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Anya, Lacey, and Freeman

Sean Miller Fan

Lair Hall of Famer
Oct 30, 2001
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When we play NCSU on Wednesday, it will be easy to think of what could have been. Dixon is 0-3 recruiting against Gottfried and those 3 players play important roles for the Wolfpack.

There seemed to be some thought that, early on, Anya could wind up at Pitt. Then it was IU with Crean. Then, Gottfried seemed to come out of nowhere to get him and in the end, I'm not sure he considered Pitt a great deal so it may not be fair to say that this was a Dixon vs Gottfried recruiting battle. When we started recruiting Anya, Gottfried was working for ESPNU.

Slice had a relationship with Lacey but it wasn't enough. Gottfried sold "style of play" I'm sure and the rest is history.

Freeman WAS the prototypical Pitt player. New Jersey kid, gritty, hard-working, lightly recruited, undersized power forward. I think most people thought we would land him, but to Raleigh he went.

To add insult to injury, Newkirk grew up a stone's throw from NCSU's campus and Gottfried didn't feel he was Wolfpack material and never offered him a scholarship, opting for Cat Barber instead. We had to resort to signing a player that not even NCSU wanted.

I know Anya gets made fun of a lot and his numbers arent great but he's a presence in the middle and leads the league in blocked shots. He takes up space and intimidates. Throw him in at the 5, slide Young to the 4, and insert Lacey at the 2 and this is a Sweet 16 caliber team. Freeman leads NCSU in rebounding, averaging 5.6 in only 18 MPG for an oustanding rebounding rate. He would be a good player off the bench for us. Perhaps as the backup 5 to Anya. His 4 offensive rebounds in the final 3:00 of the 1st half against us at the Pete last year turned that game completely around.

None of us expect to beat out Duke or UNC for recruits and probably not Syracuse or Louisville. But, we have to start beating out NCSU, Maryland, Villanova, Gtown, St. John's, etc.........instead of low-level Power 6 programs and mid-majors.
 
Put on your red troll. Your cryptic incessant pathetic moronic tweets about why Pitt is down is old,worn out and shows you for the Pitt hater you truly are. But congrats Olbermann made you the number 1 troll on the net. You must be proud to be such a piece of brown stuff.
 
Everything he said is true and its idiots like you that want to continue drinking the kool aid that all is well in Pantherland..it's not.
 
SMF is spot on. No reason to go 0-3 against NC's third best team
 
Reply

Glad to see you are alive and well Goldie! I missed reading your scathing personal attacks on posters. Glad to see the Lair and rules could not keep you down! Hail to Pitt!
 
Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
When we play NCSU on Wednesday, it will be easy to think of what could have been. Dixon is 0-3 recruiting against Gottfried and those 3 players play important roles for the Wolfpack.

There seemed to be some thought that, early on, Anya could wind up at Pitt. Then it was IU with Crean. Then, Gottfried seemed to come out of nowhere to get him and in the end, I'm not sure he considered Pitt a great deal so it may not be fair to say that this was a Dixon vs Gottfried recruiting battle. When we started recruiting Anya, Gottfried was working for ESPNU.

Slice had a relationship with Lacey but it wasn't enough. Gottfried sold "style of play" I'm sure and the rest is history.

Freeman WAS the prototypical Pitt player. New Jersey kid, gritty, hard-working, lightly recruited, undersized power forward. I think most people thought we would land him, but to Raleigh he went.

To add insult to injury, Newkirk grew up a stone's throw from NCSU's campus and Gottfried didn't feel he was Wolfpack material and never offered him a scholarship, opting for Cat Barber instead. We had to resort to signing a player that not even NCSU wanted.

I know Anya gets made fun of a lot and his numbers arent great but he's a presence in the middle and leads the league in blocked shots. He takes up space and intimidates. Throw him in at the 5, slide Young to the 4, and insert Lacey at the 2 and this is a Sweet 16 caliber team. Freeman leads NCSU in rebounding, averaging 5.6 in only 18 MPG for an oustanding rebounding rate. He would be a good player off the bench for us. Perhaps as the backup 5 to Anya. His 4 offensive rebounds in the final 3:00 of the 1st half against us at the Pete last year turned that game completely around.

