That has to be the question being asked around the Pitt basketball program at the moment. By the players. By coaches. Support staff. The Athletic Direc– Never mind on the last one.
I don’t want to say the Louisville game was rock bottom, because it is amazing how teams when they are in a spiral can find heretofore unknown depths to plum. I am cautiously optimistic, though, that the last game was about as low as can go in terms of score differential.
It’s the little things.
I’m going to permit myself one little bit of grim, personal amusement by posting a bit from Paul Zeise’s column just before the Louisville game. A wonderful bit of careful backtracking from his post-Virginia column. And then this.
I don’t expect Stallings to get this team to the NCAA tournament, but I also don’t think it would reflect well on him if this team completely goes into the tank and finishes under .500.
This roster probably isn’t good enough to realistically finish in the top half of the ACC. But that doesn’t mean the Panthers can’t play better than they have, and that is on Stallings. He needs to fight tooth and nail to keep this team from tanking. There are some winnable games coming up and some games the Panthers could steal if they put together a complete effort similar to the nights they upset Virginia and blew out Maryland.
The Louisville game is a great opportunity for the Panthers to steal a win. They lost to the Cardinals, 85-80, a few weeks ago on the road, but since then Louisville has lost Quentin Snider to a hip injury, and they haven’t been nearly the same team without him.
Pitt is at home and is rested after a week off, and the Cardinals are undermanned, so there is no reason the Panthers shouldn’t be able to go out and win this game. And it would be the kind of win that could really give the Panthers some confidence and momentum and perhaps even spark a winning streak.
So much for that.
After the game — in which Kevin Stallings was ejected about 6 minutes into the second half — Stallings remained open and blunt about things.
“That’s about as disappointing of a performance as I could possibly imagine. There are a lot of things I could say and a lot of things I would like to say, but suffice to say, it’s embarrassing, it’s unacceptable. It’s my responsibility to have them prepared to play better than that, harder than that, smarter than that. We weren’t. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility. I don’t know what short-term alternatives I have available to me. It doesn’t feel like many, honestly. From a long-term standpoint, there will be some options and we’ll get some things rectified. I think one thing this team has consistently shown is an inability to deal with adversity. Honestly, since Ryan [Luther] went down with the injury, since Mike [Young] has been less than what he was earlier in the season, there almost seems to be a feeling of … I don’t know what adjective I want to use to describe it … amongst the players. I frankly don’t understand that. I don’t understand how you don’t dig in and compete harder. We’ll just keep trying to find answers. Not having Ryan Luther shouldn’t cause this much of a drop-off. He’s an important player to us for sure, but I feel like there is some fragmentation in the locker room, unfortunately. I don’t feel any of it is toward the coaching staff, honestly. You get taught tough lessons if you’re not prepared to do the best you can do every time you take on a challenge. We’ll keep working to find answers and certainly play better than we did tonight.” – Kevin Stallings
“In a roundabout way, yes. I’m not going to sit here and air what I observe and what I see, but it’s not the way it should be and it’s not being taken in a good direction. I’m limited in options, where I turn around and if there’s somebody not playing hard defensively, which was pervasive the entire evening, you can put somebody in. I pretty much had my five best defenders starting the game. That’s a bad sign, when the other team shoots 71 percent against you in the first half. It’s a bad sign when you go to the bench, you get worse defensively.” – Stallings on whether the fragmentation he referenced is about sects developing on the team
I think most of us understand that the starters are the best players on the team. But given their lack of effort, you almost have to go with the players on the bench who are definitely not better — but may actually look like they are trying.
There’s also the subtle (well, maybe not so subtle) claims that the cupboard is bare.
I would love to know what happened to Justice Kithcart and Damon Wilson. Kithcart has lost all aggressiveness and energy he flashed at the beginning of the season. Wilson’s development hasn’t happened — though, Wilson did get 7 points and attacked the basket multiple times. Both were high-3/low-4 star guards. Guys that definitely attacked the rim and led their teams. Neither one has much in the way of confidence in their shot any longer.
There was a point in the first half where Kithcart and Wilson were on the court together — which was strange enough. Both were spaced a little apart at the top of the 3-point line. Their defenders completely backed off them to prevent penetration, but allowing them wide-open looks. They literally passed the ball back and forth to one another. As if begging the other to take the uncontested 3.
Ultimately, neither was willing and they eventually got the ball to Artis for a completely contested miss.
