Don’t hold back now… tell us what you really think. Predictions for the presser, running comments as it is being held and the final review and Lessons Learned after the parade has left the building with Stallings sitting triumphantly on Gallagher and Barnes’s shoulders.
NEW BLATHER CONTEST
Speaking of our no longer a virgin AD Scott Barnes and the words “Final Four”, I will buy many beers for the Blather reader who is closest in guessing the time elapsed from when the presser starts until Barnes says these exact and wonderful words – “Final Four”.
“Final Four” = 3:44 into the presser.
I’ll start by saying it will be 98 seconds. The first minute of the presser will be his looking around for the list of reasons “Why This is a Good thing” that he left on his office desk.
Plus: I’ll buy every one of you beers at the first home game if Barnes drops the glorious “Next Level” bomb.
“Next Level” = 27s into the presser!
Wayyyy sooner then I figured and to me that is a death knell right there. Wannstedt got it in his presser; Graham got it in his and so did Paul Chryst. Interestingly enough Narduzzi didn’t.
Post your guesses below and have fun – it is a fantastic day to be a Pitt fan.
It was Chris Peak of Rivals who fires the first salvo at Barnes with his “come clean…” search firm question (accusation?), 12:55 into the dog and pony show and that’s why he’s one of the best in the business. He asks the tough questions and digs for answers.
For a interesting bit of kabuki drama watch Scott Barnes at the 14:45 mark when he separates the Pitt Royalty (Himself and Stallings) from the Plebeians (everyone and anyone might question his judgement with this hire, including long-time fans, boosters and season ticket holders). That is the ‘above the noise‘ and ‘maybe in wrong place’ segment.
At 23 minutes in Stallings is starting to lose it a bit. He obviously was not expecting this type of press conference. I haven’t heard a single positive question or statement and that presser is half way finished.
Looks just like Wonder Bread… “The Silver Back Gorillas of Pitt“.
Holy Hell – He’s already out the door! … or just coming in.
Either way “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
Was this only 11 days ago?
One big disconnect is if this guy is an offensive genius, and he gets NBA level guys, why is his record so average?
Dokish’s take makes a lot of sense to me.
this guy stuck around Vandy for 17 years…..does he really want to win? Sounds to me like he prefers a comfortable environment with a steady paycheck, he and the Pitt Admin. might just be a good match.
A smart move to address the PR nightmare head on, although I thing they could have been better prepped with plausible responses. Barnes could have done a much better job explaining the process. Stallings could have handled the Jeter question more effectively. It didn’t appear that EJ had them very prepared.
-can a 55 yr old mediocre coach suddenly become a winner?
The answer is a resounding “YES”. Everyone agrees that Stallings “knows his x’s and o’s” and he is also pretty good at recruiting Johnny’s and Joes!
What he needs is to finally catch a break – and by a break I mean landing a recruit like OUs Buddy Hield. Notice how all of a sudden OUs coach has become a genius!!! Sure, he’s a good coach, but no better than Stallings. Buddy makes him look GREAT.
So, here’s my point. Stallings and Jamie are fairly comparable coaches. Stallings advantage is he is a much better recruiter and now he coaches for a school that is more open to accepting lower SAT players than Vanny was (which is a fact).
Hence, there is a better than average chance that Stallings will bring in better players AND, who knows, one may be the next Buddy Hield and Stallings will over night become a successful coach.
He needs to start with Kithcart and Manigault, unless he has something better up his sleeve.
My step dad brought the Bear his sandwich and asked if he could talk with him while he ate. He aaked Bear: “you are considered the greatest college coach of all times. What do you believe has made you that good”? The Bear looked down at the sandwich, pointed at it and said: “Do you see that chicken salad sandwich? It’s very good – you see you can’t make a good chicken salad sandwich out of chicken $h!t, it has to made from good chicken. I’m a successful coach because I make my teams out of top notch players and that’s why I’m in Pittsburgh right now.”
……
Good to see a lot of new names posting..
Barnes did respond to the question regarding reaction to the hiring poorly. He could have simply said “I recognize that some fans and media are unsure of Coach Stallings, but let me tell you about this man” and then highlighted his resume and coaching style, etc.
Welcome aboard coach Stallings.
link to en.wikipedia.org
And oh by the way, Bo Ryan’s 2 best years were his last 2, both in the Final 4 … believe he was in his mid 60s. Roy Williams and Coach K are both > 65.
