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March 24, 2016

Coach Search 2016, Continues

Filed under: Basketball,Coaches,Hire/Fire — Chas @ 7:48 pm

Programming note. I am traveling early tomorrow. Heading to Texas. Coincidence. I swear.

Not the Metroplex, but Houston to see family and take a bit of a vacation for a week. If you want to impute the selfish reason of not wanting Dixon to leave because I wanted a bit of peace on the vacation. Well, you probably are not completely wrong.

Now, I have to remain somewhat plugged in, and will post a little.

Okay, onto more stuff about potential candidates.

There are no clear frontrunners right now. Just names and reports. Not even real solid rumors. And after the Sean Miller stuff, the guess is Pitt is going to be even tighter on information than ever. It seems clear that this is going to take a week or so.

The only in-house candidate is Brandin Knight. He is getting a serious look, but that lack of head coaching experience is going to be a problem for him. He’s received tons of endorsements from former Pitt players — from the ones he played with to the ones he’s coached.

It is easy to understand why the players want him, the guys who coached him want him and the players who played for him want him. If you want to talk about a guy whose competitive fire is burning, watch that guy on the sidelines when the other team is getting the best of Pitt and it is clear he wants to take his jacket and tie off and go out there and put in some work.

There are a lot of comparisons, also, to be made for when Dixon took over from Howland. Dixon had never been a head coach, he had been the top assistant at Pitt, he was a guy that was endorsed by players, former players and Howland — and it obviously worked out.

• But there are a few distinct differences that should be pointed out…

Dixon had been an assistant coach for 15 seasons before he was a head coach and was 38 years old. He had also worked at five different schools before he came to Pitt and worked under multiple head coaches.

Knight is 34, he has only been an assistant for eight years and only at Pitt and only under Dixon.

So there is a clear difference in their resume and experience level, and the only reason I point that out is because experience matters. And more importantly, just because the two situations on the surface seem the same, they aren’t really.

This is a different program now, a different challenge and a different era.

Knight is probably a long shot, but plenty who cover the program have spoken about him as a different coach from Dixon. In terms of the style of play and as a recruiter. I don’t know, but I’m at least willing to keep an open mind about him.

I’m not even taking seriously reported interest from NY Knicks assistant coach Jim Cleamons.

Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings has been a name mentioned, but I can’t even believe that. He’d come in to a team that probably isn’t well disposed to him after the issues he had with releasing Sheldon Jeter. Plus, while Stallings has been relatively successful at Vandy, there is nothing to suggest he would be anything close to an improvement for Pitt.

Paul Zeise lists some of the potential names.

The school identified and reached out to several candidates to gauge their interest, according to sources with knowledge of the search, and there are some intriguing names on the initial list, though often the candidate that emerges and gets hired is someone added later or whose name is kept out of the public until a hire is made.

Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew, USC’s Andy Enfield, Alabama-Birmingham’s Jerod Haase, Butler’s Chris Holtmann, Monmouth’s King Rice, George Washington’s Mike Lonegran, Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Linc Darner, Arkansas-Little Rock’s Chris Beard and Rhode Island’s Danny Hurley are coaches that Pitt (via various avenues) has already reached out to or is expected to contact.

Touched on Enfield, Lonegran, Drew and Hurley before. Still don’t know interest on either side.

Chris Holtmann seems like a good possibility, if he is interested.

Holtmann, 44, has shepherded the Bulldogs through a tumultuous period. He replaced Brandon Miller, who was on medical leave, helped transition Butler to the Big East and guided the Bulldogs through two tragedies. Former Butler player Andrew Smith died Jan. 12, and the infant son of staffer Emerson Kampen died a few weeks later.

Butler has gone 23-11 and 22-11 in two seasons under Holtmann, winning one NCAA tournament game in each year. He was 21-13 in 2012-13 at Gardner-Webb, where he coached for three years before becoming an assistant to Miller at Butler.

Dixon earned $3.3 million, according to the university’s Form 990 for the most recent year available (ending June 30, 2014). Former coach Brad Stevens earned $1 million from Butler that year, but Holtmann’s undisclosed salary is not believed to be close to that and is likely near the bottom of the Big East.

He can coach, that much seems certain. He recruited well at his stops before Butler. He is a Kentucky native, but if you are looking for a Western PA tie, there is that year he was an assistant at Geneva College in 1998-99.

Holtmann has issued non-denials when asked about Pitt. Going a very Dixonian route of stating that he does not comment on other jobs.

King Rice from Monmouth might be a reach from the low mid-major class, but he has done a great job there and knows the area of NY and NJ for recruiting. He is a UNC alum, and was an assistant at Vandy before taking the Monmouth job. He may be a New York native, but he doesn’t seem rooted there.

Jerod Haase is a Roy Williams progeny. He played for him at Kansas and was an assistant for him at Kansas and UNC for over 10 years. The last two years have been good at UAB. He won the C-USA Tournament and upset Iowa State in the NCAA opening round. This year he won the C-USA regular season, but was upset in their first game of the conference tournament.