Stallings, obviously denied it, but the way the starters came out and just did not seem to care. The way they played but very clearly didn’t compete. It is hard not to say that the team just quit on Stallings in that game. They heard the criticism made public. They saw themselves being fingered as the problem. Their effort being questioned. And whether, as Stallings said, this stuff is nothing they don’t already hear from him in practice. It is different when the coach tells everyone else.
And they just didn’t care. That’s the concern for Stallings. He doesn’t have their respect or fear. The players didn’t go out and play like they wanted to earn praise from him. They didn’t go out to prove him wrong and show him. They just didn’t care what he thought and did what they wanted.
And got totally destroyed by a better team. A better coached team. A team that gave a shit.
That is why I don’t know for sure if this game was rock bottom.
The one thing Stallings said that does appear to be very true. This group does not handle adversity well. They have given up when the shots didn’t fall. When the other team was getting their shots. When they weren’t doing what they wanted.
At this point there is only one question remaining about this team.
Are they going to give a shit?
Stallings should of been able to adapt a bit for this season to have at least a competitive season and then go full tilt with his approach with his guys next year.
He blames everyone around him for what goes wrong. No talent, attitude, lack of leadership, or communication issues and he does this because it works.
Some people actually blame the players. The same players that did try for three to four years have now given up and it’s their fault.
HC KS has told them they are not good enough, not deep enough, to play in the ACC and now people are surprised when they buy into that talk and believe what he is saying not only in private as well as to the entire world.
He does these things to deflect blame from himself. It’s a tactic that has been around for since the first time someone didn’t do their job.
He gets a technical and quits on the team but it’s the refs fault. He had a “history with that referee.”
He tells a player “”I’m going to f—ing kill you.” and it was really the players fault.
“One of our players acted inappropriately and violated what we believe to be is good sportsmanship following the game. In my haste to resolve the situation, I made a very inappropriate comment. While obviously it was not meant literally, it was still inappropriate. I apologized to the player immediately following the game.”
He blocked Jeter from coming here for an entire year because “there was tampering going on.” not because he was petty and pissed off.
I dislike these type behavior from people in my personal life and I despise this guy being the face of our basketball team.
Kevin Stallings can’t leave soon enough regardless of the cost.
Suggesting the hiring of Narduzzi was ‘by accident’ is just wrong. Its typical over-dramatic, woe-is-me stuff.
Tony,
Perfectly legit comments/concerns regarding Stallings, but I don’t think he’s all that bad a guy. I do think he’s a very mediocre coach, and we was a bad hire. And I also think the right thing to do is fire him after the season and start over, as Upitt said, but I’m not sure anyone has the guts to do it. This is where influential alums would be needed, on top of plummeting attendance and a change in our AD, we may just have an outside shot. But I’m not betting on it…
And I’ll still watch our Panthers and root them on tomorrow; in the event they are down 15 points 10 minutes in, that rooting will once again be short-lived. At this point, I almost feel like a guy watching auto racing to see a crash…
WELL WE HAVE SEEN MORE and it is only a matter of time before before Stallings leaves.
You really can’t blame Gallagher or Barnes. It goes back to Dixon, Pederson, and Nordenberg.
Why didn’t Dixon get Asst. coaches that could recruit?
Now we need to find a “comer”. A young guy with the energy to work his tail off recruiting.
We still have a decent rep. and in the ACC conference. Need to take our time, and pick a winner.
It is a shame Stallings is going to cost us a few $MM. Would rather see the money spent on minor sports.
BB is over for me. At least for a while. Too painful. Even my wife, an original Eastern Washington “Savage”, who loves BB is having trouble watching PITT.
Am still wondering why Barnes took Oregon State over us. OSU is not a step up.
I honestly think he thought this team would be ok because he grossly under estimated the level of talent in the ACC and now is trying to deflect blame wherever he can.
The Battle for the Bottom Rung!
Pitt BB is dead for a while…who or what will breath life into the program again?
However when Stallings blocked Jeter’s move to Pittsburgh, that should tell you enough about the selfishness of the guy. Jeter wanted to play near home and Stallings blocked it…so he obviously doesn’t care about the players best interest….you can hear that in all his interviews as well.
Telling a player to ‘I’m f##ing going to kill you’ also tells you what kind of person he is.
And then finally getting himself thrown out of the blowout loss with 14 mins left and not staying with the team thru a brutal painful loss was a chicken sh#t move…bet his kids (assuming he has kids) would be proud of their dad that night.
With no AD and a 6 year contract we’ll have to put up with him for a while……and I’ll still root for Pitt to win and hope he gets them to end season strong…..but will never have any respect for him.
I’ll go and get my black shirt…the shirt is worth more than I could get if I tried to resale the tickets!
