Just an few small Basketball stories. Can we officially call the NC State Wolfpack basketball team, Pitt South? They now have two former Panther players as assistant coaches.
Pete Strickland, a former head coach at Coastal Carolina, has joined Sidney Lowe’s new basketball staff at N.C. State.
Strickland, 48, played prep ball at Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha under Morgan Wootten, and once coached Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg during summer league ball in the Washington, D.C. area.
Strickland began work at State on Friday after a series of telephone conversations with Lowe earlier in the week.
Also on the Lowe staff will be former Herb Sendek aide Larry Harris, former Wolfpack guard Quentin Jackson and Monte Towe, the point guard on State’s 1974 NCAA title team and previously the head coach at the University of New Orleans.
At Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C., Strickland was 70-127 in seven seasons as head coach. He previously worked at Dayton, Old Dominion and Virginia Military. As a standout guard at Pitt during his college career, he played on the same teams with the high-scoring Harris.
[Emphasis added.]
I would have really liked Pitt to try and get Larry Harris to come back to Pitt. Unfortunately, Harris seems very happy in the Raleigh area. Part of the reason he returned as an assistant to NC State after initially heading to Tempe with Herb Sendek.
Getting to be a very curious thing to see who gets hired to be the next Pitt assistant or associate head coach. Assuming Orlando Antigua gets promoted to an assistant from director of basketball operations and Pat Sandle remains, there is only one opening there and an opening for a new director of basketball operations — which would go to a younger, newer guy trying to climb the coaching ranks. Should Pitt hire a former Panther — like Darrelle Porter as an assistant? Should they look elsewhere? I think it’s smart for Dixon to take his time right now. Chris Dokish has some information on this front.
The NCAA’s academic progress goals has created an interesting thing with regards to transfers.
With the NCAA’s academic reforms pressuring programs to keep players progressing toward degrees, some coaches are declining to release players who want to transfer until they complete spring semester classwork. Marquette’s Tom Crean is among them. He waited to release SG Dameon Mason (now at LSU) last spring and this year required PF Ryan Amoroso to finish up. Unless players who transfer do so in good academic standing, there’s a chance their first schools eventually could lose scholarships.
That seems like something someone should also pass along to the football side of things. Transfers are more prevelant and common in football. Pitt has lost several over the last couple of years. Hopefully the athletic department is on top of this.
DeJuan Blair out of Schenley High still has Pitt high on his list. Have to figure an offer will come soon for him and D.J. Kennedy.
