So now that the long expected departure of Barry Rohrssen has happened, what’s next for Pitt? Orlando Antigua appears to be moving up a chair to a full assistant. Right now it is not a full promotion — Coach Jamie Dixon has only told the NCAA that Antigua is filling in for the spot with the departures of Lombardi and Rohrssen untill naming a replacement. That’s important because Antiqua, along with Assistant Pat Sandle, are out on the road recruiting.
Coach Dixon released a statement in support of his departing coaches that was not exactly stunning in what it said.
“It is my desire to have assistants at the University of Pittsburgh who aspire to be head coaches,” the statement read in part. “It is a wonderful compliment to our program when other institutions are interested in our staff members for head-coaching jobs. It’s a tribute to what we’ve accomplished here not only in terms of winning on the court but also the academic achievements and character of our players.”
As the Ron Cook column notes, it isn’t like Coach Dixon won’t have a stack of applicants trying to get hired. Most of Cook’s column is just explaining that Rohrssen leaving isn’t the end of the world. (Reminder, most writers and columnists don’t write their headline. So, don’t blame Cook for the fact that the story title stresses Aaron Gray leaving as a disaster when he devotes all of 4 sentences to Gray.)
Joe Starkey’s column paints this time as new key moment for Pitt basketball. The first major shake-up to the coaching staff, the departure of Krauser and the potential loss of Gray.
Not likely. I’m betting Sandle will stick around for the job security. Gray’s probably 50-50, and lots of talent remains. But this still represents a major test. Pitt must prove it can negotiate the next turn in its development as a top-tier program.
It’s called the reloading phase.
Every successful program — college or professional — must be proficient here, because a byproduct of winning is losing good people.
The Steelers are well-schooled in the process. They’ve been losing coordinators and talented players for years. It was never truer than in the wake of their Super Bowl XL victory, when other teams lavished large contracts on Antwaan Randle El, Chris Hope and Kimo von Oelhoffen.
Pitt’s immediate task is to find a New York City recruiter to replace Rohrssen. The job is expected to fall to Big Apple native Orlando Antigua, the school’s director of basketball operations. A Pitt alumnus and former Harlem Globetrotter who is fluent in Spanish, Antigua seems like an excellent candidate.
Not that it’ll be easy to replace Rohrssen, whose departure could hurt Pitt in its pursuit of big-time recruit Tyler Smith of Hargrave Military Academy.
I’m not too concerned about how this affects the recruitment of Tyler Smith, if for no other reason that Iowa and Kentucky have both just shaken up their staffs as well. In the case of Smith I think it comes down to where he thinks he can start quickly and his comfort with the head coach.
Now on the speculation as to who will take the open coaching vacancies. Assuming Antigua is given a full-time assistant coaching gig with Pitt, that opens up the Director of Basketball Operations position. Chris Dokich thinks that promoting John Alesi to the gig might be likely. It makes a lot of sense looking at his resume and NY connections — including the fact that his father is the head coach at Brooklyn’s Xavarian High (Chris Taft and Levance Fields).
Dokish also speculates that Scott Rigot — recently purged from Kentucky’s staff, and a Pittsburgh native — might make a good assistant candidate (and it probably wouldn’t hurt in luring Tyler Smith). Read the whole post. Interesting and plausible.
The sidebar to this story on Rohrssen leaving, lists some potential candidates. Probably just as speculative, but worth noting that Larry Harris — former Pitt great, and someone I suggested merited pursuing — is on the list. It also lists Buzz Petersen — the former Tennessee head coach, now running Coastal Carolina and UCLA Assistants Ernie Ziegler and Kerry Keating.
Brandin Knight is listed as a possibility for Director of Basketball Operations, but I suspect he is still going to try one more run at the NBA.
