STARKVILLE — Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray was fired Saturday, 10 days after finishing his third losing season in as many years.
The announcement was made by MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin just before noon. The search for Ray’s replacement begins immediately, Stricklin said.
Ray, who was hired to replace former MSU coach Rick Stansbury following the 2011-12 season, won 37 games and lost 60 during a three-year tenure with the Bulldogs. This season, Ray finished at 13-19. The Bulldogs lost nine of their last 11 games.
Following Saturday’s announcement, Stricklin met with local media to discuss why the university decided to part ways with Ray.
“I can’t tell you how much I respect Rick Ray,” Stricklin, who hired the former Clemson assistant, said. “I kept wanting to believe that he was going to be the guy to lead us where we wanted to be, which was playing this time of the year. The more I thought about it, I wasn’t convinced that Rick Ray was the guy to lead this program. I just didn’t think we were going the direction we needed to go.”
Stricklin, who was in Durham, North Carolina, on Friday for MSU’s first round game in the Women’s NCAA Tournament, flew back to Starkville and met with Ray early Saturday morning.
“We met today,” said Stricklin. “And Rick handled it with as much class as you’d expect. He was disappointed but handled it as well as he could. I’ve yet to find somebody who would say something about the guy, the person he is. The way he carried himself, how hard he works.”
Two hours later, Ray responded publicly for the first time. The former coach sent out a message through MSU’s media relations department and later posted the same message on his Instagram feed.
“I am saddened by the events today,” Ray said. “Not for myself but for the players who have sacrificed their bodies and mind for me and the program; for the signed and committed recruits who have to go through a coaching change after taking so much time and effort to make an educated decision about what is best for them and their future.
“But a decision has been made and I want to thank Dr. (Mark) Keenum and Scott Stricklin for giving me the opportunity to lead their program.”
Ray, who had never been a head coach at any level, accepted the job in March of 2012. He won 10 games his first season and ended that year with a 13-game conference losing streak. He would match that streak in his second year while finishing with a 14-19 overall record.
Ray inherited a program that won 21 games and made the NIT in 2012, but he never led the Bulldogs to the postseason. Taking over a team with zero starters returning, Ray struggled initially and never won more than 14 games in a season.
In his final campaign, Ray led MSU to home wins over LSU and Florida State, but he lost to McNeese State, Arkansas State and South Carolina-Upstate.
Of the 12 scholarship players on its roster, MSU is returning 10 next season, which would have been Ray’s most experienced team. Instead, that team will be coached by someone else.
According to Stricklin, Ray had two years left on his contract. Without being specific, he added, “We certainly will owe him a sum of that money.”
Ray was being paid a salary of $1 million per year plus bonuses.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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