STARKVILLE — Two years ago, Rick Stansbury presented what he perceived to be his commitment to Mississippi State University by staying in Starkville.
Thursday, Stansbury sat in the very same building showing his love for the institution he’s been associated with for 22 years by doing the exact opposite — walking away at the right time.
It was the moment he considered leaving Starkville for Clemson University as a poignantly parallel moment during his retirement announcement in an emotional news conference at the Bryan Athletic Building Thursday.
After the conclusion of the 2009-10 season, Stansbury was approached and offered a contract close to $2 million per year by Clemson administration. Last week Stansbury told The Dispatch his decision to turn down the offer “had nothing to do with basketball”.
“I made a decision two years ago and (people) couldn’t believe why I was staying,” Stansbury said. “The same reasons still exist today. My love for this university and my love for you people.”
Stansbury first met with Clemson officials which included Tigers athletic director Terry Don Phillips in a face-to-face meeting where he was convinced he would be leaving the Starkville community for the first time in nearly two decades.
“Two years ago I went to sleep on one side of the bed feeling one way and woke up the next morning feeling different,” Stansbury said. “When Meo and I got up this morning, we got up on the same side of the bed with the same feeling — just how blessed we’ve been in every way.”
His wife Meo, a graduate of MSU in 1992, was admittedly not much help in the process until the Stansbury family got back from Clemson to talk out the decision as a family.
“You start entertaining an offer and you get caught up in it but what happens is you don’t sit back and collect yourself so it becomes a two-day tidal wave,” Meo Stansbury said last week. “So at the end of those two days there’s a job offer in your lap and now after two days you’re changing your life forever. Finally, Rick spoke up and said ‘no we can’t leave (because) our family is now here, our sons’ teachers that they adore are here think about everyone we would leave behind.”
In a conference with the local media, Stansbury said negotiations between his agent, the Stansbury family and Clemson began Saturday evening but ended all speculation Monday morning by telling MSU president Mark Keenum he was staying on the Starkville campus.
On the court, Stansbury and his MSU team won only 38 of 64 games while missing the NCAA tournament in both seasons and having consistent off-the-court problems with players most notably junior center Renardo Sidney.
“We know our relationships here go much deeper than w’s and l’s,” Stansbury said. “A lot of coaches can’t say that.”
However it was the lack of winning on the basketball court that made the announcement Thursday morning occur and nobody at the table was denying such reality of the situation.
“We didn’t meet some expectations the last couple of years but that’s good — that’s where it came from,” Stansbury said. “I like that.
Stricklin and Stansbury met Wednesday morning and the Bulldogs now-former coach said both came to the same conclusion: expectations were not met in the pair of years after Stansbury’s decision to remain at MSU.
“Our standards, which we created, were not met and that’s okay,” Stansbury said. “I want the expectations. We don’t run from them.”
The simple question is: would Stansbury have taken the Clemson offer in hindsight and Thursday afternoon the 14-year head coach at MSU made it plainly clear what the answer is — no.
“Meo and I asked ourselves that question (Tuesday) night and you’re going to be surprised how both of us looked each other in the eye and said ‘absolutely not’,” Stansbury said. “If we had to do it again, we’d make the same decision — to be right here.
Stansbury and his wife Meo, who was crying in the audience Thursday, met with MSU preside Mark Keenum and his wife Rhonda at their house the night before the decision.
“I remember two years ago Rick and his family struggled with the (Clemson) decision,” Keenum said. “His love for this university brought him back.”
It’s that love for MSU and Starkville that for the time being will keep the Stansbury family in the community they’ve need best over two decades even if the man of the house is no longer roaming the sidelines of Humphrey Coliseum.
“I’d always be rushing out and tell ’em the same thing, ‘I can’t tonight boys’,” Stansbury said about missing his sons’ basketball and soccer games, along with potential fishing trips. “That was tough. That was really tough. I’m a point now where I’m ready to be a better father, a better husband.”
Two years ago, Stansbury consulted with current Florida coach Billy Donovan about the offer from Clemson.
The leader of the Gators program, who Stansbury called a friend then and Thursday, has first-hand knowledge of a similar situation when he left Florida to be the next head coach of the NBA’s Orlando Magic just to change his mind and return to the Gainesville campus three days later.
“He shed a lot of light on things and been through exactly what I’ve been through,” Stansbury said. “He took a job for three days and it was probably the most miserable three days of his life. He asked me a simple question…Rick are you happy and are you comfortable?”
Leaving the Bryan Athletic Building arm in arm with his wife Meo to a standing ovation, Stansbury got validation he’d made the correct call.
“I didn’t have to (talk to anybody else) this time,” Stansbury said. “Last time you’re trying to make a decision you’re just not sure about. This time I knew where my heart was at, knew where my feelings were at and where we were in our stage of life.”
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