Ray puts focus on current Southeast Missouri State men's basketball players

The spring signing period that begins today and lasts until May 20 for Division I basketball is already upon Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray, and he hasn't even been on the job for a full 48 hours.

While it might seem like an immediate concern that needs to be addressed to bolster the Redhawks' roster for next season, Ray doesn't approach it that way.

"People always talk about recruiting and to me. I don't ever worry about that because the most important recruits that we have are the young men that I just got done meeting with in that locker room," Ray said during his introductory press conference Monday at the Show Me Center. "We've got to quickly sit down and start to build relationships with them and then once I start to build relationships with them bring a staff in that's going to start to build relationships with them, because I'm telling you when you bring young men to this campus as potential student-athletes and recruits they're going to know the truth and they're going to get truth from those guys that are current student-athletes, so we've got to make sure we put together a first-class experience for them, so that when they come on campus these recruits feel comfortable about the environment here."

Ray knows that between securing a "top notch" staff and recruiting future players he must dedicate the time to meeting with his players, especially in non-basketball related situations.

Ten players remain from Southeast's last team under former coach Dickey Nutt, who was fired March 23 after six seasons. The Redhawks had five seniors exhaust their eligibility last season: 6-foot-5 all-conference guard Jarekious Bradley, 6-9 forward Nino Johnson, 6-7 forward Aaron Adeoye, 6-7 guard Josh Langford and 6-3 guard Caleb Woods.

"I understand right now that those guys are going through a little bit of a shock and trying to figure out what's their lot in life at this point in time," said Ray, who was fired March 21 from Mississippi State after three seasons. "It's my job to make sure that they understand that I understand what they're going through."

The first step in the whole process will be for Ray to assemble his staff. He'll sit down to talk with the three remaining assistants from Nutt's staff -- Jamie Rosser, Stetson Hairston and Justin Argenal -- and decide if any of them staying was best for everyone involved. He's already begun to talk to others "behind the scenes" about potentially being Redhawks assistants.

"I can't promise that we're keeping anybody. I can't promise that we'll keep all three," Ray said. "But I want to make sure I sit down and have discussions with the coaching staff and give them a fair opportunity to see if this is something that can work."

His ideal staff will be men whose vision for the program fits with his as well as people capable of recruiting the area. Ray, who grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, recruited heavily in St. Louis while he was an assistant at Indiana State, in Illinois when he was at Purdue and Memphis while he was at Mississippi State.

"If there's a young man that's good enough to play in the Ohio Valley Conference that's in our radius, that's in our recruiting circle, that's in our recruiting footprint, we want him coming here to Southeast Missouri State," Ray said, "and we got to make sure we put all efforts into doing that."

The first efforts after hiring a staff will be for Ray's assistants to make contact with prospective players while he tries to connect with the players left from last season.

"Now when they do that I'll come in and start building relationships with them and we'll kind of like tag-team it," Ray said. "I'll go out and build relationships with the recruits while they're here building relationships with the team and then we'll flip again. We'll find a way to make it work."

In the midst of all that Ray has two players who signed their National Letter of Intent to play for Nutt at Southeast during the early signing period in November that he will also need to meet.

Southwest Mississippi Community College transfer Xavion Dillon and Marion (Illinois) High School senior Robby Dosier both signed to be Redhawks and have anxiously waited to see who their next coach would be.

Dillon, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward, had not been contacted by Ray as of Tuesday afternoon, but his coach, Thomas Gray, anticipates hearing from the new coach soon and for Dillon to have a chance to sit down and meet with him.

Gray has met Ray several times while recruiting in Mississippi and has been impressed by him as a coach and person.

He said Dillon, who had other options at the Division I level, mostly remained patient for the announcement of a new coach because of the contact made by Argenal, and Gray's glad he did not ask for a release from his NLI.

"I think it is as good of a hire as it could possibly be," Gray said. "Like I said, Justin was the reason that he stayed on this long, and I think it's going to definitely pay off because Coach Ray could not be a better situation. He brings the experience, he brings the knowledge, he brings the personality that Xavion's going to want to play under, someone that's going to care for him more than just the basketball side of things, and that's what Xavion's all about and that's what he's looking for in a coach. I think he could not be a better fit. Obviously I will not know much more until Coach Ray and Xavion sit down together on the surety of it, but I would assume from both parties that it would be a really good match."

Ray has watched film and will continue to evaluate the returning players. He said that last year's team being picked to finish second in the Ohio Valley Conference West Division behind eventual conference champion Murray State showed promise, although the Redhawks were unable to live up to that as they finished 7-9 and eighth in the OVC.

"So now it's like, 'What do we need to do to make that talent come to fruition and make people live up to expectations?'" Ray said. "We lost a lot of people on the front line, and I think the one thing we need to do is address our front line and figure out a way to complement some of the perimeter talent that we have."

Southeast returns several guards that procured significant playing time by the end of the season, including freshman Marcus Wallace, sophomores Antonius Cleveland and Jamaal Calvin and junior Isiah Jones.

One guarantee that Ray will make about his recruiting is that it will be entirely within NCAA regulations.

"If we've got to do something beyond the lines in order to get a young man to come to Southeast Missouri State, then don't recruit him," Ray said. "We're going to do things and handle things with integrity and we're going to do things the right way. I have a reputation of doing it that way. I've never had a hint of improprieties -- not even a secondary violation -- because to me it's how I carry myself and it's the way I want to be thought of."

The current Southeast players continue to complete workouts, and Ray is excited about the opportunity to meet with them individually and discuss their future.

"I think we have some talent already here, and I think we have the potential to go out and get some more talent to infuse with the talent we already have here, so to me that's what makes it exciting," Ray said.