5AF's Premier College Football Thread: 2017-18 Pittsburgh Super Panthers Football Thread (and Basketball)

[slappybrown]

I think both Jamie and Pitt had decided that it was time to see other people.

You aren't wrong

Like so many pitt things, it was a good idea or at least a justifiable idea. Of course, like so many pitt things, scott barnes ran his mouth, pitt looked like idiots with old man miller bashing them in the paper, barnes running his mouth, etc etc etc with the ultimate result being stallings. and then barnes jumping ship

good grief.

This the correct take imo. Barnes is the true villain in the demise of Pitt hoops. Stallings didn't set the world on fire, but coming in when -- and more importantly, how he did -- is what decimated the program. Barnes then bolting months later after doing his old boss a solid by hiring Stallings was the cherry on top.

Jaime and Pitt had reached the end of the road together, and Pitt had given Jaime, what, 5 or 6 re-worked contracts and raises over the 15 years he was here? They took care of the guy, but it was the end of the road. Whether Pitt fans' expectations with respect to someone doing better than Dixon are over the top is a separate question and largely irrelevant to how the AD selects the coach (read: don't hire a retread who was so-so at his last job because your old boss asked you to).

[slappybrown]

Freshman stud Parker Stewart

Is the description in the Deadspin piece I just read. Is that accurate?

The fourth leading scorer and utterly useless defender on an 0-18 team is generally classified as "stud"

look, pitt doesn't need hyperbole too make itself look bad, but god damn is it irritating when the media piles on pitt with stuff like that.

That was my reaction.

[Stoosh]

I don't understand the continued hammering by the Fan to get Sean Miller to Pitt. Arizona would have fired him already if they were planning to let him go, yes? Even with potential ramifications looming, Pitt is still a downgrade in this instance?

For most of the media here, analysis of Pitt football and basketball coaching hirings begins (and, for more than it should, ends) with whether the candidate can check the giant box that reads "Pittsburgh/Pitt Guy".

The uncertainty surrounding Miller's future at Arizona combined with his track record of success and Official Pitt Guy ties create juuuust enough intrigue that it can be sold by hacks like Fillipponi as a prodigal son returning home to rebuild the disgraced program and his own good name. It's lazy and there are several attainable options for Pitt that make infinitely more sense, but there isn't much that gets the blood flowing through parts of a Pitt fanbase like a Pitt Guy coming back to head up the program, particularly for those callers to radio shows that are old enough to remember Miller playing for Pitt 30 years ago.

[robbiestoupe]

Sounds a lot like a certain 'Stache we all know and love

[NAN]

I think both Jamie and Pitt had decided that it was time to see other people.

You aren't wrong

Like so many pitt things, it was a good idea or at least a justifiable idea. Of course, like so many pitt things, scott barnes ran his mouth, pitt looked like idiots with old man miller bashing them in the paper, barnes running his mouth, etc etc etc with the ultimate result being stallings. and then barnes jumping ship

good grief.

This the correct take imo. Barnes is the true villain in the demise of Pitt hoops. Stallings didn't set the world on fire, but coming in when -- and more importantly, how he did -- is what decimated the program. Barnes then bolting months later after doing his old boss a solid by hiring Stallings was the cherry on top.

Jaime and Pitt had reached the end of the road together, and Pitt had given Jaime, what, 5 or 6 re-worked contracts and raises over the 15 years he was here? They took care of the guy, but it was the end of the road. Whether Pitt fans' expectations with respect to someone doing better than Dixon are over the top is a separate question and largely irrelevant to how the AD selects the coach (read: don't hire a retread who was so-so at his last job because your old boss asked you to).

[Morkle]

So when do they hire a coach, after the first/second round exits? Do we legit think they have a shot at Hurley?

[Dickie Dunn]

So when do they hire a coach, after the first/second round exits? Do we legit think they have a shot at Hurley?

They seem to be banking on Hurley with no leaks of a second option. UConn also wants Hurley but has rumored interested in Frank Martin.

[slappybrown]

UConn is apparently chasing Frank Martin, which you could intepret to mean that Hurley has told them he isn't going there. I have seen on twitter from more national guys that Pitt is the more attractive job to Hurley and has signaled they would pay more than UConn would pay him. Its gone pretty quiet in terms of actual news about who they are talking to, so I am cautiously optimistic that Hurley may be the guy they land. Do that, and no one should be complaining imo.

[columbia]

Respect The Stache

[Morkle]

UConn is apparently chasing Frank Martin, which you could intepret to mean that Hurley has told them he isn't going there. I have seen on twitter from more national guys that Pitt is the more attractive job to Hurley and has signaled they would pay more than UConn would pay him. Its gone pretty quiet in terms of actual news about who they are talking to, so I am cautiously optimistic that Hurley may be the guy they land. Do that, and no one should be complaining imo.

What is surprising to me is that A) he considers a more attractive job and B) no other teams would be interested.

[slappybrown]

UConn is apparently chasing Frank Martin, which you could intepret to mean that Hurley has told them he isn't going there. I have seen on twitter from more national guys that Pitt is the more attractive job to Hurley and has signaled they would pay more than UConn would pay him. Its gone pretty quiet in terms of actual news about who they are talking to, so I am cautiously optimistic that Hurley may be the guy they land. Do that, and no one should be complaining imo.

What is surprising to me is that A) he considers a more attractive job and B) no other teams would be interested.

