Stansbury's Time Has Come- and GONE

As everybody is well aware, the Mississippi State basketball team has once again been left out of the NCAA Tourney. That makes the third season in a row, and 5 times in the last 7 seasons. The Basketball Bulldogs entered the 2011-2012 school year with high expectations, a highly rated signing class, and a great deal of talented players. Yet, very predictably, it ended in Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day fashion- Mississippi State style. Player suspensions, inconsistent effort, player discord with each other and the coaching staff, ridiculous losses- all becoming the norm for Stansbury-coached teams. This is no longer acceptable.

It’s no longer become a question of whether or not you will have to replace Stansbury- but when? Many in the Bulldog nation believe the time is NOW. Let Stansbury go out with a decent record and show him the appreciation for all his years of service during our NIT game tomorrow night. Honor him for his past accomplishments. Then let’s get some new blood and fresh ideas into the program as we have in football and baseball. Our recent hires in football and baseball have brought us only our 2nd New Year’s Day bowl game since 1941 as well as a return to the Super Regionals in baseball. The Football and baseball programs have energy, enthusiasm, a strong work ethic- the exact opposite of what our basketball program currently projects. Change is badly needed on the hardwood.

There are rumors of Stansbury talking his way to one last season next year by throwing some assistants under the bus and bringing in some new ones. What good is that going to do? He did that before the season started. He brought in former player George Brooks to be an assistant. Nothing changed. The assistants arent the crux of the problem. The assistants arent allowing Renardo Sidney to walk up and down the basketball court without taking him out of the game. The assistants arent sitting on their hands, refusing to call time-outs when other teams go on big runs against us to change the momentum of games. The assistants aren’t the ones failing to use all of our time-outs to rest our guys down the stretch when we are clearly tired from leading the SEC in minutes played per game. Changing assistants would be like putting a band-aid on a patient with a gunshot wound- just a big waste of valuable time.

Let’s refrain from reverting back to the old ways of Larry Templeton. Let’s continue to be the only progressive athletic department in the state of Mississippi. Everybody knows what has to be done- dont put it off any longer. It’s time Grasshopper- it’s time.