The page listing Pitt Men’s Basketball Coaching Staff is still rather sparse. Former player, Chris Jones, is still listed as a Graduate Assistant. Jason Richards remains as Director of Basketball Operations. Garry Christopher remains as the Strength and Conditioning Coach. And that is it.

We know Pitt took it’s time before hiring Jeff Capel as head coach, but that doesn’t mean the hiring of assistants has to remain up in the air this long.

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What was it? A couple weeks ago, when there were questions about AD Lyke and Chancellor Gallagher, regarding their commitment to Pitt Athletics. Simpler times.

University of Pittsburgh Director of Athletics Heather Lyke announced today that Suzie McConnell-Serio will not return as the Panthers’ head women’s basketball coach.

McConnell-Serio recently completed her fifth season with the Panthers, compiling a 67-87 overall record and 22-58 ACC mark during that span.

McConnell-Serio was a surprising disaster as the women’s basketball coach. In that respect her firing wasn’t a shock.

But on the heels of getting rid of Kevin Stallings to reboot the men’s basketball program, the impetuous to make a change on the women’s side, would have seemed to have been put aside for the time being. To say nothing of making additional outlays in the budget for the buyout and hiring a new coach.

Apparently the money and the desire to make a change are there.

Lots of changes in the coaches within Pitt Athletics in the last few years. All the attention is on football and men’s basketball, but in the last two years Pitt has hired a new women’s gymnastics coach, men’s and women’s soccer and wrestling. And for the most part the new coaches have made noticeable progress very quickly.

I realize Pitt fans are conditioned to expect the AD to be a bumbling mess. And at the first sign of a problem default to that expectation. But maybe, just maybe, Heather Lyke actually knows what she is doing.

The NCAA Tournament is over. Easter is done. Family has been visited. Taxes are filed. Passover is well underway — and as an aside without all the carb snacks, beer and bourbon for the week, I’ve lost 4 pounds.

Jeff Capel’s hiring as the men’s basketball coach at Pitt has been received by the fans, all the local media and national media as an excellent hire. Just going to link and write on some of the stuff related to Capel.

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Sorry to have not posted in a few day. Honestly, I just had nothing. As usual with Pitt and a coaching search, everything remains dark. Literally nothing really leaks. That creates this whole different kind of insanity where everyone rushes to fill the void with speculation, crazed sources, and general lunacy.

I couldn’t bring myself to add to the crazy. Plus, the week leading up to Passover and Easter tends to create extra chaos at home and work.  So, my best option was to sit back wait.

And, hey. The wait is over.

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A reporter for the Waterbury Republican-American and blog, A Dime Back, both reported late last night that Dan Hurley has accepted the UConn job after boosters pushed his salary offer up to around $3.1 million. There’s no other confirmation at this point, but the rest of Connecticut media is running with it — and amusingly enough to give it a better veneer of credibility, are calling A Dime Back a “news outlet.”

Whoops. Even as I started typing the big boys are also saying it.

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Nothing really to report or pass on. Just a couple articles and thoughts.

Eric Musselman is likely out of the running now. Simply because I doubt Pitt can wait for him now that he got Nevada into the Sweet 16. I mean, unless they KNOW they he is already in the can. Which I find highly improbable. Still, he seems like an amusing maniac.

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And by approaches, I mean in the next 72 hours. Not the next 6.

I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the NCAA Tournament this weekend. The wife and oldest are on a Girl Scout camping trip. Just the boy and I binging on basketball. Well, I’m binging. He’s casually watching every now and again while playing video games or with Legos.

The UMBC upset of Virginia was mind-blowing. And as much as it was presumed, that eventually a 16 would take down a 1. That was not the one anyone expected, and certainly not like that. The close calls over the years.  All the #1 seeds that may have struggled, even late into the second half, put it together to pull it out. Instead, to watch Virginia implode. It’s not just simply the way UVa panicked on offense and started rushing things.

