I'm not sure what is going over in Starkville but they may have just about a whole new Bball team next year. Moo U They lost 4 seniors off of last year's team, Ellis has declared for the NBA and is interviewing agents, which will preclude him from changing his mind. Houston, Rhodes and Sharpe have announced they are transferring and another, Ervin, has received permission to contact other schools. In addition, a guy they were expecting back as a 6th year senior, Harper, has yet to apply for the medical redshirt. Damn, and we thought Brady was having trouble losing 2 players.
I'm sure, somehow, that the problems at State are John Brady's fault. Nothing like a little perspective to make the world turn...
I don't think that is necessarily the case in this instance. These three guys are freshmen; and 5 of the first 6 players are graduating. If it's playing time they want, they would have gotten their chance. Sharpe and Rhodes both got good playing time until they started skipping practices and classes. Sharpe even came out in the local papers and criticized Stansbury for his policies on attending classes and practices as being too strict. Sharpe skipped practice the day before they left for the NCAA tournament. He was told there was no need in showing up for the flight the next day. This has been on ongoing situation all year with them and it has hit the papers numerous times. I saw the other day where none of the three attended the year-end banquet; and Stansbury's response was their status with the team was being "evaluated". So, I'd say it was a mutual decision, or he just flat out ran them off. Ervin has been all over the place the last couple of weeks criticizing Stansbury for holding him back, not letting him play his game, and being a "big man's" coach. Bottom line, that kid has no outside shot and no desire to play defense. If he plays under control and defends in the Duke game, they win. This is more of an issue of spoiled athletes who believe they deserve special treatment because of their athletic skills. The quickest way to be noticed and get to the NBA is to score points; that's all they care about. The more a coach focuses on academics, rebounding, and defense, the more cases of this there will be, and the more players they will lose. We'll either have to get used to kids leaving programs or stick to watching Ivy League games.
Looks like Ervin may be taking a visit to Arkansas. What a classy kid. :dis: http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050429/SPORTS030102/504290340
agreed on all they want is to get to the NBA... GEAUX magazine had a great article on Brandon in which he even admits to being a tweener on being a position player in the NBA.
I was there last weekend. Let's see what was going on... The Cotton District Arts Festival, UK at MSU and Santa Fe played Rick's. That's it.