Why Rick Ray Hasn't Ditched Relationships In College Basketball's Most Transactional Era
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Vanderbilt assistant Rick Ray gets a lot of mail. Some of it is bills. Some of it is advertisements that immediately hit the trash can. Some makes him light up, though.
An invitation from former Mississippi State guard Craig “Chicken” Sword drew the latter reaction. Sword–who was one of Ray’s players in his three seasons as Mississippi State’s head coach–reached out to Ray in the early summer to ask him and his wife to his late-summer wedding.
It’s been nine seasons since Ray coached Sword, Ray is on his third job since. Sword has since played in the NBA, the G-League and Tasmania. Ray has seen his two sons–who he nearly exclusively refers to as “my boys”-- grow up. Yet, when it came time to trim down the invite list, Sword made it a point to reach out to Ray to invite him to be there on a life-changing day. That mattered to him.
“That means more to me than anything,” Ray told Vandy on SI in regard to the wedding invitation. “He thought enough of me to go out and invite me and my wife to his wedding. Those are the things that you want to end up happening, is that you have some sort of long-lasting relationship with the players you coach. It’s not just a transaction.”
Ray can sometimes be discouraged by college basketball’s landscape that is consistently becoming more transactional. This isn’t the game or the climate that he signed up to be a part of as a first-time college assistant at Indiana State in 1997, but he has to adapt to it if he wants to keep signing contracts.
In staff meetings, Ray often has to wear his “capologist” hat to assess player value and likely has to spend more time talking to agents than he ever thought he would. He still hasn’t forgotten what led him to get into coaching all those years ago, though.
“Some people don’t think it’s important anymore,” Ray said, “But to me the most important thing is trying to build long-lasting relationships and be a mentor to these young men and if they have something going on in their life outside of basketball that they can turn to me and hopefully I can try to help them.”
28 years, seven jobs and what may be over 1,000 games later at this point, Ray still takes players out to lunch. He still invites his players over to his house for cookouts. He still brings his two sons around the facility so that they can get to know his guys, too.
Talk to a coach from any era of Ray’s career and they’ll tell you similar things.
“Rick is a very personable guy,” Wes Flanigan–a former assistant under Ray at Mississippi State who is now on Chris Beard’s Ole Miss staff–told Vandy on SI. “All of our guys in the locker room respected that dude. I respect him.”
It’s been over 10 years since Flanigan and Ray shared a bench together, but when Flanigan and his son–Collin, an eventual Vanderbilt football commit–came to town for an official visit, it was Ray’s house that they stopped by before leaving town. Just like the players on that old Mississippi State team, Ray still makes a point to let Flanigan’s son know he’s there for him like he was back in the day.
All these years later, he still cares.
“Everybody thinks this is now transactional, but I’m just not going to buy into that,” Ray said. “At the end of the day it may not make a difference that a young man came over to my house to eat ice cream to eat a few times during the season or that we all went out and got ice cream together and talked about things outside of basketball, but I think I’m still in it to try to help young men become better and become men. Anytime I lose that, I think I need to get out of it.”
Perhaps Ray’s hands-on involvement with recruitments that he’s been a major factor in like Jason Edwards’, Frankie Collins’ and AK Okereke’s isn’t the end-all, be all in their decision making. But, it’s still noticeable to them when they evaluate their options.
“Rick did a great job, man,” Collins told Vandy on SI in regard to his recruitment. “I’m not gonna lie, he did a really good job. We broke down film from the multiple times I played against him in the Pac 12 and then played against him last year. His way of breaking down film and knowing my strengths and weaknesses, he’s great. He did an amazing job.”
Part of Ray’s pitch to Collins likely also mirrored what a call with him discussing his philosophies on his work and interest in helping his players is like.
Perhaps it isn’t what’s moving the needle in the end, but he’s likely had Collins over for lunch and dinner. He's likely had Collins meet his boys on the first floor of the Huber Center. He’ll likely check in about Collins’ life.
Maybe he’ll be invited to his–or one of his teammates’–wedding one day, too. Ray certainly hopes so.
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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