It was their vaunted packline defense being shredded. Yes, UMBC was great on their 3-point shooting, but the way the guards just blew past them to the basket. That just doesn’t happen very often. Plenty of teams have tried, but rarely succeed.

Their head coach, Ryan Odom, once presumed to be the guy targeted by ECU as their next head coach might have other options (probably not Pitt, though).

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“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”

–Edgar Allen Poe

Obviously, Poe was familiar with coaching searches.

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I’ve been out for work since about 6 this morning and only got home a short while ago. I know what I missed. Now, I’m here and the decision was made to pop open one of my Dogfish 120s.

AD Heather Lyke’s press release was short and to the point.

University of Pittsburgh Director of Athletics Heather Lyke announced today that Kevin Stallings will no longer be the Panthers’ head men’s basketball coach.

“I want to express my appreciation to Coach Stallings for his commitment to our program,” Lyke said. “In moving forward, we have tremendous expectations for our men’s basketball program at Pitt and I believe we can achieve great things within the Atlantic Coast Conference and nationally. A national search for the next Pitt head coach will begin immediately.”

The relief for Pitt fans is palpable.

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Good news, spring football practices begin on Monday. There’s no pesky post-season tournaments to distract anyone from that for a second straight year. Yay?

Apropos of absolutely nothing, but my undying love for Bill Raftery is this gem of wisdom.

I asked the legendary Bill Raftery today if he’s ever thought about joining Twitter. His outstanding response: “No, and I’ll tell you why — because at 11:30 at night when I’ve had my 10th drink, I’m liable to say something that will cost me my job.”

Words to live by.

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There is more then a sense of inevitability to Kevin Stallings’ fate. Pitt plays at 2pm today at the Barclays Center against Notre Dame, and there is little reason to think things will be different then the previous 18 ACC games.

At some point after the conclusion of that game — be it days or a week — Stallings will be fired. All rumors and tips are that a buyout has been negotiated.

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If you feel like it, I did a podcast Sunday night with Talkin ACC Sports.

For the most part, I kept things coherent. That is until I had to talk about whether Kevin Stallings will be back for a third year as the head coach of Pitt Men’s Basketball.

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Pitt is not a deep-pocketed SEC or B1G program. Can we all agree on that? There is no Michigan Money Cannon to fire. There is no crazed, big-money booster that will cut a check in exchange for more influence like at Auburn. Pitt also does not subsidize the athletic department on the back of the students or from the academic side of the university (Rutger, UConn — how are things going?). Nor is the athletic department about to take out ridiculous loans that put them so deep that they will head to conferences they don’t fit (What’s up, Maryland?).

Pitt is a fiscally conservative athletic department that is only now starting to receive the full share of ACC revenue. This is only year four of being in the ACC, and Pitt did not leap into full cuts in year one. They also had moneys to be paid to the Big East/AAC upon departure. To say nothing of the new outlays required to be a part of the ACC.

If Pitt wants to fire Stallings after two years, and hire someone with any sort of pedigree/upside; Pitt will need to have a lot of boosters coordinating the cash.

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0-ACC looks more likely every game.

Sorry about the lack of open threads. Big family visit this past week into the weekend. Upside is that I didn’t get a chance to watch either game. More then a little bit of an indictment of the state of Pitt basketball when they guy running a blog devoted to Pitt football and basketball had no urge or desire to carve out time to watch two Pitt basketball games. Didn’t DVR it. Not even checking the phone for updates.

Two weeks ago I would have (and even might have) said that Pitt can’t/won’t fire Kevin Stallings after two years.

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We saw it coming, so it isn’t the biggest surprise. With the second half of signing day passing, Renaldo Hill is heading to the NFL.

Hill, who played defensive back for the Dolphins from 2006 to 2008, has joined Miami’s coaching staff in an unspecified capacity.

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He started 38 games during his time in Miami, picking off six passes and recording 152 tackles.

He joins Adam Gase’s revamped coaching staff, which has this offseason had changes at offensive coordinator, the offensive and defensive lines, running back and secondary.

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