Can't even hold a damn 10 point halftime lead

[pittman71]

Making the dance 3 out of his last 4 years refutes your point.

You make the dance, you aren’t trending down.

We should understand now how that’s not a given

I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a program. Being one of the last ones to get into the tournament then losing your first game is trending down from being a #1 seed 2 out of 3 seasons. Since the 2011 1 seed they had won 1 tournament game through 2016. What else would you call that but trending down?

Losing Dixon wasn't the problem.

 

[Ski11585]

Why are you picking on me? Can you read? Again I reread my post and and see where I blamed fans. **** you and your mom for having you. You are whacked.

I find this response hilarious in light of you threatening to report me to Chris the other day because I called you a moron.

 

[dr2011]

I mean, I'm all for being positive and not trolling.. but like...

Can you really be mad at people for being pessimistic and negative right now? We played a bad team at home on a weekday 9 PM start, perfect formula for a W, had a 10pt+ lead and still lost...

I mean if you want people to post about how happy they were with 20-30 minutes of the game, that's fine I guess.

But this is major D1 basketball, and at some point you actually have to win a game. Moral victories or we were close works when you're rebuilding a crappy high school team, but Stallings recruited these guys. He has to get them to actually win if you want people to be positive. Not saying go 9-9 or anything like that, but steal one here or there. Right now, it's like we're bad and coached or performing even worse than our talent level. Which isn't good.

Bad team? The same "bad team" that beat Duke, Clemson and Arizona??

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

I find this response hilarious in light of you threatening to report me to Chris the other day because I called you a moron.

Yeah but this guy is reading something into what I wrote that I didn't say, infer, whatever and won't let go of it.

 

[ThatPittGuy]

Yeah but this guy is reading something into what I wrote that I didn't say, infer, whatever and won't let go of it.

I'm quoting you each time. You said you gave Stallings a chance.

Lots of people demanded that we give Stallings a chance.

I'm just asking how -- practically speaking -- the average fan is supposed to give Stallings a chance.

By not calling out the obvious blunder of his hiring on a message board?

What kind of commie BS is that?

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

I'm quoting you each time. You said you gave Stallings a chance.

Lots of people demanded that we give Stallings a chance.

I'm just asking how -- practically speaking -- the average fan is supposed to give Stallings a chance.

By not calling out the obvious blunder of his hiring on a message board?

What kind of commie BS is that?

What are you arguing about?

I wrote this.

I disagree. Look at some of the places that land top talent. Jeez, Pittsburgh is closer to landing things like Amazon, Google and Apple, than they are top 25 basketball recruits. I am sorry, this "hard to recruit" is only as hard as the guys that are recruiting them.

My take about Stallings, he is a coach on the downside of a career, not particularly a good coach, and here he realizes not that he is just over his head, he has no fan support, the one guy who hired him bailed on him halfway through his first season, he has no administrative support, he doesn't have media support. I see this absolute far away look, like "dead man walking" look, where Stallings knows this year or next, he is gone, he is playing out the string as a lame duck. He has no enthusiasm, he is stuck, I guess it is better than being fired at Vandy but he has basically gone from maybe a coach sitting out for a year or so doing broadcasting to someone who will end up being that career assistant, experienced guy like a Ralph Williard or Jerry Dunn.

Pittsburgh is both a boon and a curse for him. Boon is that basketball is the least important of sports here with low fan IQ or interest. Because of that, there isn't the same angst as it would be in other places, but this failure is becoming epic. Curse, is that basketball is the least important of sports here, so there is little local talent. Of course this just happens to be a 4 year stretch were likely more local talent than in the last 25 years or so is passing through and right now Pitt's program has the same appeal as the Edmund Fitzgerald does to boat captains.

I think this is just a marriage that was wrong from the get go, and to prolong it is to just delay the inevitable and thus the true rebuilding process in earnest. Because this program needs enthusiasm and energy in its worst way. And Kevin Stallings emits as much energy as Kevin from the Office. In some ways this is not all his fault, he was not really given a chance and Scott Barnes is really a bastard knowing he was gone and to pull a stunt like this. Stallings unfortunately at the end will pay the biggest price. This might as well happen in March, and some people (boosters and Admin) need to sit down and map up a plan of what they want. But at this point, like I said and I am totally honest, not just being reactive, does it really matter who the next coach is? Can it be worse? Because right now, Andy O'Toole or Keith Dambrot look like they would be upgrades. And that is where we are.

 

[Ski11585]

Yeah but this guy is reading something into what I wrote that I didn't say, infer, whatever and won't let go of it.

Yeah. I'm not really sure how this justifies anything. But okay.

 

[IamHeisenberg]

Eh. I think Pitt is harder to recruit to than a lot of people believe. It had to be even harder to recruit here with the extreme amount of negativity surrounding the program.

He lost on all his major targets. You could argue another coach with better recruiting skills could have gotten a better player or two here. My argument is that with the fanbase turned on him, an empty Pete, all the negativity, players transferring (forced out)..... there was way too much going on to expect a top class.

Why would it be harder? There is no logic to that statement at all. It is a school in a city. Pittsburgh is the 63rd most populus city in the country and many of the ones above us have pretty decent college hoops teams. The kids play an indoor sport and pretty much are practicing all of the time. Do you think they are using their free time longing to hike in the woods.

WPIAL may not be a great hoops environment but there are more than enough serviceable players to fill out a decent roster that actually can compete.

Pittsburgh is only as hard to recruit as the coach makes it.