None of us expect to beat out Duke or UNC for recruits and probably not Syracuse or Louisville. But, we have to start beating out NCSU, Maryland, Villanova, Gtown, St. John's, etc.........instead of low-level Power 6 programs and mid-majors.
So what? NC State is probably one or two losses away from being us this year. Take away injuries and the stupid decision on Durand and we are very likely to have been in a better position than the Pack this year.
 
I think anya would have been good at Pitt.

freeman has not done much.

not sure Lacey was ever an opportunity.
 
Good call ...

... I didn't catch that as Goldie first time around.
 
You are showing your ignorance. Newkirk did have an NCSU offer. When Barber went to UK on a recriting visit, he got into some trouble. Calapari then passed. Two days later Barber committed to NCSU. Two days after that, Newkirk committed to Pitt. Barber was a 5 star guard. Newkirk was a high 3 star. If Barber doesn't get into trouble, Newkirk may be on that NCSU roster.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
Originally posted by Pittbaseball11:
Pretty sure Lacey knew Gottfried really well from Alabama.
Lacey was a sophomore in HS when Gottfried last coached Bama. Not sure how great of a relationship they could have had at that point.
 
Originally posted by IamHeisenberg:

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
When we play NCSU on Wednesday, it will be easy to think of what could have been. Dixon is 0-3 recruiting against Gottfried and those 3 players play important roles for the Wolfpack.

There seemed to be some thought that, early on, Anya could wind up at Pitt. Then it was IU with Crean. Then, Gottfried seemed to come out of nowhere to get him and in the end, I'm not sure he considered Pitt a great deal so it may not be fair to say that this was a Dixon vs Gottfried recruiting battle. When we started recruiting Anya, Gottfried was working for ESPNU.

Slice had a relationship with Lacey but it wasn't enough. Gottfried sold "style of play" I'm sure and the rest is history.

Freeman WAS the prototypical Pitt player. New Jersey kid, gritty, hard-working, lightly recruited, undersized power forward. I think most people thought we would land him, but to Raleigh he went.

To add insult to injury, Newkirk grew up a stone's throw from NCSU's campus and Gottfried didn't feel he was Wolfpack material and never offered him a scholarship, opting for Cat Barber instead. We had to resort to signing a player that not even NCSU wanted.

I know Anya gets made fun of a lot and his numbers arent great but he's a presence in the middle and leads the league in blocked shots. He takes up space and intimidates. Throw him in at the 5, slide Young to the 4, and insert Lacey at the 2 and this is a Sweet 16 caliber team. Freeman leads NCSU in rebounding, averaging 5.6 in only 18 MPG for an oustanding rebounding rate. He would be a good player off the bench for us. Perhaps as the backup 5 to Anya. His 4 offensive rebounds in the final 3:00 of the 1st half against us at the Pete last year turned that game completely around.

None of us expect to beat out Duke or UNC for recruits and probably not Syracuse or Louisville. But, we have to start beating out NCSU, Maryland, Villanova, Gtown, St. John's, etc.........instead of low-level Power 6 programs and mid-majors.
So what? NC State is probably one or two losses away from being us this year. Take away injuries and the stupid decision on Durand and we are very likely to have been in a better position than the Pack this year.
Gottfried is a terrible coach. Give Jamie his roster and I think we're a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Lacey was recruited by Gottfried at Alabama so ther was a relationship there. I will give jamie and Slice a pass on that one. Freeman was also a head to head battle which was lost. And so was Anya. And we had his HS point guard here.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
Originally posted by Pittbaseball11:
Pretty sure Lacey knew Gottfried really well from Alabama.
Lacey was a sophomore in HS when Gottfried last coached Bama. Not sure how great of a relationship they could have had at that point.
Per Lacey, Gottfried first started recruiting him in 8th grade. Lacey's originally from Alabama so it sounds plausible.
 
