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Dixon this post season. Get ready!

Fk_Pitt

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Dec 3, 2007
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You think it can’t get any worse, when you finish 0-19, you fire your coach and the media makes him into a sympathetic figure, but we are Pitt, and things can always get worse. Get ready for Dixon to make a mini run in the NCAA tourney and add insult to injury.

Yes he lost last night and did not advance in the B12 tourney, he currently is around a #6 seed in the NCAA tourney.

We know he essentially underachieved in every NCAA tourney and never advanced beyond his seeding, but get ready for him to make a sweet 16 or elite 8 this year and overachieve for his first time ever.
 
All joking aside, getting a 6 seed after losing their starting PG is pretty above average.
Again. We are Pitt! Would have been nice to be a 6 seed when he had a 4 year starter at the point here. But he gets it done down there!
 
And with each of the games they are in, we'll hear what a mistake Pitt made.
 
He's already getting it done in year 2. We need a coach like.... Oh wait a minute. My bad.
Like Jamie? Yeah he’s still be here if he was that same coach down the stretch.

Everyone has their theories...but I have to wonder if it was the ACC, or Scott Barnes that impacted Jamie’s results more. I’d have to say the ACC because the slide was happening before Barnes. But I wonder if he were here with Heather Lyke, if he could have recaptured something.
 
Like Jamie? Yeah he’s still be here if he was that same coach down the stretch.

Everyone has their theories...but I have to wonder if it was the ACC, or Scott Barnes that impacted Jamie’s results more. I’d have to say the ACC because the slide was happening before Barnes. But I wonder if he were here with Heather Lyke, if he could have recaptured something.

It's nice to wonder about those things, I suppose. I can't imagine he'd be worse off than when Barnes was here.

I know it's all opinion on what was the undoing of Dixon here. My opinion is that it happened when Steven Adams decided to leave after one year and Dixon had no Plan B in place to replace him and no impact recruits in other positions coming in. He had some nice recruits, but nothing like he needed to build upon when Adams left. Also, I think he underutilized Adams and didn't use him to his fullest abilities.
 
It's nice to wonder about those things, I suppose. I can't imagine he'd be worse off than when Barnes was here.

I know it's all opinion on what was the undoing of Dixon here. My opinion is that it happened when Steven Adams decided to leave after one year and Dixon had no Plan B in place to replace him and no impact recruits in other positions coming in. He had some nice recruits, but nothing like he needed to build upon when Adams left. Also, I think he underutilized Adams and didn't use him to his fullest abilities.
I have a hundred theories. And we will never know. But it was like the perfect storm in many ways. Adams left a void for sure. But others didn’t pan out. We lost that linkage. Cam wright didn’t become Brad Wanamaker. James Robinson never progressed. John Johnson and josh newkirk didn’t pan out. We became a Nike school. The ACC. Scott Barnes. Sub par assistants. A shift in recruiting strategies. Jalen Bond and the Philly fiasco. 2 five stars decommitted, which in itself brings into play a whole entire other line of questions. The college basketball cheating culture. It goes on and on.
 
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You think it can’t get any worse, when you finish 0-19, you fire your coach and the media makes him into a sympathetic figure, but we are Pitt, and things can always get worse. Get ready for Dixon to make a mini run in the NCAA tourney and add insult to injury.

Yes he lost last night and did not advance in the B12 tourney, he currently is around a #6 seed in the NCAA tourney.

We know he essentially underachieved in every NCAA tourney and never advanced beyond his seeding, but get ready for him to make a sweet 16 or elite 8 this year and overachieve for his first time ever.
I hope he keeps winning and makes the admin look even more foolish. Hopefully it will force their hand to spend more money on this hire.
 
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I have a hundred theories. And we will never know. But it was like the perfect storm in many ways. Adams left a void for sure. But others didn’t pan out. We lost that linkage. Cam wright didn’t become Brad Wanamaker. James Robinson never progressed. John Johnson and josh newkirk didn’t pan out. We became a Nike school. The ACC. Scott Barnes. Sub par assistants. A shift in recruiting strategies. Jalen Bond and the Philly fiasco. 2 five stars decommitted, which in itself brings into play a whole entire other line of questions. The college basketball cheating culture. It goes on and on.
I'd also add in that Pitt didnt increase their investment in basketball with the move to ACC, Barnes began to diminish Dixon's role in the planning for the basketball program, and publicly called him out for the scheduling. Pitt didn't meet assistant coaching salary requests for 1st and 2nd options when Smoke was hired.
With all of that, I think what we saw was slippage, not a full slide as some suggest. What we have now is a full slide.
I think they would have been a tourney team last year, and can't imagine an 0-18 team this year, or even an overall losing record. Dixon's track record suggests he would have at least kept them competitive. somehow.
 
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I'd also add in that Pitt didnt increase their investment in basketball with the move to ACC, Barnes began to diminish Dixon's role in the planning for the basketball program, and publicly called him out for the scheduling. Pitt didn't meet assistant coaching salary requests for 1st and 2nd options when Smoke was hired.
With all of that, I think what we saw was slippage, not a full slide as some suggest. What we have now is a full slide.
I think they would have been a tourney team last year, and can't imagine an 0-18 team this year, or even an overall losing record. Dixon's track record suggests he would have at least kept them competitive. somehow.

All good points that summed up with one word. Barnes.


They’d likely have been a bubble team last year if Jamie could have landed a transfer PG. no one on the roster was capable.

This year Jamie would have patched together a team and gutted out a few wins...but still would have been bottom 3 in the league. He had no linkage. None.
 
If the $9.0 million that Pitt will have to pay for the KS buyout would have been put into Pitt assistant coaches, Jamie would be in the NCAA Tourny ultimately playing Nova.

Nova a really small school in Philly.

AD Barnes.

So much damage in so short a time.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!
 
Dixon making a run is the only thing you could maybe call a slap in the face to Pitt I would actually enjoy. Obviously I want Pitt to get back to a high level but I wouldn't mind Jamie showing all those who wanted him gone so badly what we lost.
 
All good points that summed up with one word. Barnes.


They’d likely have been a bubble team last year if Jamie could have landed a transfer PG. no one on the roster was capable.

This year Jamie would have patched together a team and gutted out a few wins...but still would have been bottom 3 in the league. He had no linkage. None.
I do think Wilson and Kitchart may have been better under Dixon. Or as you mention he would have brought someone else in. Wilson had a good assist to turnover ratio with Dixon.

Its all a big what if, but I tend to think last years team should have won more games.
 
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