By Craig Meyer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The first season of Pitt men’s basketball under coach Kevin Stallings was one of contradictions.
The Panthers had continuity, returning six of the seven leading scorers from a team that made the NCAA tournament, but they had to adjust to a new coach who represented a sharp break from what they had known for as many as four seasons and everything the program had known the previous 17 seasons.
They had size, trotting out backcourts with players as tall as some teams’ centers, but didn’t have size where it mattered. As they would often tell you, they had what it took to beat anyone — defeating the likes of Florida State, Maryland and Virginia — but they were just as capable of falling to anyone, losing to a Duquesne team that finished last in the Atlantic 10, their first City Game defeat since 2000.
By the time it finished the program’s first losing season since 2000 and its lowest conference win percentage since 1977, Pitt left many, including its own players and coaches, wanting more from a team with promise that belied its record. A squad that featured two of the top-11 scorers in program history very likely underachieved, but, if nothing else, was rarely boring while doing so.
“Our guys, especially our seniors, were thrust into a tough situation,” Stallings said Wednesday after Pitt’s 75-63 loss against Virginia in the second round of the ACC tournament. “They had played one way for one person for three years, and I came in and asked them to do some different things, and we were positionally absent of some things. I had to ask this guy [senior guard Jamel Artis] to play out of position all season long.”
Pitt was 12-3 after an overtime victory Jan. 4 against then-No. 11 Virginia. The Panthers went 4-14 the rest of the season. In that time, it lost by 55, 26 and 18 points at home. The first of those routs, a 106-51 loss Jan. 24 to Louisville, was the program’s largest margin of defeat since 1906, only 15 years after Dr. James Naismith first affixed a peach basket to the wall of the Springfield, Mass., YMCA.
It embraced the offensive freedom Stallings afforded it after years in former coach Jamie Dixon’s rigid, micro-managed system, but it too often abused those privileges, either looking undisciplined or reverting to isolation play. Those shortcomings contributed to its overall offensive inconsistency, as it recorded six of the 14 lowest shooting percentages in a half in program history this season.
More than anything, the Panthers were shaped by the team’s four seniors, in ways both good and bad.
Michael Young was the only Panther to receive all-ACC honors and averaged 19.6 points per game, the highest such mark for a Pitt player since 1989. Artis, a 6-foot-7 wing for much of his career, performed admirably in a makeshift arrangement as the team’s point guard, finishing fifth in the ACC in scoring and averaging a career-high 3.3 assists per game. Sheldon Jeter and Chris Jones didn’t have the same gaudy stats, but each pieced together arguably the best season of his career.
What that quartet lacked, though, was a palpable measure of leadership and a steady hand, both of which were severely needed when adjusting to a new coach and coping with some of the setbacks it faced.
The relationship between Stallings and his players, particularly his seniors, wasn’t always smooth. Jeter played for Stallings at Vanderbilt in 2012-13 before opting to transfer, and the two were forced to reconcile. In a span of just over 24 hours in early March, Stallings dismissed freshman guard Justice Kithcart and benched Young and Artis for the first 10 minutes of a 67-42 loss at Virginia after the two showed up late for a team breakfast.
Still, Stallings believes his experience with his oldest players was a positive one.
“I really enjoyed these seniors, and I don’t think that there’s any question that it’s been somewhat dysfunctional at times, but I’ve enjoyed them individually,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed them collectively. ... I thought those guys received me well, tried hard for me and under the circumstances did the best they could.”
With the four seniors and 72.7 percent of Pitt’s scoring now gone, the effects of three recruiting classes that produced just two reliable contributors, guard Cameron Johnson and forward Ryan Luther, will be on full display. Stallings’ 2017 recruiting class currently features seven players, a number that almost certainly will increase as more players leave or transfer. The roster for next season could be unrecognizable, featuring as many as nine or 10 new players.
For a program defined by consistency for the better part of the new millennium, it will be a brave new world. And the success or failures of those teams with that core will help shape how many ultimately remember the group that preceded it.
“I can’t really gauge how other people are going to look at us,” Jeter said. “I’m thankful for my time on the court. I’m thankful for getting to build with them. As far as what other people think about us, I can’t tell you. All I know is we went out and we gave everything we had every night. Whether it was the result people wanted or not, we gave everything we had.”