Milobloom, again reasonable conclusion re KS’ character, and I’m not happy with him, but I don’t think I’d judge him that harshly without knowing him better.
In the end though, with all the comments I’ve read recently, it sounds like everyone is on the same page, in terms of the big picture.
…at the time the block by Stallings seemed really odd since so many players transfer in college hoops…….The number of kids who transfer in D1 was 500+ that year….. why was this one any different that warranted it to be blocked by Vandy…..at first Stallings had no comment and then he said tampering by Pitt…which certainly didn’t fit Dixon’s style..but even so that is something that is really hard to prove between tampering and difference in showing interest in another team.
….now we really know why he blocked Jeter coming to Pitt….
…..Stallings character.
Trib Review
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See… and all of you thought there was something to worry about.
How can things get worse?
1) Stallings has a 6 year contract folks (just shoot me).
2) His verbal recruits may bail on him now.
3) We lose “The Battle of the Bozo’s” tomorrow and then lose by 75 to Dook on national TV.
When Nordy & Cyanide Steve decided to go cheap, like a small Catholic college, and make Pitt a basketball school, all the while spending very little money on assistants for their basketball school, it marked an end to Pitt sports. “Who needs a football stadium?” It was just a matter of time before their sub-moronic plan killed off basketball too….
Cyanide kills….it doesn’t make you ill for a while. Thanks again Stevie boy….you are truly brilliant. The Pentagon/CIA should hire this dolt to infiltrate foreign governments…
What do they know that we don’t? Barnes may have needed a search firm just to find anyone who would come here to work as a coach…..and maybe Stallings was drunk at the time….
He’s sobered up now, that’s for sure. Our main problem is if he gets fired no one will ever come here in either football or basketball. Every new coach wants a 3 year period to build his team. We are truly dead meat if Stallings recruits bail on him….
We owe OSU a big thankee for taking him off of our hands.
How can one man screw up a successful program so fast?
Hell, it even too Sandusky longer than that to screw PSUcks.
What makes you think hoiberg would want this job?!
NO ONE wanted it last year!!!
Best chance is small school gem and hope it works out
We have a ways to go to be competitive again or we, maybe we give Stallings a chance to get his players
1. Great facility on campus
2. Great Conference
Coaches would avoid Pitt like the plague. Why?
1. No competent AD and dysfunction with the Athletics department
2. No recruiting fertile ground
3. A damn tough conference to win in
4. A football school
5) A reputation for being cheap
6) Something they know that we don’t. Maybe our lack of catering to the AAU shoe companies (No Stallings jokes UPitt) lol
About a Cup of Coffee. And we’re supposed to believe he’s head over heels concerned about this team or this program.
Sorry I don’t. And YOU are a FOOL if you do.
I had no problem with that initial concept…however…lessening the buyout of Dixon’s contract and then the ludicrous hiring of Coaching Fraternity Stallings to be HC…was a total mockery and an afront to the Pitt faithful.
Stallings was not the guy to …right the ship and keep it on it’s on journey.
Quite the opposite, a guy to string out his career and milk it,,,,for all it’s worth.
Thoroughly disgusted !
Emel – I’m not a Stallings fan so I’m not really sure what you’re getting at. Herman was an AD – I didn’t really care one way or the other about him as long as he would be aggressive in making Pitt athletics better … then he used cronyism to hire Stallings. He was dead to me at that point. No matter if Stallings was successful or not.
My personal preference is to fire him. But if they keep him, they have to keep him for a few years. Delaying this a year or two only sets the program back again.
Last year’s coaching pool was very weak though. No one excited me. Bryce Drew – meh. Enfield – meh. Miller light – meh. No one to instantly change a program overnight.
I’m fascinated with Holberg even though i know there’s almost zero chance it happens. He plays a fun brand of basketball though and can recruit. A man can dream.
Herman should be nailed for negligence.
Next year, the dipstick will be beating BC. We will lose every other ACC game, unless a visiting team’s bus breaks down.
Guess it’s a matter of what the meaning of the word “am” is.
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Tossing ThabeetsMarch 28, 2016 at 7:58 PM
I think Dok stated it well. Most of us were more upset with the process. The Jeter situation still boggles my mind. They hired a guy Pitt fans already didn’t like. Who does that? Now that they did, he appears to be a very good coach.
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I bought into Stallings too by giving him the benefit of a doubt.
I based it on simply a “feeling.” But right now, it certainly looks like I was wrong.
And when is Dokish (Dok) ever wrong about anything?
