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Pitt to begin national search for new MBB coach. (nfm)****

The "national search" will quickly degenerate into trying to coax a Robert Morris level coach to give pitt a try. Any coach with big time ambitions would be nuts to come to pitt. Pitt really has no strong basketball tradition like say Duke or Indiana. They sucked at basketball except for a 10 year or so stretch when Ben Howland was able to coax New York City illiterates and thugs to come to pitt. That recruiting pipeline is gone and so is pitt basketball.
 
Will take local hero Miller after he’s canned by Arizona.
Could be. A crook like Miller is just what pitt needs. Maybe he will find a way to snatch Pa taxpayer money and feed to players. Maybe that will set the stage for pitt hiring Mike Haywood to replace Narduzzi when he fails in a couple of years. If they can hire a crook for a basketball coach then why not hire a wife beater as the football coach?
 
Well, let’s see how much pull pitt has as a basketball school. It will be interesting to hear the names of those that interview at Pitt. IIRC when Jamie Dixon left the list of coaches interviewed was not very impressive and they settled on Stallings. Pitt basketball soap opera part 2.......
 
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Well, let’s see how much pull pitt has as a basketball school. It will be interesting to hear the names of those that interview at Pitt. IIRC when Jamie Dixon left the list of coaches interviewed was not very impressive and they settled on Stallings. Pitt basketball soap opera part 2.......
Must be so hard to remember how well they played for Jamie Dixon. And all accounts I've heard from people who’ve met him were that he was a really good guy. Must really feel lousy. Maybe someone will brighten things up with a few keychains...
 
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Like academics? Pitt put five players on the 30 man ACC All-Academic team, more than any other school (Duke had 2), including freshmen Marcus Carr, Shamiel Stevenson, Kham Davis and Stewart.

That obviously wasn't enough for stallings to keep his job at pitt.

CORE. VALUES. :eek:
 
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Like academics? Pitt put five players on the 30 man ACC All-Academic team, more than any other school (Duke had 2), including freshmen Marcus Carr, Shamiel Stevenson, Kham Davis and Parker Stewart.
Well, those players may be worth keeping, though they posted an 0-18 conference record. One of the issues with Stallings is that he lost 5 or 6 players to transfer, not easy to do in just one year. :oops:

There a few positives to the job -- nice home facility, playing time to offer, television exposure, and good level of ACC competition.

As others have pointed out, there are some challenges as well.
 
That obviously wasn't enough for stallings to keep his job at pitt.

CORE. VALUES. :eek:
He tried to win with student athletes. Going winless in conference play will generally get you fired anywhere, not just Pitt. Many here detest Pitt. I understand that. What I don't understand is why there is a need to make bullshit implications that have no basis in reality. By all indications, Stallings was trying to do things the right way. He should get credit for that.
 
He tried to win with student athletes. Going winless in conference play will generally get you fired anywhere, not just Pitt. Many here detest Pitt. I understand that. What I don't understand is why there is a need to make bullshit implications that have no basis in reality. By all indications, Stallings was trying to do things the right way. He should get credit for that.

I have nothing against stallings. It's a shame he got fired. I was hoping he would get a lengthy extension.
 
Well, let’s see how much pull pitt has as a basketball school. It will be interesting to hear the names of those that interview at Pitt. IIRC when Jamie Dixon left the list of coaches interviewed was not very impressive and they settled on Stallings. Pitt basketball soap opera part 2.......
This will go down like all open pitt coaching positions. Sometime next week they will announce that they are considering Steve Kerr from the Warriors, Mike Krzyzewski, John Calipari, and are considering cloning John Wooden. They will say that they have their pick but want to broaden the field a bit before they decide. After a few more weeks you will hear that they are really talking to the Robert Morris coach, an assistant at East Tennessee State, and a local high school coach. Then you will hear that many of the low level guys they interviewed turned them down. Finally they will settle on an assistant from a MAC school and try to sell him as their first choice. That is the process pitt uses to pick a coach.
 
Looking st the pitt board it seems Thad Motta and Hurley are their ‘homerun’ hires.

I rarely spend any time on the pitt board, but I have to say some of it is pretty entertaining today.

My favorite is the poster who wrote a long diatribe open letter to their AD. He’s apparently on a first name basis with her.......yet writing to her on a message board. :rolleyes:

He’s explaining to her what she has to do (including leaking information to drum up interest) and even thanking her for continuing to read past the first paragraph. Comedy gold! ;)
 
Stalling is actually a great guy...feel sorry for him but screw Pitt. His 9 million dollar buyout should help him get over not coaching at that crud school...
Yes, and Stalling should write a thank you letter to every Pennsylvania taxpayer for his $9million buyout. The State Legislature should immediately pass a bill cutting Pitt's education allocation by $9million as punishment for wasting taxpayer money.
 
He isn't a 'great guy' lots of friends in Nashville who will tell you different.
 
Looking st the pitt board it seems Thad Motta and Hurley are their ‘homerun’ hires.

I rarely spend any time on the pitt board, but I have to say some of it is pretty entertaining today.

My favorite is the poster who wrote a long diatribe open letter to their AD. He’s apparently on a first name basis with her.......yet writing to her on a message board. :rolleyes:

He’s explaining to her what she has to do (including leaking information to drum up interest) and even thanking her for continuing to read past the first paragraph. Comedy gold! ;)

I could see them landing Hurley and being very competitive within a couple of seasons under him. Hurley would get back to the ACC and set the stage for replacing coach K. Would not be a bad hire and probably doable.
 
