Barely a mention of tomorrow night’s game. Coach Dixon apparently made an effort to say that “Seton Hall is a very good team,” but the talk centered on a contract extension and the Academic Progress Report.

“I’m confident that Jamie Dixon will be our coach,” Long said Wednesday.

He was responding to recent reports that Dixon’s name has been linked to several men’s basketball job vacancies, as well as an anticipated opening at Arizona State, where Rob Evans is rumored to be out at season’s end.

Dixon, in his third year, has four years remaining on a contract reportedly worth more than $550,000 per year.

“I’m not surprised his name is being mentioned, and there will be more,” Long said. “Arizona State is not the only place you’re going to hear Jamie Dixon’s name.

“Pitt is prepared to make Pitt the best opportunity for Jamie Dixon.”

There are 2 ways an AD can deal with the stories and questions that arise from them. Ignore/deflect them by saying things like, “we have not been contacted by any schools,” or “this is something that will be addressed after the season, right now the full attention is on winning ‘X’.” The other way is straight on, as AD Jeff Long appears to be doing (mostly).

The contract negotiations could be a little different this time.

“I want to make it clear that we think the job Jamie is doing is outstanding, and we want him to be here a long time. It’s my job to keep Pitt the best opportunity for Jamie Dixon. And I think Pitt is the best opportunity for Jamie Dixon.”

Dixon, 40, has four years remaining on his current contract that pays him in the neighborhood of $600,000 annually. His original contract was extended after his first season.

Dixon is a Big East and national coach of the year candidate and has directed Pitt to its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance in three seasons.

He does not have an agent, but he had a lawyer look over the contract extension he signed after his first season. He said he did not hire an agent because Pitt asked him not to have representation. Since then he has been approached by agents and did not rule out having one represent him in the next round of contract negotiations.
…
One of the published reports linking Dixon to Arizona State indicated he could be had because “Dixon is one of the lowest-paid coaches in the Big East.”

Long disputed that assertion yesterday. He would not say how much Dixon is making or where he is slotted in the conference, but he did say that Dixon is not one of the four lowest-paid coaches in the Big East.

He also said it would do no good to announce a contract extension during the season and that such a statement wouldn’t quell rumors about other jobs.

“There would be speculation regardless,” Long said. “Every time a job opens, there’s going to be the rumors.”

If I had to guess, I’d say that these 4 coaching jobs are paying less right now: Cinci, St. John’s, USF and probably Seton Hall (or DePaul). Dixon is almost assuredly, though, in the lower half. UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, Marquette, and Villanova are all $1 million + annual deals. RU was up near that until yesterday. WVU and ND are in the upper-half.

The article also mentions that AD Long will be trying to get the team on more chartered flights to get the players back faster.

The other big story, is of course the Academic Progress Report. Apparently it was a little closer to penalties than would have been liked for the Pitt basketball team.

Only men’s basketball was below the APR’s two-year standard of 925.

But while the program scored 905, it fell within the NCAA’s safe range and will not be subject to scholarship penalties.

Unlike NCAA graduation rate reports that document academic performance six years prior, the APR, which was instituted last year by the NCAA, measures current student-athletes’ progress by rewarding points annually for retention, eligibility and graduation on a term-by-term basis.

Seems like there are still bugs to be worked out of it.

“It’s more up to date but there’s still problems with it,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “This past year, we lost kids who had already graduated. You’re talking about losing points when you’ve reached your goal. We put our kids in a position to graduate early, and we’re being penalized. That’s flawed.”

Dixon isn’t overly concerned but said he has been in contact with NCAA officials to point out what he insisted are inaccuracies in the report, adding, “They were not aware of it.”

Both Chevon Troutman and Mark McCarroll had fulfilled requirements and technically graduated over the summer before the season started, but were taking more classes. Neither (along with Chris Taft) finished their classes in the Spring semester.

But they needed to be enrolled in classes the second semester to be eligible to play basketball. They enrolled, but failed to finish the courses after the season ended.

“We’ve had to adjust how we do things,” Dixon said. “It’s actually more of a benefit to us if we slow kids down to graduation and delay them a semester,

“It’s still a flawed report. However, I still think it’s better than the graduation rate. The NCAA is working on legislation to improve the APR.”

The good news for Pitt is that all its other programs are in good academic standing, and most of them received excellent marks. The football program scored a 943 — significantly higher than the national average for football programs (929) — the volleyball program scored 1.000 and the women’s basketball program a 983.

Several other local programs fell below the minimum standards but remained within the confidence boundary. They include Duquesne women’s basketball (920), Penn State men’s fencing (900), Robert Morris field hockey (921) and West Virginia women’s basketball (915).

Here’s Pitt’s actual report from the NCAA (PDF). There is an observation on the way the information is put out there:

Take a look at the user-unfriendly APR display on the NCAA’s website, which allows you to look up individual schools but denies you the opportunity to actually see them compared on a single sheet. Not by design, right? No, of course not…

Never.