STARKVILLE — For the second time in three years, Mississippi State is looking for a new men’s basketball coach.
That decision came to light late Saturday morning when MSU Director of Athletics announced that the school had fired coach Rick Ray after three seasons. Hours later, the discussion had already shifted to MSU’s next move.
“After much thought and deliberation, I have made the decision to replace Rick Ray as Mississippi State’s men’s basketball coach,” said Stricklin in a release distributed by the school. “This has been a difficult decision, as I have the utmost respect for Rick, and am highly appreciative of the effort he put forth in leading our basketball program. To Rick’s credit, we have seen great strides from our student-athletes in several areas, including academics. However, the on-court results have not been satisfactory. In order for MSU to achieve success at the levels to which we aspire, I believe that a change is necessary at this time.”
Thus ended Ray’s three-year tenure at MSU, a stretch that saw the Bulldogs fail to reach postseason play and resulted in a 37-60 overall record.
While Stricklin met with local media to to discuss the circumstances surrounding Ray’s dismissal, some questions remained. The biggest of these questions is the same dilemma faced by Stricklin three years ago when he was looking to replace Rick Stansbury: Where does MSU go from here?
In the release, Stricklin noted that the search for Ray’s replacement would begin immediately. At Saturday’s impromptu press conference, he elaborated further.
“I’ve done some homework,” said Stricklin of the impending search for a new coach. “I try to stay on top of the marketplace as best I can. I have an idea of some names that interest me more than others. I’ve already started the process of finding out which of those names could turn into something fruitful.”
The search for a new basketball coach is the second of Stricklin’s four-year tenure as athletic director. Faced with replacing Stansbury, the school’s all-time leader in wins, Stricklin eventually settled on Ray, a veteran assistant coach at Clemson who had never been a head coach at any level. During that process, MSU and Stricklin utilized an outside firm to assist in the search and Ray was hired exactly two weeks after Stansbury cut ties with MSU. This time around, Stricklin wouldn’t set a timetable for the new hire to be made but added that no outside help would be sought.
Asked what he expected to look for in MSU’s new coach, Stricklin said, “We will look for someone who works hard, who is smart and competitive. Someone with great leadership ability. I think those traits are good places to start.”
Stricklin stopped short of naming names of coaches he might be interested in but said, “I think I have a good sense of who’s out there and who would fit for Mississippi State. Now we have to hit the ground running and see what happens.”
In 2012, Stricklin interviewed a number of coaches, including Murray State’s Steve Prohm and Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew. He also met with University of Kentucky assistant Kenny Payne before ultimately deciding on Ray.
Plenty coming back
Whoever is next in line for the MSU job will inherit a much more developed roster than Ray did. Arriving in 2012 with zero starters returning, Ray never had a full complement of scholarship players until his third season. Now, having been fired after a 6-12 mark in SEC play, Ray leaves behind a roster stocked with upperclassmen for next season.
There’s Craig Sword, the junior guard who averaged a team-best 14.4 points per game in conference games. It was Sword who missed the first five games of the season and struggled to return to form in non-conference play as the Bulldogs limped to a 7-7 start. Other seniors-to-be for MSU include junior Gavin Ware, the 6-foot-8 post player who led the team in double-doubles, and Fred Thomas, who scored in double digits in 10 of MSU’s 18 conference games.
Sophomore point guard I.J. Ready also returns. Asked about next season recently, before Ray was fired, Ready was omptimistic based on what MSU has returnning.
“We want to play in March, in the NCAA Tournament,” said Ready. “We fell short this year but I think we can make it next year. We have to work on our individual games and our team game so we have that camaraderie that we need to make it.”
While Ray was unavailable for comment on Saturday, he did release a statement through MSU’s media relations department. Regarding MSU’s current roster, he said he was saddened “for the players who have sacrificed their bodies and mind for me and the program.”
Reaction among future Bulldogs was swift as well. While current signees Quinndary Weatherspoon of Velma Jackson High and Tookie Brown of Alpharetta, Georgia, are the show-stealers of MSU’s 2015 recruiting class, the 2016 class – which was shaping up to be Ray’s best – took an immediate hit. D’Marcus Simonds, a four-star prospect out of Montgomery, Alabama, immediately decommitted from MSU and reopened his recruitment. Darius Hicks, a four-star forward from Quitman, stopped short of that, saying “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”
Recruits aside, Stricklin’s action was quick and decisive as he explained the reasoning behind Ray’s dismissal and his expectations for MSU’s program.
“At the end of the day, it was a gut feeling on my part,” said Stricklin. “I wanted really badly to believe that Rick Ray could take us where we wanted to go. Of our 10 sports that competed this semester, seven are ranked. Obviously we have a football program that went to No. 1. So we had a lot of examples of what success looked like and my gut told me that we were not going to get to that level under our current regime.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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