The Dokish blog post pisses me off, not because of it’s untrue, but because I’ve viewed that as my own personal “truth” for awhile now. Pitt played absolutely over their head for about ten years (I can’t even tell you how many times I was shocked, not just of our wins, but who we beat and how) and it created this too-lofty standard. To hear from Doke that other coaches think our fanbase is a bit spoiled is rough, because it’s true, and it’s not going away. It’s also hard to tell someone, “well don’t expect that much”. It’s sports, it’s pretty stupid to try and control how one processes their entertainment.
This could be a great hire for us. Maybe. Even despite the hell storm over the weekend think how hyped we’ll be if KS can sign a five-star (or a couple of fours) by the fall. As much as that is optimistic I also realize we could have a coach who gets us to the dance once every three years and does nothing while there.
Can’t say the future is bright, but it’s not grim either. I have basically the same expectation for the 2017 as I did a month ago. The change is that there is a small glimmer of hope that this new guy can maintain the standard of the last 15 years while slowly improving our talent flow (and hey, maybe out-coaching a superior team/coach in the post-season too).
H2P!
I didn’t like the hire because there are more dynamic young coaches who could have success. But it was unfair for him to get laid into at his intro PC and he handled it as well as could be expected. I think he’ll run a clean program and be more loyal than a young gun possibly using Pitt to trade up. He seems like a high floor low ceiling pick in my book but who knows?. At this point his record is 0-0 so I’m going to give him a shot. I don’t like how Barnes handled this, and — not that anyone needs to be reminded – Duze was hired by interim AD and not Barnes.
What I got was a team who made more fundamental mistakes in one trip down the floor than the other team did in a half.
Dokish’s other point that good coaches don’t want to come to Pitt because the fans are too tough is utter bullshit. Have you ever read a Kansas or Louisville blog???
Dokish’s article should have been titled ” Putting lipstick on a pig!”
Pitt’s and Vanderbilt athletes can major in degree courses far easier than GA Tech’s athletes which is why Tech’s athletes graduation percent is well below Pitt’s. I see no disadvantage in Vanderbilt’s recruiting over Pitt. Sorry. That excuse just doesn’t compute for me.
I have been a huge Jamie Dixon fan all these years, he made it so much easier to root for my team in the way that he represented the university, and was a fine coach based on the assessments of his peers and the admiration of most fans, and I will miss him. However, Jamie’s time had come to move on, both for him and for Pitt. This fact (in my opinion) has not changed, regardless of who the recent hire was. It’s not just that the level of play declined then plateaued since joining the ACC, or that this team played pretty poorly once again toward the end of the year, but it’s how they lost that I think bothered me most. The team often looked uninspired, so much so that a guy like Luther stuck out because of his effort (and play), and who ironically was absent during the game that mattered most. Frustratingly uninspired, with the occasion spark (ie, Duke) being the exception.
Looking back over the longer term, Jamie did a fine job at Pitt and raised the expectations of the fan base – gave us a taste of winning, to the extent that we wanted more (wanted to keep it going). The idea that Pitt needs to lower its expectations and/or cannot expect to win a championship is not only technically wrong, but its pansy talk that arises from a coddled culture. Programs like Uconn and Cuse wouldn’t have had a chance without Boeheim and Calhoun, but guess what… Look at how fast Duke tanked when coach K took a leave of absence a few years back- tanked. All it takes is the right coach. This is why a coaching hire is so huge.
I was upset with the new hire like everyone else, and I think in hindsight its because Barnes set a certain expectations that he did not deliver on. The subsequent onslaught from the fan base, in terms of the Dixon handling and how it was perceived nationally, and the search for a new coach from a PR standpoint, set the tone for the carnage, and was Barnes’ own making. Sure, some of us over-reacted, but one thing that did come through was passion. People certainly cared.
I for one am getting back on the bandwagon and rooting for Stallings and the players, because I think that’s the best option. And in hindsight I can’t blame Stallings for accepting a job, if there’s anyone to blame in the event this doesn’t work out, that’d be Barnes.
So going forward, the only hoops things I’ll try to focus on are: filling out the staff, and recruits. No longer worrying about who Vandy hires, or what search firm corruption may have been involved. Moving on, albeit recognizing 2 people with suddenly shorter leashes are in charge.
With the backlash received on the hire and use of a friend’s recruiting firm, Barnes can’t afford for this to fail. Even more so than normal.
