Cupboard growing empty at MSU

Rumors fly, but here’s what we know: Whomever Mississippi State hires to succeed Rick Stansbury as its basketball coach will be rebuilding.

Dee Bost played out his eligibility. Renardo Sidney quit, which, granted, probably amounts to addition by subtraction. True story: My wife, who cares – and knows – nothing about basketball, looked up from her laptop during a late-season State TV game and asked, “Why does that great big (heavy) guy for State keep walking down the court when everybody else runs?”

She was talking, of course, about Sidney. My answer: I guess because he can. But back to the original point. …

Read more: ClarionLedger.com

SIDNEY RETURNS TO HOUSTON; WON’T TRAVEL TO EUROPE

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Stansbury announced Friday that junior forward Renardo Sidney returned to Houston, Texas, earlier this week to workout with former NBA standout John Lucas in preparation for the upcoming season.

Sidney, who now won’t travel to Europe in two weeks with MSU, trained with Lucas back in May and June.

“Renardo Sidney has returned to Houston, Texas, to continue working out with John Lucas,” said Stansbury, who is entering his 14^th season at the helm of the MSU program. “He will not accompany the team to Europe next month, but he is expected back on campus for the start of the fall semester in mid-August.”

The Bulldogs will depart for Amsterdam on Aug. 5 and return to the United States on Aug. 15. During their time overseas, they will play five games in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Teams are allowed to make trips to foreign countries once every four years, but players can participate just one time during the career.

Per MSU Athletics: Sidney returns to Houston; won’t travel to Europe

While not on the level of Sidney’s struggles, Lucas found the life lessons relatable to Sidney’s travels across the AAU circuit from Jackson to Los Angeles. As an eighth-grader, Sidney was viewed as the next big thing. Some experts tabbed the 6-foot-10 center as one of the five best players in the nation, but the NCAA later determined he received extra benefits in high school and lied to NCAA enforcement staff in an investigation. His punishment was a long sit on the bench at MSU as a freshman and the first half of last season.

“Athletes are treated like royalty long before we need to be, so what happens is we quit and don’t have anything to look forward to because everyone is treating us like the stars that we’re not,” Lucas said.

Read more of “Refocused Sidney eyes fresh start” on ClarionLedger.com
7.13.11

Bulldogs’ Sidney will play another season

STARKVILLE — Renardo Sidney says he’s not ready to try professional basketball. The 6-foot-10 sophomore forward confirmed Thursday his intention to return to Mississippi State next fall and play a second year for the Bulldogs, whose season ended last week in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Sidney, who averaged 14.2 points and 7.6 rebounds in 19 games this season, told reporters after MSU’s season-ending loss to Vanderbilt he wasn’t sure if he would return. A couple days later, he posted on his Facebook page that he would be back. He confirmed the validity of the message Thursday in a text message to The Clarion-Ledger.

clarionledger.com
3/18/11

According to The Dispatch, Sidney put the following post on his Facebook page:

“YES for all you BULLDOG fans I will attend MSU another yr and I promise to work even harder than I have ever work b4 getting in shape is my main focus… watch out for them DOGS next season!!!”

Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury had yet to confirm the news, according to the report.

Read more of “Renardo Sidney says he’ll return to Mississippi State next season” on USAToday.com
3.16.11

“My dad is kind of strong but I had to listen to my mom cry all the time about what they were saying about me on the TV and she had to cut the game off sometimes because they say all kinds of harsh things,” said Sidney, Mississippi State’s highly touted 6-foot-10 sophomore center, a frequent target this year of criticism for off-the-court antics and a perceived lack of effort on the court. “But we try to keep it together and stay strong.”

Read more of “Humbled Sid: ‘My attitude was bad’” on ClarionLedger.com
3.9.11

“It’s been a long time coming,” Sidney said. “I thought about every question you all are going to ask me and I think I’m ready for it.”

And he was. Rarely did Sidney go into controversial territory or make declarative statements that could appear arrogant. His closest moment came when he was asked to reflect on his comments in December, when he said he believed he was the best big man in the country.

“I still do,” Sidney said, before adding a caveat.”I still think I’m the best big man in the SEC right now, but it’s just conditioning and coming to practice every day and working hard and try to be in my conditioning. I know it’s not going to be overnight, but I’m working toward it.”

Read more of “Sidney discusses fistfight, media criticism and more” from Brandon Marcello’s Blog on ClarionLedger.com
3.8.11

On the surface, this is what Sidney’s critics see: A superior, blue-chip athlete who has been told how great he is all his young life, someone so gifted that he never had to work hard to be better than everybody else.

So the moment that Sidney is truly tested by a series of negative events — by the NCAA penalty, by his fight with a former teammate in the stands at a Hawaiian tourney, by getting ripped weekly by TV analysts for being out-of-shape — he doesn’t know how to handle it.

Because his answer had always been to put up a 25-point, 20-rebound game or something like it, and it always came easy.

And now it doesn’t, at least for the time being, but it’s getting better. In his last five games, he had three double-doubles and averaged 14 points and 10.8 rebounds.

Read more of “MSU’s Sidney making big turnaround” on CommercialAppeal.com
2.23.11

“Honestly, we want him to be able to talk,” Stansbury said. “There’s no problem from that standpoint. It’s just, because of his situation, what he’s been through and what’s happened to him this year, there’s so many things that (reporters) can trip him with and he doesn’t understand how to respond.”

Sidney is participating in “mock interviews” in preparation to face the media, Stansbury said.

Read more of “Sidney preparing for interviews” on ClarionLedger.com
2.23.11

Sidney has been off-limits to Mississippi reporters through most of his tumultuous first season. We knew he could tweet; we just didn’t know he could talk. His coach wouldn’t let him.

As always, Sidney was requested for post-game interviews by local TV and print media. The request was denied, we were told, because the university wants to protect Sidney. State basketball publicist Gregg Ellis made the announcement and a argument, quite heated, ensued.

You mean, we asked, you escorted him to do an interview on regional TV, but he can’t go before tape recorders and notepads of the people who regularly cover the team?

Read more of “Stansbury doing Sidney no favors by continuing to coddle, shield him” on ClarionLedger.com
2.21.11