Missouri St at home

[MSUDuo]

Another year and tv guide still says “from Hammons Student Center in Springfield, Mo.”

I hear ya. I have emailed EA Sports every year since 2005 about our name change. They still list us as SW Missouri St in the college listings in their games.

[BigMacAttack]

Another year and tv guide still says “from Hammons Student Center in Springfield, Mo.”

I hear ya. I have emailed EA Sports every year since 2005 about our name change. They still list us as SW Missouri St in the college listings in their games.

No worse than posters on this site still referring to Evansville as EU even though the school has been an MVC member since 1993! John Rooney opened his pregame segment as a MVC TV analyst this past Saturday as referring to the Aces as Evansville University.

[Murraygrad05]

Saw him a few times before this year when he was at Tennessee St. and he mostly underachieved there also with some of the talent he had. I thought at the time he was hired that it was interesting hire for Mo St.

I'll admit, this is the first time I've ever heard someone say he underachieved at TSU. Sure, I guess one could argue he has so far here (I wouldn't) but I don't see how you could at TSU. He had as many winnings seasons in his time there (2) than they had in the previous 20 years combined.

He knows what he is trying to build this first year and it revolves around the culture, not wins and losses and I am perfectly ok with that.

He had one good year where he went 20 - 11 but lost in the first round of the OVC tourney. The next 2 years was only 4 games over .500 combined. Saying he had as many winning seasons as in the past 20 years is not a huge accomplishment when you look at the his overall record. He had the defensive player of the year in Christian Mekowulu but had no clue how to use him. This was just my opinion and I think he could have done a lot more at TSU than what he showed.

[glm38]

Based on what I've read on our message board and heard in the community most Bears fans believe Ford is the guy to turn MSU around.

He's saying and doing all the right things. BUT there's no doubt that we are underachieving this year. There's some talent on this roster. We shouldn't be at the bottom of the MVC this year but it's looking like we will be.

Have to give him a break this first year. Next year is when we really need to show significant improvement.

[BEARZ77]

Based on what I've read on our message board and heard in the community most Bears fans believe Ford is the guy to turn MSU around.

He's saying and doing all the right things. BUT there's no doubt that we are underachieving this year. There's some talent on this roster. We shouldn't be at the bottom of the MVC this year but it's looking like we will be.

Have to give him a break this first year. Next year is when we really need to show significant improvement.

I think the confidence in Ford is a little more guarded among Bear's fans than that, glm. No doubt we were wildly excited about getting rid of Lusk, and most appreciate Ford's energy, activity in the community, and have belief in his ability to recruit. But he was far from one of the top candidates most Bear fans wanted to see hired , but as is usually the case when you're getting rid of a coach everyone wanted gone, there has been pretty good rallying behind the decision. Most wanted a proven winner at this level[ personally I wanted Darrin Horn] but once it became clear we were not going to pay the kind of salary necessary to hire an experienced winner, then the popular pick was Greg Heier. I have no doubt Ford can recruit well enough to raise the program some and give himself a chance to take the program to a higher level, and unlike Lusk who had exhibited little energy or fire and seemed quite content with mediocrity, Ford seems driven to push himself and his players towards that end. The hope now is he is able to adapt and improve, something Lusk never showed, because it's a raw product we're putting out there now, even for just a first year process. Given we'll have at least another 7 newcomers next year and how slowly current players seem to be adapting to what Ford is trying to do, I don't see us getting into that upper level of the MVC quickly despite having enough talent to look like we could. But things can turn quickly if the light goes on for a core of returners; you have to give a young coach at least into his 3rd year to see how his program is progressing with a core of his own guys. It's better than knowing you won't which is what was present with Lusk the last 3-4 years. So for this year we'll gonna take some painful lumps, already have. I have little hope we will avoid the PIG now and easily could see us as the 10th seed at this point as we have been the worst team by a large measure to date. It is what it is, jmo.

[MSUDuo]

Saw him a few times before this year when he was at Tennessee St. and he mostly underachieved there also with some of the talent he had. I thought at the time he was hired that it was interesting hire for Mo St.

I'll admit, this is the first time I've ever heard someone say he underachieved at TSU. Sure, I guess one could argue he has so far here (I wouldn't) but I don't see how you could at TSU. He had as many winnings seasons in his time there (2) than they had in the previous 20 years combined.

He knows what he is trying to build this first year and it revolves around the culture, not wins and losses and I am perfectly ok with that.

He had one good year where he went 20 - 11 but lost in the first round of the OVC tourney. The next 2 years was only 4 games over .500 combined. Saying he had as many winning seasons as in the past 20 years is not a huge accomplishment when you look at the his overall record. He had the defensive player of the year in Christian Mekowulu but had no clue how to use him. This was just my opinion and I think he could have done a lot more at TSU than what he showed.

20>4? It's Tennessee State, it's not Murray

[MSUDuo]

Based on what I've read on our message board and heard in the community most Bears fans believe Ford is the guy to turn MSU around.

He's saying and doing all the right things. BUT there's no doubt that we are underachieving this year. There's some talent on this roster. We shouldn't be at the bottom of the MVC this year but it's looking like we will be.

Have to give him a break this first year. Next year is when we really need to show significant improvement.

It's tough for me to say he's underachieved considering how little he has available. Is there talent? Most definitely but there is so little of it now.

[glm38]

Based on what I've read on our message board and heard in the community most Bears fans believe Ford is the guy to turn MSU around.

He's saying and doing all the right things. BUT there's no doubt that we are underachieving this year. There's some talent on this roster. We shouldn't be at the bottom of the MVC this year but it's looking like we will be.

Have to give him a break this first year. Next year is when we really need to show significant improvement.

It's tough for me to say he's underachieved considering how little he has available. Is there talent? Most definitely but there is so little of it now.

I think we've showed enough offensive ability as a team to have won a number of the games we have lost. It's our defense that has let us down. Our players seem lost on defense a lot of the time. Ford has stated his players just aren't grasping the importance of defense yet. That's says underachieving to me.

[jackwagon]

Put it this way- This MSU team is more talented than Evansville and Drake easily. They probably have as much talent as UNI and are in the ballpark talent wise with a few others. Many are new to the program this year, but look around most teams have tons of new players. Of MSU top 7 players Ritter is the only one that is not a JR or a SR. They should be able to compete to stay out of Thursday if Ford is doing a good job.

[BCPanther]

IMO, it's near impossible to underachieve in year one unless you've been handed a championship roster from a coach that's moved on.

If you're already disappointed in Ford, he'll least never be able to win you over. Patience, folks.