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This will go down like all open pitt coaching positions. Sometime next week they will announce that they are considering Steve Kerr from the Warriors, Mike Krzyzewski, John Calipari, and are considering cloning John Wooden. They will say that they have their pick but want to broaden the field a bit before they decide. After a few more weeks you will hear that they are really talking to the Robert Morris coach, an assistant at East Tennessee State, and a local high school coach. Then you will hear that many of the low level guys they interviewed turned them down. Finally they will settle on an assistant from a MAC school and try to sell him as their first choice. That is the process pitt uses to pick a coach.

Don’t forget they will go for the obscure hire because he is the only one who meets their ethical standards. Of course, he will be a steal.
 
Well, those players may be worth keeping, though they posted an 0-18 conference record. One of the issues with Stallings is that he lost 5 or 6 players to transfer, not easy to do in just one year. :oops:

There a few positives to the job -- nice home facility, playing time to offer, television exposure, and good level of ACC competition.

As others have pointed out, there are some challenges as well.


Playing time for a stud or studs. If their roster, or most of it stays, they already have a very young roster.
 
Why not Pat Chambers? He wins 40% of his games and never takes you to a tournament. After all of that he will get a raise!
 
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Looking st the pitt board it seems Thad Motta and Hurley are their ‘homerun’ hires.

I rarely spend any time on the pitt board, but I have to say some of it is pretty entertaining today.

My favorite is the poster who wrote a long diatribe open letter to their AD. He’s apparently on a first name basis with her.......yet writing to her on a message board. :rolleyes:

He’s explaining to her what she has to do (including leaking information to drum up interest) and even thanking her for continuing to read past the first paragraph. Comedy gold! ;)
Thad Matta??? That's what they dream of? Wasn't he let go from OSU because he forgot how to both recruit and coach? If they do that then they never learned the lessons of Majors 2. Hope they can get him so they get to through this same nightmare in two years.
 
Like academics? Pitt put five players on the 30 man ACC All-Academic team, more than any other school (Duke had 2), including freshmen Marcus Carr, Shamiel Stevenson, Kham Davis and Parker Stewart.

I saw that on Twitter when it was announced. The typical response from Pitt fans however was, "It's too bad they can't play basketball."
 
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I could see them landing Hurley and being very competitive within a couple of seasons under him. Hurley would get back to the ACC and set the stage for replacing coach K. Would not be a bad hire and probably doable.
There are 3 Hurleys, so not sure which one (if any) would be in play here:
Bob Hurley, Sr. is a legendary HS coach (Basketball Hall of Fame) from St. Anthony's in Jersey City (school now closed); he's 70 years old, but knows a ton of basketball
Bob Hurley, Jr. is the coach at Arizona State and seems to be doing a good job there; don't know if Pitt could afford him, if Hurley would want to go to an ACC school, etc.
Danny Hurley, the younger brother who played at Seton Hall, is the coach at Rhode Island and has done a good job there and I believe was at Wagner before that. He might be a good choice.
 
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There are 3 Hurleys, so not sure which one (if any) would be in play here:
Bob Hurley, Sr. is a legendary HS coach (Basketball Hall of Fame) from St. Anthony's in Jersey City (school now closed); he's 70 years old, but knows a ton of basketball
Bob Hurley, Jr. is the coach at Arizona State and seems to be doing a good job there; don't know if Pitt could afford him, if Hurley would want to go to an ACC school, etc.
Danny Hurley, the younger brother who played at Seton Hall, is the coach at Rhode Island and has done a good job there and I believe was at Wagner before that. He might be a good choice.
All 3 Hurleys would be taking a step down to coach at pitt: Hurley Sr from a good high school, Bobby from Arizona State, and Danny from Seton Hall. They won't consider the putrid pitt job.

I really think that Pennsylvania should step in and sell the Peterson Center to recoup some of the money Pennsylvania paid to have it built. The local medical center would likely buy it and convert it to a parking garage or new office buildings. It is time that Pennsylvania wake up and stop squandering money on pitt athletics. Pitt could rent a local high school gym for future basketball games.
 
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Pitt’s an attractive enough job if they pony up the cash. I don’t really buy that recruits from Pitt’s traditional recruiting territory in New York, NJ and Philadelphia don’t want to play for a non-Big East team if Syracuse and others in the ACC and a host of Big Ten teams (including us) can recruit those areas successfully. I just think Dixon lost his edge when Pitt moved to the ACC and Stallings outright stunk both in recruiting and coaching.

I don’t know if they would be willing to pony up the salary, but I could see Danny Hurley being interested in that job. At the end of the day, you have a whole lot better chance to make the tournament as an ACC team than you do in the A10, and there are doors that open in recruiting when you’re in a major conference - especially when you’re at the best conference in the country. Pitt’s problem has way more to do with a willingness to spend than anything, and if they’re spending $10M to get rid of Stallings maybe they’ll see that spending more is the only way back to where they were in the late 90’s and 2000’s. But IMO it’s a more attractive basketball job than it is for football.
 
I’m sitting in a coffee shop (MOCHA. LATTE. :eek: and BLUEBERRY. CREAM. CAKE. :eek: ), and there’s a guy here wearing a pitt shirt. It’s a Nike shirt, so he may be athletically-minded. Should I give him a free beverage?
 
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Stalling is actually a great guy...feel sorry for him but screw Pitt. His 9 million dollar buyout should help him get over not coaching at that crud school...
He's been a pretty successful coach. He's also had a solid career as an assistant working with Gene Kaedy and Roy Williams. We should be happy for him 9.4 million and a pass out of Pitt.
 
Well, pitt set the record for football coaches over a couple year period. Will they break that record on BB coaches??
 
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