There's no question UConn has a superior tradition, but if you compare to the two jobs moving forward I am hard-pressed to see how UConn is the better job. They are in the AAC and the closest thing they have to an in-conference rival is Cinci and Temple, who had some overlap at various points in the Big East but not anywhere close to the duration. That conf is awful from a hoops perspective and the money gap is only getting worse, particularly in hoops. The new Big East is a special animal because its hoops only so they dont need to worry about funding football so I get why UConn stayed in the AAC, but that job doesn't look too attractive to me.

[Dickie Dunn]

Storrs is a shithole, they’re stuck in a meaningless conference, the state is bankrupt. Plenty of negatives going against that job.

[Freddy Rumsen]

UConn is going to plummet.

[Dickie Dunn]

Matta interviewed with Pitt after turning down UGA.

[slappybrown]

Matta interviewed with Pitt after turning down UGA.

What the

[columbia]

WE’RE BACK

[slappybrown]

lol

RIGHT WHERE WE WANTED TO BE ALL ALONG

[Stoosh]

There are a couple of really good posts on the board at PL by Matt Steinbrink. In summary...

1. Steinbrink says he's confident that Pitt's new hire "will be a current head coach".

2. Steinbrink also says he thinks Hurley is and likely has been their top candidate all along. He said most in the coaching industry think UConn is the favorite; many in the media think Pitt is the favorite. He didn't elaborate, but he did say Hurley to UConn was nearly a done deal a few days ago, but things changed with that so that may bode well for Pitt.

3. If Hurley is Option 1, option 1a or 2 is a wildcard coach that Steinbrink did not and apparently would not name.

4. He named the next tier of interest as being some mix of Musselman, Becker, Schmidt and Jent. He said Jent's name keeps coming up in random reports, but Steinbrink says he doesn't think he's a serious candidate. There appears to be moderate interest between Pitt and Musselman, but he may not be as interested in moving across the country. Becker and Schmidt may be the front-runners among this tier, with Musselman just a bit behind.

5. Steinbrink seems to think that Pitt only gets into this second tier if things inexplicably fall through with one of the top two options.

Steinbrink said in the lengthy Saturday night post that he is "confident that she (Lyke) is going to end up with a bigger name. A lot of the mid major and assistant coaches are fighting an uphill battle in this one."

Late last night Steinbrink's second thread went up, indicating some progress was made with a candidate and if his source was correct, an announcement of the hire could be made around the middle of this coming week.

[Nittany Ned]

So Hurley is one of the “top two”? Who is the other?

I have this feeling it’ll end up being Jent, Becker or Schmidt. But who knows.

Don’t you all feel one of the big downfalls with this job is how hard it is to compete in the ACC? I like being in the B1G for hoops knowing there’s really no one “perennial” power. The closest thing to it may be Mich St (who is about to go under) or Michigan (Beilein is a miracle worker).

[slappybrown]

The Big East in hoops was just as competitive if not more so and may have had the highest peak of any conference ever.

[slappybrown]

Based on Steinbrink's post it has to be Miller after Hurley. Either way he's strongly implied that certain boosters are ponying up cash to make this hire. Ktk, thank you for your service and dollars.

[Nittany Ned]

The Big East in hoops was just as competitive if not more so and may have had the highest peak of any conference ever.

And it was a much better fit for Pitt as well. NY/NJ were recruited well and they got tough 4-year program players, particularly guards, that improved every year. They could compete with most similar type players those Big East schools would get (even if they often lacked that “go to guy” who was usually on the other team that would eliminate them in the tournament).

And now it’s over, with that guard James Robinson basically being the last real traditional Howland/Dixon era “Pitt” type guard that went through the program start to finish. Since the move to the ACC, they can’t get the recruits these days that can compete with other ACC talent. Someone tweeted out a theoretical starting 5 of recruiting misses Pitt has had. Not a pretty sight to see what they bring in these days.

[Dickie Dunn]

Meh. At this point it's tough to say whether or not Pitt is a good fit for the ACC. Pitt has spent five seasons in the ACC. Two of those seasons were the Stallings disaster and the other three featured Dixon refusing to adjust his coaching style or recruiting tactics to the new conference. Scrubs like Chris Jones played over Josh Newkirk (who was the top rated PG in North Carolina), the team hasn't had a legitimate big man since Adams left half a decade ago, all attempts to get a big man were scrub reclamation projects, and even a big recruiting get like Damon Wilson was a NYC guard who couldn't handle the ball, shoot from the outside, or create his own shot. Dixon's graveyard of failed recruits began a long time before they moved to the ACC.

If Pitt's next coach comes in and tries to build an ACC team instead of being pissed they left the Big East or just throwing **** at the wall while attempting to coach out the final contract of his professional career, the program will be fine. It'll take a couple years to get back to what they were, but they'll be fine. Pitt sucked ass and wasn't a good fit for the Big East until Howland and Dixon came in and made the team fit the Big East, recruiting tough as **** players who could defend. While a lot of those players came from NY/NJ, there was a lot of guys from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, and even Florida. They need a head coach who can recruit, an assistant with a pipeline into ACC territory, and an assistant who can help coach guys up. If they make the right hire this time around the program will be back. If they hire Kevin Stallings 2.0, well then **** me.

[slappybrown]

I think DD nailed it. There's no reason they can't recruit the ACC footprint. Maybe Dixon and his staff couldn't adapt, but the idea that Pitt can only be successful by pulling guys out of NYC doesn't make much sense to me. That is one route to take, but doesn't mean its the only way to do it, particularly now that they are in the ACC.

Also, today brought the best thread title I think I have ever seen:

Take this for what it's worth but my friend says we are getting Pitino

[Troy Loney]

Will that be on a work release program?