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Rachel Crader
Rachel Crader is the editor of semoball.com. She graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in May of 2009 before spending the summer covering the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Highlights from Rachel's days in college include having a class down the hall from Chase Daniel and having NCAA wrestling champion Ben Askren hold the door open for her at Brady Commons, Mizzou's student center. She spent time covering Mizzou basketball, softball and baseball while working for the Columbia Missourian and is excited to return home to Southeast Missouri to cover local sports for semoball.com.

Rachel has covered three Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournaments for the Southeast Missourian and semoball.com, and she'll see you courtside again this year.
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COLUMN: Rick Ray is more than his record but less than an easy sell as Southeast men's coach

Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2015, at 12:33 AM

If Dickey Nutt was the .500 mid-major coach who frustrated fans with underachieving teams, particularly in the playoffs, then Rick Ray is the losing SEC coach who couldn't convince fans to care enough to keep his job.

For the casual or perhaps recently discouraged Southeast Missouri State men's basketball fan, Monday evening's announcement of Ray as the Redhawks new coach will be a hard sell on paper.

Even as news that Ray was a finalist spread, the questions started.

Southeast's hiring a guy with a 37-60 record as a head coach? Is this the best the Redhawks can do?

"Of course, there's going to be a wait-and-see attitude," Southeast Missouri State athletic director Mark Alnutt said after he introduced Ray. "There always is, but I feel like the excitement has already started and that's something we can easily overcome -- looking at a person's record."

For the more dedicated -- or perhaps optimistic -- fan, it doesn't take long to understand that Ray's resume requires, and even deserves, more consideration that a simple glance at his win-loss totals.

He took over a MSU program three years ago that was riddled with off-court issues, and by all accounts built it into a respected program in every way but the easiest to judge, which is on-court performance. The Bulldogs recently finished an injury-filled season 13-19 overall and 6-12 in the SEC.

He was fired March 21 by MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin despite the fact that the improvement was obvious, even to him.

"Honestly, what Scott told me is that he was so high on Rick Ray," said Alnutt, who spoke with Stricklin after an initial interview with Ray. "He said the only thing -- this is what he told me -- he said it was a point of fan apathy, whatever that means, whatever the case is it was the reason for a needed transition there. But in terms of him coming in, being the right person for the job, cleaning out all these issues -- he did that with character. He did that with class."

He also appeared to be well on his way to bringing better talent to the Bulldogs, with three- and four-star recruits committed to his 2016 class.

I think it would be unfair to reduce Ray to his accomplishments at MSU, and my favorite part of his initial speech was easily when he addressed his record there.

"The last thing I'll say here is I built a program over at Mississippi State," Ray said. "I laid down a foundation, and I didn't get a chance to complete my task. There's nobody -- nobody -- in this room that is more hungry to go out and prove themself, and SEMO has given me the opportunity to prove myself that we're going to get it done. I'm looking forward to it, and I know that we will be successful here because we're going to put together the right team, the right staff, and we're going to make sure we're successful here."

Those words are pretty convincing on their own, but watching from the audience I sensed a shift in his demeanor when he said them. There was a bit of obsession mixed with a determination that I couldn't help but appreciate.

"When you've been through the experience that I've been through, which is a positive experience, what you learn is what to do, but the most important thing you learn is what not to do," Ray added later. "Most people, when they get into a Mississippi State University, an SEC school, they've been a head coach at a Southeast Missouri State first, so I kind of got thrown to the wolves right away there in the SEC and how challenging of a league that is, and so I walk away from there knowing how to build a program. We did a lot of good things there, but the end result we didn't win enough, so now I know the things that we need to handle off the court and how quickly we need to change the way we do some things on the court in order to experience success."

I found Ray convincing in these moments, but just as it would be unfair to focus only on his record, it would be unwise to ignore the challenges he faces.

Ray insisted that he wanted to focus on building relationships with current players -- something he likely learned the importance of when there was an exodus from MSU after he was hired -- and selecting a staff, but he has roster holes to fill as well, particularly in the front court, and signing day is Wednesday.

He also made some strong promises to bring fans into the Show Me Center and drum up interest in the team, but his inability to do that was in part what led to his firing at MSU. As was the case at MSU, he enters the job with most knowing he wasn't the first choice. Multiple sources told me that Virginia Tech assistant and former Murray State assistant Isaac Chew turned down the job earlier Monday. Michigan State assistant Dwayne Stephens may have done the same.

Alnutt said Ray will get out into the community to drum up support and is on board with the university's marketing plans. He a charismatic man with obvious passion. I suspect most Southeast fans who meet him will like him.

The question is whether or not the frustrated fans and apathetic students who have left thousands of empty seats in the Show Me Center for years now will see past his record and listen to his message.

That's going to be difficult unless the message is that his team is winning. As Alnutt said, they'll be waiting to see.

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