Any time Mississippi State has a comfortable lead at home in the closing minutes, the chant will begin to reverberate within the student section at Humphrey Coliseum.
“We want Is-aac!” (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
The Bulldogs’ fans are clamoring for Isaac Stansbury, a fifth-year senior walk-on who has played a total of 28 minutes in his collegiate career, to get into the game. And on seven occasions this season, four of them at home, head coach Chris Jans has indeed inserted Stansbury into the action. Stansbury even pulled down a rebound against North Alabama on Nov. 14 and another against Tulane on Dec. 9.
“Something that I’ve learned about myself at Mississippi State is how important hard work is,” Stansbury said. “Having great friendships and getting to know everybody, everybody has a role. Hard work is really important.”
The son of former MSU head coach Rick Stansbury, Isaac grew up around the game and the Bulldogs’ program. His father reached the NCAA Tournament six times in 14 years in Starkville and won the 2004 Southeastern Conference title, but retired following the 2012 season and later returned to coaching, first as an assistant at Texas A&M and later as the head coach at Western Kentucky for seven years. He is now in his first season as an assistant coach at Memphis.
Still, Isaac spent many of his formative years in Starkville, and he enrolled at MSU in 2019 and walked onto the basketball team. He made two appearances as a redshirt freshman in 2020-21, then played in six games the following year, scoring his first points in a Bulldogs uniform on a jumper in the paint against Georgia State. A week later, he knocked down a 3-pointer against Winthrop, and to this day he has made 100 percent of his shots with MSU. As in, both of them.
After graduating last May with a degree in petroleum engineering, Stansbury is now pursuing a master’s in business administration.
“He’s been a positive influencer on our basketball team since I arrived,” said Jans, who took over for Ben Howland following the 2021-22 season. “To be brutally honest, when I first got there and I heard there was a Stansbury on the roster, I’m like, ‘Okay, how is this going to go?’ But it’s been great. He is all about the right stuff.”
Stansbury was also active in the Starkville community and was named to the SEC Community Service Team in 2022 and 2023. He has collected children’s books to donate to an elementary school library, wrote letters to local grade school students and volunteered his time at a middle school physical education class.
On the practice court, Stansbury is an integral part of the Bulldogs’ scout team, helping the starters and regular reserves prepare for their next opponent. And on the rare occasion that he does get into a game, Stansbury does not play like he’s desperate for a big moment, even though the outcome is never in doubt when he is on the floor.
“He’s not trying to be one of those dudes who chucks one up from 40 feet (because) everybody’s telling him to shoot it,” Jans said. “He wants to play right. He wants to continue to try to play within the confines of what we’re trying to do, and I respect him so much for that. Because it would be really easy to go down the other road and chuck one up and make everybody get excited and all that, but that’s not in his DNA. He’s a basketball player.”
Before Saturday’s game against No. 17 South Carolina, MSU will honor three fifth-year players — Tolu Smith, D.J. Jeffries and Dashawn Davis — who have become program cornerstones, as well as grad transfer big man Jimmy Bell Jr., who performed well in a starting role early on this season while Smith was out with a foot injury.
Honored alongside them all will be Stansbury, who knew he was never cut out for a college basketball experience like those other players but has nonetheless become a valuable teammate who took advantage of every minute of playing time the Bulldogs gave him.
“My teammates have meant a lot to me here,” Stansbury said. “They all love basketball so much and do their best everyday to be the best they can be. I’ve really made so many memories with them and have friendships that will last a lifetime.”
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