Chris Beard is one of those coaches who didn’t play in college — he was a student assistant at Texas. He has worked his way through a lot of small college gigs. He eventually became an assistant at Texas Tech in the Bobby Knight years. Near the end of that run he was also the associate head coach. UAL-R is his first D-1 head coaching job, and he has been on the job for all of one season. He’s risen quickly. His prior two head coaching gigs were for 1 and then 2 years. Hard to get a feel as far his ability to recruit or how long he would stay.

Linc Darner is another coach with experience, but only 1 year in D-1 with Wisconsin-Green Bay. 13 years as a head coach in D-II at St. Joseph’s (Indiana) and Florida Southern. I think I’ve had my fill of coaches with any sort of tie to Wisconsin.

John Harris, the Trib’s Pitt basketball beat writer tossed 5 names against the wall. Enfield and Drew once more. Seth Greenberg — not happening. Then there are Jeff Capel and Chris Mack.

Chris Mack at Xavier would be an absolute home run. But he’s not going anywhere right now. He’s getting paid at Xavier, which is also his alma mater. He has that team in great shape. He is biding his time for a job like Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana or perhaps Ohio State.

Jeff Capel rose quickly and crashed back almost as fast. He’s now on the Duke bench as an assistant. I’m not sold on him.





I’d rather have Brandin …. what happened to “he has to recruit his tail off”

Comment by wbb 03.26.16 @ 9:45 pm

Zeise seems to be hedging a bit on Twitter. Talking about his sources have been reliable, a lot of moving parts, blah blah

Comment by Sam_in_215 03.26.16 @ 9:57 pm

I think Vandy is trying to shop Stallings. As the cliche goes: beware what you wish for. If this is a done deal, ouch!

Comment by MariettaMike 03.26.16 @ 10:29 pm

Stallings? No way….unless Barnes is not the mastermind many thought he must be.

Not a Narduzzi-like hire and really would say Barnes may have initiated the Dixon exit but could not orchestrate it. IMO a significant FAIL.

I can’t believe this could be where we end up.

Comment by TVax 03.26.16 @ 11:34 pm

Thanks to upittbaseball and emel and others who were spoiled and also very wrong we are stuck with stallings. Dixom haters start apologizing for killing pitt basketball. Man up. You love to run off coaches and make pitt worse. Why? Is it just a lack of knowledge when it comes to sports?

Comment by Druc 03.27.16 @ 12:43 am

Oh man, not Kevin Stallings. That is not going to get the fan base excited at all.

Wonder if Sheldon Jeter would transfer out again ?
lol

Comment by Emel 03.27.16 @ 12:53 am

Emel wasn’t around for several months Druc (or whoever you really are).

I was only for getting rid of Dixon (and btw he left Pitt, not the other way around) if we could get a Sean Miller or Archie or some up and coming hot young coach.

Not a stiff like Kevin Stallings.

Comment by Emel 03.27.16 @ 12:56 am

Barnes didnt hire narduzzi. All the barnes lovers drank cool aid. Didnt hire narduzzi and now sent most successful basketball coach in pitt history packing for a loser from Vanderbilt. And he wasted money on search firm and buy out for stallings. Should be fired immediately. Simply inexcusable

Comment by Druc 03.27.16 @ 1:02 am

I attend games emel. You would know me but i attend and you dont. Your on the get rid of dixon bandwagon thought we could get sean miller.you were wrong. I knew we couldnt do better than dixon (see stallings). Again its nice you guys like to post but when you and upittbasevall agree so much and are wrong so much i get tired of reading it. Admit when yoy guys are wrong. Most of the time by the way. And i glay shake ur guys hands at the next game but you wont be there.dont ask who people are who pay their money to attend. You are out of line when you dont attend

Comment by Druc 03.27.16 @ 1:16 am

I live in North Carolina. Sorry I don’t have a private plane to attend the home games.

So let me get this straight, Pitt let Dixon walk because of some posts that upitt or I wrote ?

And you say you went to Pitt ? Really ?

Comment by Emel 03.27.16 @ 1:33 am

Btw idiot, You should be with Upitt…since he’s not a big fan of Barnes either.

Comment by Emel 03.27.16 @ 1:39 am

Yeah passed mulutple bar exams. I am the idiot all right. Yikes attacking fans who attend games when pitt has attendance problem. Good look emel.

Comment by Druc 03.27.16 @ 1:58 am

And why does Pitt have attendance problems if Dixon was so great and people were enthralled with him ?

Riddle me that Clarence Darrow.

Comment by Emel 03.27.16 @ 2:19 am

Stallings!!!!?????…..

……please….CANNOT be serious.

This is the best we can do?

