, 'ah, I'm ready to move on'. For 2012-13 I would say we'd be better with Stansbury. But in the long run, I think MSU made the right decision with a new coach.