Rick Ray was fired on Saturday after three years as the men’s basketball coach at Mississippi State.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs fired head men’s basketball coach Rick Ray on Saturday after going 37-60 in three years in Starkville.
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Ray went 13-41 in his three seasons in the SEC and tied for 11th place in 2014, the highest Mississippi State finished in the conference in his three years on the bench. Three years is rather brief for a coach to build the program into a winner and considering this was Ray’s first head coaching opportunity, it looks like a rash decision.
Granted, Ray didn’t have the type of success you want to see on the court with 10, 14 and 13 wins in his three years but the response to the firing was met with surprise.
Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin addressed the firing with the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 beginning today.
“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,” said Stricklin. “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.”
Firing coaches after 3 yrs as Miss. St did to rick ray makes 0 sense. Those 3 yrs now become a total waste. See the plan thru then evaluate
— Steve Lappas (@stlappas) March 21, 2015
Sincerely shocked that Mississippi State fired Rick Ray. Would have thought his 2016 Class (Simonds, Hicks) would have gotten him 1 more yr.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) March 21, 2015
The firing has already cost the Bulldogs a commitment from four-star recruit D’Marcus Simonds who tweeted that he is opening his recruitment back up because he wanted to play for Ray.
Ray previously was an assistant coach at Clemson, Purdue, Northern Illinois and Indiana State before coming to Mississippi State in 2012.
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