Originally posted by Pittbaseball11:

Per Lacey, Gottfried first started recruiting him in 8th grade. Lacey's originally from Alabama so it sounds plausible.
OK. He also had a relationship with Slice. Point is, he considered both schools and took an on-campus visit here. Maybe he always wanted to play for Gottfried, but there was at least a chance that we could have landed him. And had we done that, we're not talking NIT right now.
 
Originally posted by fkthomas:
You are showing your ignorance. Newkirk did have an NCSU offer. When Barber went to UK on a recriting visit, he got into some trouble. Calapari then passed. Two days later Barber committed to NCSU. Two days after that, Newkirk committed to Pitt. Barber was a 5 star guard. Newkirk was a high 3 star. If Barber doesn't get into trouble, Newkirk may be on that NCSU roster.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
That story is true except for one thing.....it was Louisville not Kentucky.
 
Originally posted by IamHeisenberg:
Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
When we play NCSU on Wednesday, it will be easy to think of what could have been. Dixon is 0-3 recruiting against Gottfried and those 3 players play important roles for the Wolfpack.

There seemed to be some thought that, early on, Anya could wind up at Pitt. Then it was IU with Crean. Then, Gottfried seemed to come out of nowhere to get him and in the end, I'm not sure he considered Pitt a great deal so it may not be fair to say that this was a Dixon vs Gottfried recruiting battle. When we started recruiting Anya, Gottfried was working for ESPNU.

Slice had a relationship with Lacey but it wasn't enough. Gottfried sold "style of play" I'm sure and the rest is history.

Freeman WAS the prototypical Pitt player. New Jersey kid, gritty, hard-working, lightly recruited, undersized power forward. I think most people thought we would land him, but to Raleigh he went.

To add insult to injury, Newkirk grew up a stone's throw from NCSU's campus and Gottfried didn't feel he was Wolfpack material and never offered him a scholarship, opting for Cat Barber instead. We had to resort to signing a player that not even NCSU wanted.

I know Anya gets made fun of a lot and his numbers arent great but he's a presence in the middle and leads the league in blocked shots. He takes up space and intimidates. Throw him in at the 5, slide Young to the 4, and insert Lacey at the 2 and this is a Sweet 16 caliber team. Freeman leads NCSU in rebounding, averaging 5.6 in only 18 MPG for an oustanding rebounding rate. He would be a good player off the bench for us. Perhaps as the backup 5 to Anya. His 4 offensive rebounds in the final 3:00 of the 1st half against us at the Pete last year turned that game completely around.

None of us expect to beat out Duke or UNC for recruits and probably not Syracuse or Louisville. But, we have to start beating out NCSU, Maryland, Villanova, Gtown, St. John's, etc.........instead of low-level Power 6 programs and mid-majors.
So what? NC State is probably one or two losses away from being us this year. Take away injuries and the stupid decision on Durand and we are very likely to have been in a better position than the Pack this year.
That works both ways. We lost to UNC by 2, UVa by 4 and to ND in OT after blowing a 17 point lead. We could easily have been a top 4 in the ACC club with a little luck.
 
Please don't read ...

... anything in this thread as an overall disrespect of NC State by Pitt Hoops fans.

We just need to spend much of our efforts correcting the information posted by Sean Miller Fan who never let's actual facts get in the way of one of his notorious rants.
 
Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
Originally posted by Pittbaseball11:

Per Lacey, Gottfried first started recruiting him in 8th grade. Lacey's originally from Alabama so it sounds plausible.
OK. He also had a relationship with Slice. Point is, he considered both schools and took an on-campus visit here. Maybe he always wanted to play for Gottfried, but there was at least a chance that we could have landed him. And had we done that, we're not talking NIT right now.
I mean, we're also probably not talking NIT if Durand Johnson plays this year.
 
Re: Please don't read ...

Originally posted by DT_PITT:
... anything in this thread as an overall disrespect of NC State by Pitt Hoops fans.

We just need to spend much of our efforts correcting the information posted by Sean Miller Fan who never let's actual facts get in the way of one of his notorious rants.
First of all, who cares if NC State fans on a message board feel disrespected. Its a message board. Second of all, besides saying Gottfried is a terrible coach (which is a fact), how is anything I have said disrespectful to NCSU?
 
