Coach Dixon cares more about his job than most but the ACC transition

[mdpitt]

has been a steeper learning curve than anyone expected. As soon as it was announced, it was goodbye to just beating other team up and hello to a finesse type game. This has not gone well.

That being said, Coach is going to figure this out. He is going to recruit 3 types of players that can bring a Pitt pulse back to the team.

Aaron Grey type of dependable, get the rebound, manufacture points, dictate the paint. Seven Feet Tall
Dejuan Blair who very much is a Shop Vac for getting to the ball and has a lot of attitude. We have none.
Carl Krauser who other teams hate and we all love. He stirs the drink, takes shots, has some flaws but pulls the trigger so to speak.

This is all obvious but like many last summer when your friends asked you about Pitt and who to watch you just kind of shrugged your shoulders.

These last few years will be a speed bump in the recent history of Pitt but I have a feeling Coach is going to clean house in some meaningful ways because he really cares about his job. There will be some tough conversations this week with Assistants and players.

 

[Crimmins27]

The rhetoric around playing a different "finesse" game was silly from the beginning.

Pitt's style was very effective in the Big East where there was more talent and depth of teams than in the history of any conference.

UConn led the nation in blocked shots for about a decade due to the talent level he brought in and Pitt slowed down those thoroughbreds. The Cuse always had elite athletes and we beat a very talented Duke team in that stretch.

And the greatest irony is Virginia had the best record in the ACC with the very style Pitt fans insisted would not work.

 

[NTOP]

I fully expect a series of roster changes. The incoming and "verballed"

recruits look promising, but immediate help is necessary. Might be a couple surprises with guys moving on to lower-level schools.
We need leadership, toughness and a bad-ass attitude.

 

[mvk112]

There isn't going to be a bunch of roster changes because there just isn't many good available players at this point. Sure, they're in on Diallo, but he's a longshot at best. What else is there? Levi Cook? Benji Bell? Marcus Lovett? The track record on their spring signings hasn't been very good.

The conference switch isn't an issue, like said above, the best team in the conference the last two years plays like Pitt did in the Big East. Pitt was one of the top two or three teams in the Big East year in and year out, but they wouldn't have finished higher than 7th in the current Big East this year.

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

The old BE was better than the current ACC and he won there.
I just hope he realizes that last performance embarrassed everyone and hurt the program's credibility.

 

[TD_6082]

Tiger-Paul, I really don't think you can put a lot of stock in the last performance. The NIT is pretty much played in a vacuum. I think the biggest thing that hurt credibility is that after putting themselves in position to nail down a tourney birth, they lost their last 4 games against Wake, Miami, FSU, & then were dominated by NCSU. That, imo, is the biggest negative people will remember about this season.

And as for the thread topic, I agree that it doesn't have anything to do with conference transition, but more to do with a lull in talent.

 

[pittzap]

Don't really agree. The ACC now has a lot of players who are bulked up, so it is not really a "finesse" league anymore.
We lacked size and strength inside vs. a lot of ACC teams this year.

I hope the Rozelle the Hotel can play a little bit, because he is huge and will help inside.