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG.
The first season of Pitt men’s basketball under coach Kevin Stallings was one of contradictions.
The Panthers had continuity, returning six of the seven leading scorers from a team that made the NCAA tournament, but they had to adjust to a new coach who represented a sharp break from what they had known for as many as four seasons and everything the program had known the previous 17 seasons.
They had size, trotting out backcourts with players as tall as some teams’ centers, but didn’t have size where it mattered. As they would often tell you, they had what it took to beat anyone — defeating the likes of Florida State, Maryland and Virginia — but they were just as capable of falling to anyone, losing to a Duquesne team that finished last in the Atlantic 10, their first City Game defeat since 2000.
By the time it finished the program’s first losing season since 2000 and its lowest conference win percentage since 1977, Pitt left many, including its own players and coaches, wanting more from a team with promise that belied its record. A squad that featured two of the top-11 scorers in program history very likely underachieved, but, if nothing else, was rarely boring while doing so.
“Our guys, especially our seniors, were thrust into a tough situation,” Stallings said Wednesday after Pitt’s 75-63 loss against Virginia in the second round of the ACC tournament. “They had played one way for one person for three years, and I came in and asked them to do some different things, and we were positionally absent of some things. I had to ask this guy [senior guard Jamel Artis] to play out of position all season long.”
Pitt was 12-3 after an overtime victory Jan. 4 against then-No. 11 Virginia. The Panthers went 4-14 the rest of the season. In that time, it lost by 55, 26 and 18 points at home. The first of those routs, a 106-51 loss Jan. 24 to Louisville, was the program’s largest margin of defeat since 1906, only 15 years after Dr. James Naismith first affixed a peach basket to the wall of the Springfield, Mass., YMCA.
It embraced the offensive freedom Stallings afforded it after years in former coach Jamie Dixon’s rigid, micro-managed system, but it too often abused those privileges, either looking undisciplined or reverting to isolation play. Those shortcomings contributed to its overall offensive inconsistency, as it recorded six of the 14 lowest shooting percentages in a half in program history this season.
More than anything, the Panthers were shaped by the team’s four seniors, in ways both good and bad.
Michael Young was the only Panther to receive all-ACC honors and averaged 19.6 points per game, the highest such mark for a Pitt player since 1989. Artis, a 6-foot-7 wing for much of his career, performed admirably in a makeshift arrangement as the team’s point guard, finishing fifth in the ACC in scoring and averaging a career-high 3.3 assists per game. Sheldon Jeter and Chris Jones didn’t have the same gaudy stats, but each pieced together arguably the best season of his career.
What that quartet lacked, though, was a palpable measure of leadership and a steady hand, both of which were severely needed when adjusting to a new coach and coping with some of the setbacks it faced.
The relationship between Stallings and his players, particularly his seniors, wasn’t always smooth. Jeter played for Stallings at Vanderbilt in 2012-13 before opting to transfer, and the two were forced to reconcile. In a span of just over 24 hours in early March, Stallings dismissed freshman guard Justice Kithcart and benched Young and Artis for the first 10 minutes of a 67-42 loss at Virginia after the two showed up late for a team breakfast.
Still, Stallings believes his experience with his oldest players was a positive one.
“I really enjoyed these seniors, and I don’t think that there’s any question that it’s been somewhat dysfunctional at times, but I’ve enjoyed them individually,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed them collectively. ... I thought those guys received me well, tried hard for me and under the circumstances did the best they could.”
With the four seniors and 72.7 percent of Pitt’s scoring now gone, the effects of three recruiting classes that produced just two reliable contributors, guard Cameron Johnson and forward Ryan Luther, will be on full display. Stallings’ 2017 recruiting class currently features seven players, a number that almost certainly will increase as more players leave or transfer. The roster for next season could be unrecognizable, featuring as many as nine or 10 new players.
For a program defined by consistency for the better part of the new millennium, it will be a brave new world. And the success or failures of those teams with that core will help shape how many ultimately remember the group that preceded it.
“I can’t really gauge how other people are going to look at us,” Jeter said. “I’m thankful for my time on the court. I’m thankful for getting to build with them. As far as what other people think about us, I can’t tell you. All I know is we went out and we gave everything we had every night. Whether it was the result people wanted or not, we gave everything we had.”
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG.
