STARKVILLE — Rick Ray knows what people are saying about him.
Mississippi State University’s new men’s basketball coach understands and recognizes the challenges in front of him whether they are created internally or outside perceptions.
Ray has heard people from all across the country question him being the first head coaching hire in the MSU men’s basketball office in 14 years.
“Let’s face it — I’m not a big name and I’m somebody where I’m sure a lot of people said ‘who in the world is Rick Ray?'” Ray said. “I feel like you can’t sell Mississippi State if you can’t sell Rick Ray. Therefore, people need to know very quickly who I am and what I’m about.”
Ray is not a well-known name in terms of casual fans, no previous head coaching experience and not much connection to the southeastern part of the country coming as a pervious assistant coach at Purdue University and Clemson University.
While none of those aspects mattered much to MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin, they certainly matter now as Ray begins to put together what he calls “the long-term success of Mississippi State basketball”.
“Look no job in big-time college basketball is easy,” Ray said. “Too many people think you can just walk into a situation and suddenly you’re winning 25 games a year and going to Final Fours. That’s not how it works for anybody. You have to have a plan to get there and then trust the plan when executed will work as you go.”
The 40-year-old Ray spent the last two years as the top assistant at Clemson. He’s also spent time as an assistant coach at Purdue University, Northern Illinois University and Indiana State University.
Ray replaces Rick Stansbury, who retired in March as the school’s all-time wins leader after 14 seasons leading the MSU program.
The reason it can’t be a short-term plan for Ray and his new staff that includes only one holdover from his Stansbury’s staff, assistant coach George Brooks, is the attrition that has taken place on the current MSU roster.
Ray inherits a roster with significant change as the entire starting frontcourt of freshman Rodney Hood, junior Renardo Sidney and junior Arnett Moultrie will not be back next season. Sidney and Moultrie have declared for the professional draft while Hood announced in April he will transfer to another program that has yet to be determined.
“One of the reasons Rick Ray was a fit for Mississippi State was how smart he is and how everybody told me that is why he’s ready for a job like this,” Stricklin said. “He understands what challenges are in front of him and we’ve discussed his plan to overcome those challenges. His plan was a major selling point when I spoke of those qualities at the beginning of the process.”
In a one-on-one interview with The Dispatch, Ray said he encouraged his current players to continue playing pick-up basketball at the newly constructed Mize Pavilion practice facility with Hood but said any rumors of the former 2011 Gatorade High School Player of the Year in Mississippi returning to the Bulldogs program are “simply not true”.
With freshman point guard DeVille Smith also filing paperwork to leave the MSU program, only guard Jalen Steele and forward Wendell Lewis return as significant contributors of the 2011-12 roster.
However, even with all these changes to the MSU personnel, the word not allowed in the MSU men’s basketball offices is rebuilding.
“We’re going to have to outfight people every possession at Mississippi State in order to win and make no mistake about it — I’m paid to win basketball games from day one,” Ray said. “I never bring up that word because we need guys that can compete and fight at the highest level. If you’re not that guy, don’t come here but if you are then we’ll win with that young man.”
Ray has implemented a plan that starts with the desperate need for the upcoming month of June to a blockbuster selling point for the MSU program. Next month will allow for official visits to take place for recruits in the 2013 signing class. In the long-term view, it will allow the momentum to occur for Ray’s ultimate goal of a Top 25 rated recruiting class in 2014 which he feels that will define the Bulldogs chances of returning to the NCAA Tournament sooner than some might think with such an overturned roster.
“I don’t ever want it to happen with our staff where we have individual recruiting,” Ray said. “By that I mean a lot of programs will put one assistant on a guy and say ‘go get him’ and that’s not how we can operate. I don’t any selfishness on the team or coaching staff especially in recruiting.”
The collective unity of the recruiting plan brings Ray back to his attempt to getting everybody in the Magnolia state introduced to his style and persona as he embarks into his first Division 1 head coaching position.
“Think of it this way – how is a kid going to trust Rick Ray if all he sees or hears from is the lead assistant we’ve assigned to him?,” Ray asked rhetorically. “How is that kid’s mom and dad going to feel comfortable with Rick Ray unless they see me and talk to me personally whenever they feel like. That’s what June is going to be about for us.”
For Ray it’s about getting people in the doors and coming to Starkville because if that happens, his plan ends with that recruit simply not wanting leave.
“It’s no different what we’ve got to do in this situation than if we were trying to sell a house,” Ray said. “In order to sell the house, you need foot traffic. In order for us to get the talent we need to go to NCAA Tournaments at Mississippi State, we need that same kind of foot traffic.”
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