Dan Patrick did a radio interview with Coach Jamie Dixon (this should be the direct link to the mp3). Nothing about the coaching carousel. Just about the final game of the year — which Dixon said he still is not over.
The second guessing was a big thing in the Q&As the prior couple of days both with the final play and what happened to the rest of the players beyond Fields, Young and Blair.
Speaking of second guessing a guy from the Providence Journal questioned whether Coach Dixon was too amped up and it made his players too tense.
From the opening minute, intensity seemed to run off Pitt coach Jamie Dixon like sweat off the players. He was all but bouncing up and down before the game started, and every time out he would come into the huddle, his face clenched, the emotion everywhere. It never stopped, 40 minutes of frenzy, with Dixon yelling, the assistants yelling, everyone yelling, non-stop emotion. Marines running up San Juan Hill couldn’t be any more intense.
He spends the next several paragraphs conceding that all of this could mean nothing. That it may simply be the way Coach Dixon is, and that there is plenty of evidence suggesting that there is no one right way to be as a coach. Then, basically he admits he doesn’t believe it.
But I can’t help but think Pitt could have been even more successful if it had all been turned down a notch.
Er. No. Sorry not buying it. The same coach that was in charge so the team got a #1 seed. Advanced to the Elite 8. And then to say, maybe the coach should have eased back. A team that accomplished a boatload of firsts.
The main questions seem to be about the immediate future. That will be a topic that will continually come up all off-season I image. Briefly, it will be tough for Pitt to be in the top-25 to start the season. Pitt will be there in the upper 9 teams of the Big East, but next season is definitely a rebuilding/reloading season.
You just do not lose the number of senior starters and a key reserve and likely an All-American sophomore, without losing some ground. How much ground is the question.
That is more of the norm for PITT BB over the last years – and while it’s exciting and disappointing to get this far and no farther, would a slight reversion to the norm be unacceptable (Whatever “acceptable” actually means, given the options)?
I personally think it would be. But I’m a ‘half-full’ kind of fan with PITT sports. Something that has really hit home with me is the way in which Jamie Dixon has gotten the most and best play out of kids that weren’t highly recruited. Young, Fields and Blair were no HS slouches to be sure – but IMO all three reached levels of play that were not expected of them when they signed with PITT. All three of those players made drastic improvements in their specialities between their first two years and their last two years – Sam Young most notably. His scoring went from 7.5 ppg in his FR & SO years to around 18.5 ppg in his JR & SR years… same with Fields’ scoring and assists. Blair progressed well between his FR and SO years also.
But most of all I don’t see Jamie Dixon umlearning the lessons he’s absorbed over his years as a HC. He, as HC, is doing something right in a big way to get that sort of production out of his kids. Who’s to say Dixon won’t be able to do the same thing with existing players on the roster now – let alone some of these highly rated recruits linedup for the immediate future.
I’m sure in a year or two we’ll look at some players who are on the team now – and some incoming 2009 players – and say the same things we are saying about the “Big Three” right now.
While he complimented Pitt, it just seemd a bit disingenuous and a backhanded comment to coach Dixon. I also question whether Antigua just called him out of nowhere without some previous inquiry from Cal …. Cal obviously hired him for is NYC ties (not bow ties.)
Pitt alums may want to read Gene Collier’s column today in Post-Gazette “Pitt as a university is on a win streak” It is not just about athletics but how the effect it has on the academic community.
I’m sure the tension has absolutely no effect on some players, just because some kids’ attitude isn’t going to be bothered by a coach who’s losing it. They’ve been listening to coaches for years and years and most of it goes in one ear and out the other and they couldn’t care less whether they guy is about to bust a string.
But there must be some kids who could benefit from a cool, calm, collected approach before the game. Don’t know what percentage of players that is, but it must be significant. You’re looking to that coach for guidance, not for flopsweat. I have to imagine that the PC journal article came out of the writer hearing the same sort of stuff that I’ve heard about how manic Coach Dixon is pre-game.
Maybe La La Land and no pressure at USC would help. But I’m only willing to even think about that if Pitt gets Sean Miller.
Also, he ditched the bow tie for the tie this year… What gives?