Ron Cook has a must read today.

Much more interesting was a question Dixon had.

“Why is it Pittsburgh people always seem to worry about people leaving Pittsburgh?”

It was the best question of the interview.

“I guess it’s our paranoia complex, our inferiority complex, whatever you want to call it,” I explained to Dixon.

We don’t always think we’re good enough. The first time someone has success here, we look for him to leave. For some reason, we don’t think we have enough to offer to keep the really good people.

In Pitt’s case, it didn’t help that a few high-profile coaches left over the years. Ben Howland left after the 2002-03 basketball season because there’s only one UCLA in the college game. Jackie Sherrill left after the 1981 football season because Texas A&M threw gobs of money at him. Johnny Majors left after the 1976 national championship football season because Tennessee was home.

I’ve commented on the Pitt paranoia with coaches from time-to-time. It has manifested in the coaching searches and the desire to find coaches with ties to the program (Wannstedt) or the city (Prosser). As if that would be the additional hook needed to keep a coach at Pitt.

I’m not terribly bothered by sniffing from other programs and teams. It happens. It is a natural part of the food chain. Whether it is a bigger school trying to grab another school’s coach or whether it is the pros making an inquiry. You have to expect it when you have success.

This paranoia thing is getting pretty sickening, especially when it comes to Pitt athletics. Maybe the place was a black hole before former athletic director Steve Pederson came to town in 1996 and changed the culture, before Heinz Field and the Petersen Events Center were built, before Howland and Dixon and Harris and Wannstedt were hired. But it’s certainly not a black hole now.

Where would Dixon go to get a better job?

Unless the Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky or Kansas jobs open, I mean?

Arizona State, to which Dixon has been linked?

Please.

At Pitt, Dixon is coaching in college basketball’s best conference. He has the strong support of chancellor Mark Nordenberg, as athletic department-friendly as any college administrator. He has wonderful fan support; Pitt has sold out its season tickets since the Petersen Events Center opened four years ago. He has a terrific home-court advantage; Pitt is 61-5 in the new building.

Nordenberg still needs to make sure he’s paying the going rate. He should bump Dixon to the same $1 million-plus salary that he offered Howland to stay. He also should pour even more of that Petersen Center revenue back into the basketball program. It would be nice, for example, if Pitt chartered flights to its away games — the way other top programs do — instead of flying commercial.

But those things are doable.

The main attraction for the Arizona State job would be the money. It’s a rebuilding job, and the recruiting area would be no better or worse. ASU is sinking a lot of money into trying to get its athletic operations near the top. Lute Olson won’t be around much longer at Arizona (he’s in his 70s isn’t he?), and that could help them in the state. What if they come at Dixon with $1.5 million or something absurd?

I can see Pitt getting something done with Dixon, and they might consider taking a page from what WVU did with Beilein and make sure the buyout isn’t cheap in the first few years.

I’ll also pose a different question. How long a contract? Dixon’s fan support seems kind of shallow. It seems more about not wanting to lose him than wanting to keep him at times. What happens if Pitt stumbles in the NCAA? Or gets off to a less than stellar start next season?

I’m very happy with Dixon. He answered a lot of questions I had about him going into the season, and based on last year. Handling/controlling Krauser; playing and integrating the new kids; using the bench; in-game adjustments and game strategy; and the development of players.

As for Coach Dixon, he might want to read this piece from Seth Davis about how Bruce Pearl turning around the Volunteers in one season just raised the expectations and pressure on every coach going to a new rebuilding job.

People forget that it doesn’t usually work like this. Most of the time it takes years to turn a program around. It’s hard enough to preach patience in today’s world, but now Pearl has justified the inflated sense of urgency. After all, if he can work this kind of magic for Tennessee, why can’t someone else do it for your favorite school?

So here’s my advice to any coach who is thinking about taking a new job: Make sure your new contract has a lucrative buyout clause. If the school wants to fire you for not turning things around fast enough (like yesterday), they’ll have to pay. If they’re not willing to give you the buyout, don’t take the job. Because for all his bluster, Pearl will be the first to tell you that there’s some luck involved in all of this, too.

But nobody wants to hear about bad luck. Nobody wants to wait ’til next year. All they have to do is make it to next month, when a new flavor comes along, bringing with it the promise of sweet success that can be devoured in an instant.

One area of luck Pitt has had has been the lack of big injuries for players. That has made a huge difference.