I do think Gottfried sucks as a coach. But he does have scoreboard vs jamie when it comes to recruiting. No doubt about it. I think if Anya comes here, we'd be better than an 11-7 ACC team this year.

A little clarity on Newkirk as well. He seemed to have been slow-played by NCSU. And he didn't have a UNC offer. But he had been a multiple time visitor to UNC and has sat in Roy's office. Williams was never going to offer him unless plan a, b and c fell through--hence no offer. But it does happen. Remember when we took Malcolm Gilbert over Des Hubert? Eventually Hubert commited to UNC because UNC needed a body after the remaining cupboard was getting bare in that class.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
You didn't say anything disrespectful ...


... at all -- and wasn't trying to "call you out" either. Just summarizing the tone of the thread, while never missing the chance to take a friendly shot at you!
 
As usual, a lot of revisionist history with a SMF rant. His overall facts aren't wrong. NC State ended up with 3 guys we recruited too, but...

Freeman wasn't EXACTLY a head to head battle. We didn't recruit Freeman until VERY late, after Adams left and we were scrambling for any big man we could get.

The prep school Freeman was at generally requires a donation to be allowed to recruit their players so we rarely recruit there.

NC State had been recruiting Freeman for a long time. Before NC State, Seton Hall was his favorite and at one time it was UAB.

Pitt was very late to the party on Lennard.

We were pretty late on Lacey too. We didn't offer him until after Slice was rehired and Zeigler had transferred.

Anya is someone we were on early. At one time we were in his top 5 but as his high school coach said, he tended to change favorites every time he visited somewhere else. He was at Pitt a couple times but I don't think he ever had an official here. He fell for Indiana until they signed Noah Vonleh, then committed to NC State before completing all the officials he had scheduled. So, we really didn't lose him anymore than Cuse or tOSU did.
 
Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
Originally posted by IamHeisenberg:

Originally posted by Sean Miller Fan:
When we play NCSU on Wednesday, it will be easy to think of what could have been. Dixon is 0-3 recruiting against Gottfried and those 3 players play important roles for the Wolfpack.

There seemed to be some thought that, early on, Anya could wind up at Pitt. Then it was IU with Crean. Then, Gottfried seemed to come out of nowhere to get him and in the end, I'm not sure he considered Pitt a great deal so it may not be fair to say that this was a Dixon vs Gottfried recruiting battle. When we started recruiting Anya, Gottfried was working for ESPNU.

Slice had a relationship with Lacey but it wasn't enough. Gottfried sold "style of play" I'm sure and the rest is history.

Freeman WAS the prototypical Pitt player. New Jersey kid, gritty, hard-working, lightly recruited, undersized power forward. I think most people thought we would land him, but to Raleigh he went.

To add insult to injury, Newkirk grew up a stone's throw from NCSU's campus and Gottfried didn't feel he was Wolfpack material and never offered him a scholarship, opting for Cat Barber instead. We had to resort to signing a player that not even NCSU wanted.

I know Anya gets made fun of a lot and his numbers arent great but he's a presence in the middle and leads the league in blocked shots. He takes up space and intimidates. Throw him in at the 5, slide Young to the 4, and insert Lacey at the 2 and this is a Sweet 16 caliber team. Freeman leads NCSU in rebounding, averaging 5.6 in only 18 MPG for an oustanding rebounding rate. He would be a good player off the bench for us. Perhaps as the backup 5 to Anya. His 4 offensive rebounds in the final 3:00 of the 1st half against us at the Pete last year turned that game completely around.

None of us expect to beat out Duke or UNC for recruits and probably not Syracuse or Louisville. But, we have to start beating out NCSU, Maryland, Villanova, Gtown, St. John's, etc.........instead of low-level Power 6 programs and mid-majors.
So what? NC State is probably one or two losses away from being us this year. Take away injuries and the stupid decision on Durand and we are very likely to have been in a better position than the Pack this year.
Gottfried is a terrible coach. Give Jamie his roster and I think we're a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
So if State gets a dance bid this year the most horriblest coach ever will have taken them to the Dance for 4 out of his 4 years coaching the team. Oh my God, you are something.
 
