Rick Stansbury- the Truth Behind His Tenure at Mississippi State

In the wake of a 3 game losing streak, MSU fans are screaming like an angry mob for Scott Stricklin to fire Rick Stansbury. 3 losses to totally inferior teams can do that to a fan base. But I'm suggesting a radical idea: let's sit down and use our brains before we make a decision that affects someone's life. Let's decide using facts and statistics how Mississippi State's coach's success compares to "better coaches" as well as other schools in a similar situation.

1. Let's play a game. Let's compare the first 13 season's of 5 current coaches.
You will need: pen and paper.

Coach #1
304 wins- 126 losses
.706 winning percentage
5 conference championships
2 conference division championships
1 Sweet 16 appearance
1 Elite 8 appearance
1 Final 4 appearance

Coach #2
241 wins- 118 losses
.675 winning percentage
2 conference division championships
2 regular season conference championships
1 conference tournament championship
1 national championship

Coach #3
291 wins- 158 losses
.648 winning percentage
3 conference tournament championships
1 regular season conference championships
5 conference division championships
-Never advanced past NCAA Second Round

Coach #4
222 wins- 132 losses
.627 winning percentage
5 conference tournament championships
- Never advanced past NCAA Second Round

Coach #5
245 wins- 169 losses
.591 winning percentage
2 Conference tournament championships
2 Conference regular season championships
-Never advanced past NCAA Sweet 16

Now:

•  Rank these above coaches 1-5. Write it down.
•  Now rank these following coaches 1-5:

John Calipari
John Calhoun
Kevin Stallings
Billy Donovan
Rick Stansbury

•  Here are the coaches to the resumes above.

Coach #1: John Calipari
Coach #2: Billy Donovan
Coach #3: Rick Stansbury
Coach #4: John Calhoun
Coach #5: Kevin Stallings.

•  Compare your two lists. Are they the same? Probably not.

You see, no matter how your list's compared, you will see that Rick Stansbury is in fine company in his first 13 seasons as a head coach.

2. Here are the top 6 basketball conferences in America (according to ESPN)
1.Big East
2. Big Ten
3. Big 12
4. SEC
5. ACC
6. Pac- 12

MSU has done better in the Stansbury era than most of the schools in these "power conferences". But here is what he's done it with. MSU has a $35.9 million athletic budget, the smallest in the SEC. However, Stansbury has consistently finished in the top 4 of the SEC standings.

Now let's compare the smallest athletic budgets of the other "power conferences" and their basketball success to that of MSU's. (Note: Not all schools, especially private schools, report their athletic budget)

Big East- South Florida (a all-sport member) has a $37.8 million athletic budget. They have had some success recently, but nothing comparable to what Stansbury has done. They have not finished in the top half of the Big East, much less the top 4 in the conference. They have only made 2 NCAA tournament appearances.

Big 10- Purdue has a $57.6 million athletic budget. Purdue has been an excellent team recently, consistently making the NCAA tournament, being ranked in the top 25, and winning games against good opponents.

Big 12-  Iowa State (another team experiencing new found success) has an athletic budget of $42.3 million dollars. They haven't had a good team since the Larry Eustachy years (Elite Eight in '00)

ACC- NC State has an athletic budget of $49.5 million dollars. For the past 4-5 years, NC State has had similar success to MSU; however, they have not made an NCAA tournament since '06.

Pac-12- Utah is the only team from a power conference that has a smaller athletic budget than MSU ($29.7 million). Utah has had good success in basketball, but not near as much MSU in the Stansbury era.

Facts: In the past 13 years
MSU was better than South Florida
Purdue was better than Mississippi State. But they have a athletic budget nearly 1.5x MSU's.
MSU was better than Iowa State.
MSU was better than Utah.

Now MSU fans can you see how your coach compares to other schools in similar positions in other conferences. What Rick Stansbury has done at MSU is nothing short of amazing. Now we will finish our investigation of whether or not MSU should keep Rick Stansbury. This is the fun part for MSU fans. Let's see what the other aforementioned coach's did in the rest of their careers (so far).

John Calipari-
493 wins- 153 losses
.763 winning percentage
13 NCAA tournament appearances
2 NCAA Final 4 appearances

Billy Donovan-
416 wins –173 losses
.706 winning percentage
11 NCAA tournament appearances
2 NCAA tournament championships (coincidentally he won one in his 14th season)

Jim Calhoun-
618 wins–233 losses
.726 winning percentage
22 NCAA tournament appearances
2 NCAA championships
Kevin Stallings-
253 wins-155 losses
.620 winning percentage

You can clearly see what these other coaches have done AFTER their 13th year. And after all, very few coaches make it 13 years in coaching anyway. In my opinion, the question MSU fans SHOULD be asking is "Can we afford NOT to continue on this road with Stansbury?"

It's true that Mississippi State has lost to "bad" opponents recently. It's also true that Mississippi State seems to underachieve at times during the season. If these things are true, then you must also accept the fact that Stansbury has had an unpreciedented amount of success at Mississippi State. These are all facts and therefore true. And when you have the power to affect someone's future, you MUST make decisions based upon fact.