Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Stansbury spoke about numerous topics while at the Bulldog Club meeting. Here are a few interesting one's that didn't make my story.
On players being required to go college for at least one-year:
".....These kids nowadays differ from other sports. (In) basketball, every (player)is trying to get to the league. In football and baseball, once you come, you know you're there three years. But right now I just have to worry about the rule we got. So if after one year, they're able to go and you've got a plan for that and can anticipate that happening, (you) can be able to see it ahead of time. Can you see it every time before it happens? Absolutely not. I think that's very obvious with us. Because these kids nowadays, they all think they're NBA players — all of them. And the people they listen to are not the people that have the teams doing the drafting; it's all those other people, telling them what they wanna hear. And that's just the way it is.
"Our sport is different (from) other sports. Football and baseball don't have half the problems we have — because these kids have so many opportunities to go overseas and play and make big money. And these agents know that, whether they get drafted or not.
"....Football doesn't have that and baseball doesn't have that. Our sport, everybody's looking for the next Kobe, Kevin Garnett. And most of these young guys, that's what they wanna be."
On Jarvis Varnado:
"He's done something very special. He protected that basket...never seen a guy in college basketball protect the basket like Jarvis protected the basket. We'll miss that for sure."
On Elgin Bailey:
"He just got cleared last week to go full speed with everything. He's a tough kid, physical kid." (Bailey has been injured for a year and a half)
Size of Sidney & Bailey
"If we put Sidney out there with Elgin, those two will weigh more than the whole team last year."
On freshman guard Jalen Steele:
"I saw him last summer and told him we weren't recruiting a 2-guard....The kid was under-recruited....As the year went on, we decided we wanted another guard. Well, when things didn't work out at Auburn...that was the first phone call we made.
"He does one thing special: shoot the basketball.
"He's going to be a better Barry Stewart. And that's a big statement."
On Kodi Augustus:
"We need Kodi to step up and be what he think he needs to be and should be. I was disappointed in Kodi last year. He averaged 9 points, 6 rebounds, or whatever it was. "Kodi's better than that. He's got to take that next step....If it's every going to kick in, it needs to kick in — because this is your last chance to do it.
"He can shoot the basketball. That's one thing he's gotta do to make up for some other things that aren't his strengths....He's gotta defend better and rebound better. And all that's gotten better. He just has to consistently put it together."
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