Last year certainly sucked the energy out of most Pitt fans, players and IMO coaches.
I know it drained me.
For 2017-18, I want a team of guys who scare you with their tenacity. I never fear talent in my job, but I get nervous when I know I am dealing with a relentless foe/competitor.
That is the challenge for Stallings this year and I hope he changes his narrative from a critic to a never say die guy. I think last years team was impossible to coach and Stallings personality cemented the deal.
In a funny way, the pressure is off Pitt this season. Hopefully, they can relax and just play the game damn hard...at all times.
This is an extremely fair way to look at it. From all angles.
It kind of reminds me of the 94-95 season, Willard's first year. He promised that his team would battle all over the court with pressing defense and wild open offense, shooting lots of threes.
Even in their first game, they battled so hard against North Carolina and trailed by single digits at the half, until UNC's superior talent eventually put the game away. A couple of games later, they were getting crushed by a pretty good St. John's team but simply battled in the second half and eventually got the game within a basket I believe, despite shooting terribly all game.
And then there was the game against UConn where we were up by as many as 25 in the first half and led by 15 at the break, until a Ray Allen led steamroller passed us by.
That team lost a good handful of Big East games by just a few points, and managed to go 5-13 in the Big East overall. They even managed a Big East Tournament victory with a spectacular game by Jason Maile.
That Willard team was terribly short on players and there really weren't any subs at all at the point and center. Fortunately, Andre Aldridge and Jaime Peterson had surprising break out seasons and were often difference makers.
The Field House Fanatics chanted "Willard is God!"
Of course, there was some decent returning talent on that team. Orlando Antigua was a legit Top 100 player, and Chris Gant and Garrick Thomas were 150 type players. And Chad Varga was a high end JUCO.
They also had Jason Maile who was in his second year at Pitt, and hopefully Parker Stewart can be something like him.
That team ended the season at 10-18 but it somehow felt a bit better than that. Add in the fact that Top 40 recruit Vonteego Cummings had already verballed to the Panthers before the season started. And we knew that All-Big East guard Jerry McCullough would return the next season too, after needing to sit the entire season with the knee injury.
So we ended the season on the upswing for sure, and that helped us land Mike Gill, Mark Blount, Kelli Taylor and Andre Howard, which appeared, along with Vonteego, to be a Top 10 recruiting class.
After that season, it really looked like Willard had things turned wonderfully in the right direction. Now we all know the next season ended with a thud, and Willard never did right the ship.
But if we can end this upcoming season somewhere near the place that the 94-95 season ended, it would be both successful and pleasing in my opinion.
