Rick Ray (born May 8, 1970) is an American basketball coach. He was most recently the head basketball coach at
Southeast Missouri State. He was previously the head coach at
Mississippi State
Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...
.
Ray was born in
Compton, California; however, his family moved to Kansas City when Ray was 6 years old. He is an All-American Scholar Athlete basketball player who played at
Grand View College, where he majored in Applied Mathematics and Secondary Education. After graduation, Ray worked as an
actuary in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, but soon realized that he wanted to be a basketball coach. He quit his actuary job and became a coach and teacher at a high school in
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
. After years, he left to become a graduate assistant coach at
Nebraska-Omaha
The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...
. While at Nebraska-Omaha, he also earned a master's degree in Sports Administration. From there, Ray was an assistant coach at
Indiana State
Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...
,
Northern Illinois
Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010.
Economics
Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...
,
Purdue, and
Clemson, before being hired by Mississippi State.
Upon hiring Ray, Mississippi State Athletics Director
Scott Stricklin said, “Rick fits the model of head coach we have sought to bring into our program over the last several years. He is bright, enthusiastic, disciplined and is a man of integrity. He has served with some of the top head and assistant coaches in college basketball and will bring a piece of all of them to our head coaching position.”
On March 21, 2015 Ray was fired by Mississippi State. He was subsequently hired by Southeast Missouri State. After finishing the 2019-20 season with a 7-24 record, Ray was let go by Southeast Missouri State.
Head coaching record
References
External links
Southeast Missouri State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Rick
1970 births
Living people
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Missouri
Basketball players from Missouri
Clemson Tigers men's basketball coaches
Grand View Vikings men's basketball players
Indiana State Sycamores men's basketball coaches
Mississippi State Bulldogs men's basketball coaches
Northern Illinois Huskies men's basketball coaches
Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball coaches
Southeast Missouri State Redhawks men's basketball coaches