Anya made a big mistake....

by not coming to Pitt.

He would he getting 30 mins a game here and would be a really significant piece of our puzzle. I think Jamie would have made a player out of him. He has done more with less.

Instead he chose to play for a guy who basically just rolls out the basketballs, at least in comparison to the better coaches in the game.
 
Re: Anya made a big mistake....

Gottfried is a better recruiter. Dixon is a better coach. Gottfried did beat us out for the 3 players aforementioned.
 
Re: Anya made a big mistake....

Gottfried is a very aggressive recruiter, for all the good it does him--since he's a lousy coach. He has a very agressive staff, I have firsthand knowledge of that via a friend with a godson who is a top 100 for the class of 2015. Gottfried's guy was all over him.

That NCSU program sucks under Gottfried. Not sure what the appeal would be to a recruit at this point.
 
Re: Anya made a big mistake....

Originally posted by thebadby2:

That NCSU program sucks under Gottfried. Not sure what the appeal would be to a recruit at this point.
Style of play. That's all kids care about anymore and they can sell it.
 
Originally posted by dooz3:
Put on your red troll. Your cryptic incessant pathetic moronic tweets about why Pitt is down is old,worn out and shows you for the Pitt hater you truly are. But congrats Olbermann made you the number 1 troll on the net. You must be proud to be such a piece of brown stuff.
I am guessing this is Goldbergfan's newest screen name?
 
Reply

What do you mean exactly by sucks? It appears NCSU will be 4 for 4 in NCAA appearances since he arrived in Raleigh. Which is twice as good as Pitt during those very same years. While MG may not be the greatest bench coach or with X's and O's...he does seem to understand recruiting talent. Then consider he must recruit against next door neighbors UNC and Duke--which are ACC blueblood royalty. Frankly, I'd say he seems to be doing a pretty good job there. As for Alabama, they certainly had more success there during his tenure than they have since he left. Not sure I understand why everyone bashes the guy so much here on the Lair? Hail to Pitt!
 
Re: Reply

Originally posted by PITTLAW:
What do you mean exactly by sucks? It appears NCSU will be 4 for 4 in NCAA appearances since he arrived in Raleigh. Which is twice as good as Pitt during those very same years. While MG may not be the greatest bench coach or with X's and O's...he does seem to understand recruiting talent. Then consider he must recruit against next door neighbors UNC and Duke--which are ACC blueblood royalty. Frankly, I'd say he seems to be doing a pretty good job there. As for Alabama, they certainly had more success there during his tenure than they have since he left. Not sure I understand why everyone bashes the guy so much here on the Lair? Hail to Pitt!
He is a very good recruiter but a poor coach. He underachieves relative to the amount of talent he gets. As they say, he gets a bunch of highly rated players and "rolls the balls out." While some may say its a great achievement to get to the tournament 4 years in a row, they will be one of the last teams in the field in all of those years. They should be getting 3 or 4 seeds, not 11 and 12 seeds.

At Alabama, he had them ranked #1 in the nation mid-season behind 2 or 3 future NBA players (did I mention he can recruit), they ended up as a 10 seed who was blown out by Indiana in the first round in Boston, a game I was at since we played Wagner right after.

I dislike guys like Gottfried because they waste such good players. Guys like him, Steve Lavin, Josh Pastner, now Kevin Willard I guess keep getting all these big-time talents and continually underachieve. If Jamie could get those players, he'd be in the Final Four a few times per decade.
 
Reply

What's worse...getting the talent and "not going as far as you should" or not getting the talent and "going further than you should"? And by the way, both of the preceeding get you to the NCAA tournament where you bow out at Elite 8 or sooner. In college sports...you not only have to be a great coach...but you have to be great recruiter. There is no front office to save you with signing a free agent. I do not have a dog in the hunt, but the marketplace seems to value MG as worth upwards of $2 million a season being a sucky coach and getting his team to the NCAA or NIT tournaments most years. I'd love to suck so bad. Hail to Pitt!
 
