A good read on state of Pitt BBall

[raleighpanther]

Everyone should go check out the Panther Prey article, titled "How Jamie Dixon got here and how to get back on track."
http://panthersprey.blogspot.com/

Its a straight-forward, honest assessment of the state of things, including recruiting, with no apologies, and no needless condemnations.

One positive note he makes is that Dixon's guys seldom mature before their 3 year, and with so many sophs on the roster and in the rotation this year, that raises some hope for improvement next year.

 

[raleighpanther]

Thought I'd add this from the article:

"Only a few players in his dozen years were really good before their junior years. It's not until they become upperclassmen that they form a cohesive unit of good players that work as one to make an excellent team. Dixon finished No. 4 in the nation, and won the Big East in 2011, which that year was considered the toughest single conference ever, with a starting five of Ashton Gibbs, Gilbert Brown, Brad Wanamaker, Nasir Robinson, and Gary McGhee. Let that sink in for a second. There wasn't one star on that team, no NBA players, and not even a real point guard. But they were three seniors and two juniors that played together a lot and developed into the perfect Jamie Dixon "we all work as one" team."

 

[UPitt '89]

Originally posted by raleighpanther:
Thought I'd add this from the article:

"Only a few players in his dozen years were really good before their junior years. It's not until they become upperclassmen that they form a cohesive unit of good players that work as one to make an excellent team. Dixon finished No. 4 in the nation, and won the Big East in 2011, which that year was considered the toughest single conference ever, with a starting five of Ashton Gibbs, Gilbert Brown, Brad Wanamaker, Nasir Robinson, and Gary McGhee. Let that sink in for a second. There wasn't one star on that team, no NBA players, and not even a real point guard. But they were three seniors and two juniors that played together a lot and developed into the perfect Jamie Dixon "we all work as one" team."

That's one of the things that has me optimistic with 5 sophomores and a junior coming back... all of which played a lot of minutes this year.

 

[noelr]

a good read, but DOKE is going overboard on twitter with has man crush on Jamie citing every other successful coach's record during a similar drought. However, what he omits is that every other coach had loads of talent to turn it around quickly and they Jamie doesn't have near the post season accomplishments that they do.

 

[KiwiJeff]

What does a post season record have to do with rebuilding a team? Even if WVU loses its first postseason game, Huggy did a great job turning them around, I dint get what one thing has to do with the other.

 

[noelr]

my point is that that doke cites Donovan, boeheim, huggy, etc. as examples of great coaches who have droughts...I think Jamie deserves the opp to work this out...but you cant compare his accomplishments to those coaches whose droughts have come after NC's and multiple FFs. In other words, Jamie doesn't have the leash those others do.

 

[KiwiJeff]

Why not? he has had sustained success that few achieve. A drought is a drought. It happens to all but very few. Why do Pitt fans find that so hard to understand?

 

[HailToPitt1985]

Jamie deserves the same long leash that the others got. I just don't see how that can be any other way. It would be very foolish and shortsighted otherwise.