… And if you read my post above I said if they keep him this year, they should plan on keeping him a few years. I’d like a do-over though.
If you’re going to quote me, quote me with context. Other post in March:
Reed – BUT they hired a coach we all hated already. We are predisposed to hate this guy. We knew the Jeter story. It was well documented what a douche Stallings was being. Barnes straight up hired a coach the fan base couldn’t stand because of recent history. Did they really think they’d be able to slide one past the fans? So, yes, a player or recruit should not dictate the hire BUT the fans hated him too. And at some point you have to consider fan reaction even if you don’t give an F about the player.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.27.16 @ 5:51 pm
I’m just flabbergasted at the effort Barnes has put into rebuilding fan trust to then hire really the only coach in America Pitt fans hate. Shocking oversight on his part.
Having said that I’m coming down from the ledge a little but Stallings will have the shortest of short leashes with the fans.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.27.16 @ 6:00 pm
Goalie – the only reason I know him is because of the Jeter fiasco as do most Pitt basketball fans.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.27.16 @ 6:02 pm
Goalie – even if we don’t have the whole story we were still predisposed to not like him especially with that player still on the team and his brother considering Pitt for football.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.27.16 @ 6:10 pm
Upitt – he’s actually a good recruiter. Two first rounders on the team this year. Bigger issue is he doesn’t create excitement for a program that has stagnated and his questionable recent history and interference with Pitt hoops. We replaced one coach who needed a change of scenery with another coach who needed a change of scenery. We also traded one micro-manager with another micro-manager. If you’re a program that needs a shot in the arm you change not go with the status quo.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.27.16 @ 6:55 pm
Upitt – I didn’t say he was a good coach. Recruiting shouldn’t be the issue with him though.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.27.16 @ 7:12 pm
PantherP, I think the press conference is going to be more like a Trump presser.
When we are a laughingstock in the National and local media, something is dramatically wrong. When have you ever seen this before?
This is not a select few that are always hyperbolic, this is Zeise and Tossing Thabeets who are almost always supportive and level headed.
Sure there is over the top reaction, and venom, but taking this lying down just means you have given up and don’t care.
Comment by gc 03.28.16 @ 12:19 pm
Yeah man. Reed – I appreciate the attempt at humor but I’m just not ready for it. For those of us that love Pitt basketball this was quite the blow.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.28.16 @ 1:28 pm
TVax – no, he needed to be called out on it and he shouldn’t have been dismissive of other questions or the fan base for seeing through the scam.
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.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 03.29.16 @ 2:16 pm
What was Barney thinking? And Sir Patrick G and our BOT signed off on this mess.
In the business world there would be people held accountable by losing their job or being demoted or lost bonuses through “claw back” means, etc. This course of events is a MAJOR money loser for Pitt.
Attendance, perception of the program, future revenue, etc.
MAJOR LOSSES ahead, not just games, but mucho dinero (sp).
I hear the entire Pitt FB team and coaching staff will be at the Pete today to “support the team”.
Now that’s pretty cool…
Stallings is talking about using more SET Offensive Plays instead of just letting Artis and Co. operate in “free form.”
But the reality is… all they have to do is shoot something other than BRICKS.
You gotta let people have their dreams. It’s a long slog out there for many people, and to take that away.
I’m all for kicking someone in the ass and putting them on the bench, but why don’t you tell Artis that he will just end up in Baltimore like his brother.
Poor form and NOT a way to motivate.
Six year contract.
Reduced Jaimie buyout.
Cronyism.
The French fry guy at the O could do a better job than Herman
My starting five today would be:
Kithcart PG
Wilson G
Cam Johnson SG-SF
Manigault PF
Nix C
Seriously why not play all the PGs at this point and play it out? See what you have in those underclassmen. If you don’t have anything “suggest” they look elsewhere for next season. There are more coming in next year. Pitt (1-6) has 5 home games and 6 road games remaining. They have to play UNC (2), Duke (away), UVA (away) and FSU (home). In all honesty I’m not sure there are enough probably wins remaining to make the NIT much less the NCAA. Not much to lose.
I am baffled that an experienced coach and person in his mid-fifties thought it okay to publicly question the character of 22-23 year olds since he’d already done so in private. Right, because mature 30 and 40 years react so well to that sort of behavior from their boss in a staff meeting. The other odd part is that the public criticism was in the wake of the NC State game. A conference road game in which Pitt was actually competitive throughout.
Losing at home to Clemson tomorrow could very well be rock bottom. Six road games left and home games with UNC and FSU. UNC and FSU with great size.