Re: Reply

Originally posted by PITTLAW:
What's worse...getting the talent and "not going as far as you should" or not getting the talent and "going further than you should"?
Recruiting is obviously a huge part of being a head coach, no denying that. But, for the sake of this argument, I'm separating the recruiting from the actual day to day coaching of the team. Dixon is very good at coaching the players he gets and getting the most out of them, maximizing the amount of wins that are to be had. For example, I think some coaches would have gone 11-20 with the guys we have on this year's team. Gottfried is the opposite of Dixon. He's not very good in day to day coaching but is a very good recruiter.

I think, at the end of the day, if you only do 1 of these things really well, you get what NCSU and Pitt are......bubble programs.
 
Reply

Well why in the world would you divorce recruiting from coaching when that is what college sports are all about? I was in no way suggesting Gottfried is a better overall coach than Jamie [especially if you measure career results]...but if you want to look at the past four years while MG has been at NCSU and compare it to JD's past four years...I do not see how you cannot say that you'd not rather have the kids MG has recruited and gone dancing all four years--as opposed to the kids JD has recruited and been to the CBI and NIT in two of those four years? If Gottfried is truly as bad as you say he is...guess it makes a pretty clear statement that the best way for Pitt to get better is to make advances in recruiting. Hail to Pitt!
 
Re: Reply

Originally posted by PITTLAW:
guess it makes a pretty clear statement that the best way for Pitt to get better is to make advances in recruiting. Hail to Pitt!
Ummm...........Yea.

Just saying if you were to list the duties of a head coach (in no random order of importance), they'd be:

- recruiting
- game day coaching
- coaching in practice
- game preparation
- player development
- scouting
- hiring assistants
- fundraising
- etc

Dixon excels in a number of areas. Recruiting isn't one. Gottfried excels in a number of areas but not gameday coaching or preparation.
 
Re: Reply

He has a loaded roster and yet he's limping into the tournament. Last year he had lottery pick TJ Warren and couldn't make any noise.

Making the tournament is no measure of a power 5 program. Doing something in it is.

We have fallen off of the mountain the past few seasons, but Dixon has achieved more at Pitt than Gottfried has at all of his jobs combined-and with a lot less talent.

Just because we're struggling over the same period doesn't mean Gottfied is beyond criticism. He sucks.
 
Gottfried had some loaded rosters at Alabama as well. He is one of those guys who always seems to do less with more. There is that group of coaches across the country that always seem to struggle just to make the tournament despite superior talent, and never really do much the years that they get in.

Gottfried, Rick Barnes, Lorenzo Romar, Josh Pastner are some of the obvious ones. Ernie Kent may have taken Oregon to 2 Elite 8's, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a lousy coach (he is).
 
Re: Reply


Originally posted by thebadby2:
He has a loaded roster and yet he's limping into the tournament. Last year he had lottery pick TJ Warren and couldn't make any noise.

Making the tournament is no measure of a power 5 program. Doing something in it is.

We have fallen off of the mountain the past few seasons, but Dixon has achieved more at Pitt than Gottfried has at all of his jobs combined-and with a lot less talent.

Just because we're struggling over the same period doesn't mean Gottfied is beyond criticism. He sucks.
Imagine if he was the Pitt coach the last four years. All of the Pantherlair "MIGs" would be defending Gottfried to the death against the Lair members complaining about his lack of real success. And the board would be able to actually point out what a successful recruiter he is and how things will soon come together and a Final Four is a sure fire guarantee.
 
Reply

Well if the measure is how you do in the tournament [your words, not mine], both MG and JD have been to the Elite 8 once in the entirety of their coaching careers. Doing less with more is certainly nothing to be proud of...but doing more with less is not exactly a glowing review either--as it means you cannot recruit. Today MG and JD face off...let the best coach win! Hail to Pitt!
 
Re: Reply

It sure would have been nice to have won at least one recruiting battle. We could have really used all of them.
 
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