Comment by The Truth 03.27.16 @ 6:19 am

Let’s now be honest with ourselves. Pitt basketball coach is in no way, shape or form a ” destination job.” If it was, we would have hired a current star or energetic rising star as coach. I believe this can only mean Enfield, Drew and others weren’t interested. So many guys had a chance to get back into the ACC and we got a retread who hasn’t had much success in the SEC. So if I’m Narduzzi and want to believe I’m at an ACC power and see Kevin Stallings as the new basketball coach, what do I think? Maybe Pitt isn’t so committed to its sports program after all?

Comment by Sam_in_215 03.27.16 @ 7:40 am

If this Stallings news is true, that is F’in pathetic of our Admin.

Comment by Bj 03.27.16 @ 8:09 am

Comment by MariettaMike 03.27.16 @ 8:21 am

Comment by MariettaMike 03.27.16 @ 8:25 am

I think this would be a great hire.
I wish I could get back the few minutes I read trying to figure out why you queens were bitching at yourselves.

Comment by Justin 03.27.16 @ 8:26 am

If Stallings is the best hire Pitt can do, let’s move on but keep Brandin Knight in mind once he gets head coaching experience. I’m trying to remain positive.

Comment by MariettaMike 03.27.16 @ 8:39 am

MM – that USA Today article tells me the AD at Vandy would like to part ways and he is pimping Stallings to Pitt.

I hope AD Barnes is smarter than the rumors indicate. I think we may be getting set up for a less than desirable candidate – if not Stallings, we’ll all buy in and breath a sigh of relief.

Sad, but may not be far from the truth.

GT could not do wrong by hiring Mark Price – good choice. Pitt needs a better choice than Stallings.

But in Justin’s words, “it’s JUST a game”.

Comment by Erie Express 03.27.16 @ 9:01 am

Maybe he’ll punch his girlfriend over the weekend and we’ll get another shot at a good hire.

Comment by dinosaur 71 03.27.16 @ 9:07 am

All this speculation about style of play and rising stars in the profession, and they get Kevin Stallings. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t see how this hire energizes the fan base. Stallings was going get fired from Vandy so of course he wanted the job. Does this mean Barnes opted to lower the risk threshold with a known commodity….or did Enfield et. al. not show enough interest in the Pitt job? I have a feeling we will be doing this again in 6 years.

Comment by dallas mike 03.27.16 @ 9:12 am

It’s about the $$, always. Stallings was making a third of Jamie’s salary that had six more years to go. Barnes just saved Pitt millions in contract dollars. Sorry to see this story end this way if true. I guess as the cliche goes: beware what you wish for. PA now has two Vanderbilt cast-off head coaches, both leaving Vanderbilt under controversy.

Comment by MariettaMike 03.27.16 @ 9:24 am

Justin – you seem to be the only positive poster – stating this will be a great hire.

Can you tell us why you think this?

I’m dying to know…

Comment by Erie Express 03.27.16 @ 9:29 am

We may have been disappointed lately in Jamie’s coaching but he was always a class act and never an embarrassment to Pitt.

Comment by MariettaMike 03.27.16 @ 9:42 am

Unbelievable.

Comment by boubacar aw 03.27.16 @ 9:49 am

The constant bitching and negative posts is so tiresome.
I trust our administration. The guy seemed to do well at Vandy, I’m sure recruiting solid basketball players to middle America isn’t the most advantageous scenario. If that’s who they hired, res ipsa loquitur. I hope he does great. But to debate about Jamie leaving and whine negatively, that’s not for me. But if ya’ll dig it, so be it. Chas and Reed great work. Tossing Thabeets is my favorite poster. Enjoy the day, top back a few drinks. Hail Pitt, I graduated in 2002.

Comment by Justin 03.27.16 @ 10:56 am

A losing conference record in 17 years does not define “well”. His lack of tourney appearances is disappointing.

We play in the ACC, a basketball conference, the hire is a big disappointment.

Comment by bj 03.27.16 @ 11:42 am

I’m sure all you guys are so glad we ‘got rid’ of JD now, huh? We had a solid, clean program we could and were proud of. Now all of you so-called ‘college basketball experts” thought Sean Miller would come crawling back to the ‘Burgh cause its the ONLY place to be – go visit other parts of the country and see that there are other nice places out there (BETTER places) with even NICER people who don’t jump you for every decision.
I wish the best for the new coach but am somewhat leary we will be in a better position than with JD.
As always – H2P!

Comment by Giffer in Denver 03.27.16 @ 12:05 pm

I was a huge “get rid of Dixon” guy. I immediately regret this. Crow tastes awful on Easter. I didn’t think they would replace him with someone demonstrably worse. Wow. Barnes is hanging himself with this hire and Pitt basketball along with it. It’s like they willingly jumped off a cliff. Have also made Pitt a laughingstock for the national media. This is defenseless. Total failure. This hire is a worst case scenario type of situation. I’m sure Sheldon Jeter is rolling out the welcome mat for Stallings amongst his teammates.

Comment by Demetriusgore 03.27.16 @ 12:20 pm

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