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Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 12:27 pm
by BlueYonder
Pitt basketball may be at or near an all-time low.  Just five years ago, Pitt had completed a 10 year run where only Duke and Kansas had won more in the ten years than did Pitt.  With Jaime, they didn't get 5 star recruits (only Adams and Taylor), and they didn't do well in the NCAAs, but they competed very well in the Big East tournament, and every year they were relevant.  This year, after hiring a new coach who under achieved at Vanderbilt, after having a senior heavy team that under-achieved and was 4-14 in the ACC last year, after seeing several players transfer and some recruits de-commit, they are left with a team with 2 players with a little bit of D1 experience.  They may not win a game in the ACC (I would put the over under at 1/2 wins).  They then start off the season with losses to Navy and Montana.  I do not see one reason to be excited about anything in the near future.  How many years do you allow Stallings to prove himself before you let him go.  I don't see that happening this year.  Pitt is not a blue blood - not even close.  But they need to look closely at what went wrong and what they can do to get back to even being close to what they had with Jaime.

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 12:42 pm
by Crimson's Ghost
He'll get next year, and that's probably it unless they show signs of life. This team is extremely inexperienced, and frankly not that talented.  They still have a few good young players, but it's going to take time to come out of this hole.

I don't think Stallings is the worst coach in the world, but he was a very bad hire for this current job.  He also walked into a rather bleak situation.  Last year's team only had 2-3 good players and a bunch of role players, it wasn't enough to compete in the ACC.  Dixon left the shelf kinda bare.


Dixon got lazy towards the end here, former AD Barnes didn't handle the hiring process very well, and Stallings just isn't a very likable guy on top of being just an OK coach.   It took the perfect storm to get here, and yet it happened. 

It'll be tough to get back to where they were in 2002-2011.  The move to the ACC is part of it, they lost their identity.


It's going to be a while until they find themselves competitive.

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 9:47 pm
by konjo78
This problem started 6 or so years ago. Jamie Dixon was a good coach but a horrible recruiter in the end. The new Pitt coach was a sign that the athletic department didn't care that much for Basketball. Pitt could of tried to bring in a Jamie Dixon name value coach, or even pick up a mid major coach who's had success.

I don't know if the program is going to respond because without success recruits won't see a good reason to come to pittsburgh for basketball

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 10:05 pm
by El-Moldo
This is not a slam regarding PSU basketball, but an answer to BlueWonder's question of how long do you allow a coach to prove himself before you let him go? Stallings, as of right now, has coached ONE season and two games for Pitt. Doesn't he get a chance? Pat Chambers at PSU, on the other hand, has had ONE winning season (18 Wins-16 Losses in 2014-2015) in SIX years. Has a .444 winning percentage in total games, and .271 winning percentage in conference games. Aren't the natives restless in Happy Valley, or don't they care? They seem to be giving him a chance. I say give Stallings a chance with the material he has to work with.

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 10:27 pm
by konjo78
El-Moldo wrote:This is not a slam regarding PSU basketball, but an answer to BlueWonder's question of how long do you allow a coach to prove himself before you let him go? Stallings, as of right now, has coached ONE season and two games for Pitt. Doesn't he get a chance? Pat Chambers at PSU, on the other hand, has had ONE winning season (18 Wins-16 Losses in 2014-2015) in SIX years. Has a .444 winning percentage in total games, and .271 winning percentage in conference games. Aren't the natives restless in Happy Valley, or don't they care? They seem to be giving him a chance. I say give Stallings a chance with the material he has to work with.
They dont care. Answered that for you

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 10:52 pm
by BlueYonder
El-Moldo wrote:This is not a slam regarding PSU basketball, but an answer to BlueWonder's question of how long do you allow a coach to prove himself before you let him go? Stallings, as of right now, has coached ONE season and two games for Pitt. Doesn't he get a chance? Pat Chambers at PSU, on the other hand, has had ONE winning season (18 Wins-16 Losses in 2014-2015) in SIX years. Has a .444 winning percentage in total games, and .271 winning percentage in conference games. Aren't the natives restless in Happy Valley, or don't they care? They seem to be giving him a chance. I say give Stallings a chance with the material he has to work with.
I think he deserves a chance.  The question always is, what constitutes a fair chance?  Does that mean he gets a year to get his feet wet plus four to get one recruiting class to their senior year?  Normally - I would say that is what it would take.  However, he already under-achieved with a pretty good senior class last year and - for whatever reason - a lot of players left or de-committed.  That being said - I think giving him until the end of the 2018-19 season is reasonable.   I just didn't like the hire in the first place.  I guess how much of a chance they give him will depend on how serious (or if they are serious) they are about having a solid B-ball program.  What's scary is he had NBA players at Vanderbilt, and he hardly got them to the NCAA's. So what can we expect with this group?

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 11:09 pm
by El-Moldo
Pitt hired Stallings with 17 years previous experience. PSU hired Chambers after only TWO years at Boston University. Maybe that's why the Nits are getting a solid under .500 team year after year. I think the Stallings hire was good. Will just have to see what happens.

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 11:12 pm
by konjo78
El-Moldo wrote:Pitt hired Stallings with 17 years previous experience. PSU hired Chambers after only TWO years at Boston University. Maybe that's why the Nits are getting a solid under .500 team year after year. I think the Stallings hire was good. Will just have to see what happens.
When did this become Penn State basketball thread? Are you really that obsessed

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 11:31 pm
by Crimson's Ghost
El-Moldo wrote:Pitt hired Stallings with 17 years previous experience. PSU hired Chambers after only TWO years at Boston University. Maybe that's why the Nits are getting a solid under .500 team year after year. I think the Stallings hire was good. Will just have to see what happens.
I'm not sure what the correlation with Chambers is here. Thought we were talking about Pitt. He has nothing to do with their coaching situation. 

It would make more sense to base the Pitt situation with perhaps another conference team. 

Re: Pitt Basketball

Posted: November 14th, 2017, 11:34 pm
by Crimson's Ghost
BlueYonder wrote:
El-Moldo wrote:This is not a slam regarding PSU basketball, but an answer to BlueWonder's question of how long do you allow a coach to prove himself before you let him go? Stallings, as of right now, has coached ONE season and two games for Pitt. Doesn't he get a chance? Pat Chambers at PSU, on the other hand, has had ONE winning season (18 Wins-16 Losses in 2014-2015) in SIX years. Has a .444 winning percentage in total games, and .271 winning percentage in conference games. Aren't the natives restless in Happy Valley, or don't they care? They seem to be giving him a chance. I say give Stallings a chance with the material he has to work with.
I think he deserves a chance.  The question always is, what constitutes a fair chance?  Does that mean he gets a year to get his feet wet plus four to get one recruiting class to their senior year?  Normally - I would say that is what it would take.  However, he already under-achieved with a pretty good senior class last year and - for whatever reason - a lot of players left or de-committed.  That being said - I think giving him until the end of the 2018-19 season is reasonable.   I just didn't like the hire in the first place.  I guess how much of a chance they give him will depend on how serious (or if they are serious) they are about having a solid B-ball program.  What's scary is he had NBA players at Vanderbilt, and he hardly got them to the NCAA's. So what can we expect with this group?
Couple things

I don't think he underachieved much with last year's team. They were honest to God not very good.  They maybe should have won a game or two more. They had 2 good players, 1 good shooter, and that was about it.  The other 3 main guys shouldn't have been starting ACC basketball games, and they didn't have a point guard. It was a very flawed roster in a very good league. 

Also

I also think a lot of the kids that left, were given honest assessments about their futures here. I think it was a mutual departure.