I’m sure Gallagher has a stake in this too. He can’t have his AD, that was hand picked, go out in a scandal. Gallagher comes from the federal government. As a former govie, he understands how stuff like this sticks and is hard to remove.
Next up, the Pitt Script re-branding and new team uniforms. This has to be universally applauded. As I mentioned previously, there have to be real game day improvements at Heinz now as well. This fan committee project has to show real results ottherwise, Barnes is just another talking head and any progress he’s made fundraising will dry up pretty quickly.
My belabored point is that you can root and expect certain things but the fallout from not achieving what only a small percentage of teams achieve was often over the top “Off with his head” type stuff. There is a true lack of sense of Pitt’s place in the hierarchy of CBB. We learned a tough lesson in that regard this weekend, but even then some need to blast Barnes to even be able to process that Pitt is currently unable to lure in a top level coach. That’s no one’s fault, that’s just what it is.
Can’t wait for which direction the next piece of news on Pitt recruiting is going to go.
Again, as I have stated before, it’s all about principles and the important principle here is WINNING. Aim for that, support that, execute that and it’s all good.
Good luck SB and KS and Pitt basketball.
H2P!!!!!
Stallings passed the test. Barnes got a did not complete. He has some work to do. Using a search firm is fine and he’s right, it’s the way searches are done now. Using a search firm run by his former boss and Stallings former boss, however, is questionable to say the least. Add in the odd 6 year contract and I just don’t trust this was a true open and national search like we were promised.
It sounds like he hooked his buddy up with $100K, got his friend out of sticky situation and a nice rosy paycheck to boot.
We all know that they aren’t going to be the 70s colors so at least that expectation has been squashed.
the academic standards lowering may have accelerated under Franklin but that’s not true for Stallings full 17 years there.
After watching the presser I think this guy is the anti Jamie which is what most wanted. Did anyone bother to look at Vandy’s OCC from last year? It makes Pitt’s look like shit. This guy is gonna let the players play instead of getting bench warnings every game for being a lunatic. His mentors are Keady and Williams that’s way better than Mississippi States new head coach. No more slog ball post thank god. He’ll play his best offensive players not best D players, enjoy the bench Mr. Jones. He wants to spread the floor and get some shooters in his system.
It’s hard to win at Vandy! In the history of the school they have never won anything! Zip Zero! Zilch! In any sport ever. I’m sure the chess team does very well though. I think Stallings won the SEC in 2012 and won coach of the year over Cal.
Give this guy a chance he might not have been what you wanted but he may exceed your expectations.
That’s from Wikipedia. Stallings didn’t even have an athletic dept it’s a wonder he even competed at all.
I was wrong Vandy won the baseball title in 2014. They also won a woman’s bowling title and tennis title. Oh and of coarse gave us Pedro Alvarez.
It really is too bad that he never got a real impact player after Blair and never seemed to leverage his winning with great recruiting.
Chas’ posting of the two year failure when it appeared he had great recruits but none met expectations was eye opening. Add to that the entry into the ACC without any centers or quality shooting guards and he ended up around 500 in the ACC, no where near his Big East winning percentage.
Diagnosis – burnout. Good on him that he gets a fresh start and can hopefully re-energize himself and TCU. He really did do great things for Pitt and set a high standard of achievement for the new guy.
Let’s hope that Stalling doesn’t make us all long for the Days of Dixon.
Kinda similar to Dokish’s last blog recounting coaches from across the country over the past few years confiding to him their opinion(low regard) of the Pitt job and the blasting the fan’s criticism of JD here. Although it seems weird that Dokish would make this stuff up, why would these coaches even care to bring these things up?
Now Kithcart and this weeks trajectory is back upward for me. Nice work KS!!!! or whomever.
Now, I know, some might say, they get a lot of questions or comments……….
ya, so do a lot of other people and they don’t do the condescending thing.
Look, I like both of them, they provide a lot of info, but fellas, most of us graduated from Pitt before you were even a twinkle, take it easy.
still don’t have to be a dick!
Barnes Sr High Photo
Good for them!
Doesn’t that make you wonder whether something fishy was going on – with someone from Pitt or a Pitt booster? Also explains why Stallings took some time to answer that question in the press conference, and why it was such an awkward topic for him to talk about…
Go Pitt.
That is just as plausible,IMHO.
Apparently Kithcart is a good chance too !
Some might say, well they’re Dixon recruits, but we don’t want to get stuck in the late recruiting season scrambling to find players like we have more than a couple times in the last few year.
He de-committed today.
