Open you eyes and your mind. This hire, if true, proves Pitt is run by Morons or Penn State Alumni.
This isn't on the fans. This is on 30 years of administrative incompetence. This is on Pitt's administration, not the fans. My God. 75% of the dopes that post on here could make a more acceptable hire than Kevin Stallings ( and I don't even give a crap about basketball ).
A ridiculously SAD day for Pitt .
The hire isn't on the fans. The ridiculous hysterical reactions are. I'm done with Pitt athletics! Narduzzi will leave! I have yet another reason to say the same thing I've been saying for 20 years, that I'm disgusted with Pitt athletics and I'm done! Of course I've still been here for those 20 years... but this time is the last straw! I'm serious!
The earth will continue to orbit the sun, and if/when (more like when) Stallings crashes and burns and takes Barnes with him, Pitt basketball will still be there.
If it were 30 straight years of incompetence, I guess the Narduzzi hire doesn't count anymore, right? Neither does hiring Ben Howland or hiring Jamie Dixon. Or Walt Harris. All good hires.
And Dixon leaving certainly is on the fans. There was zero reason for him to leave except the good old yinzer run the bum out of town train was gaining more and more steam. The most ardent Dixon-haters are now crying in their Jamies-Gone! beer, aren't they? Be careful what you wish for.
If you want Pitt to win you can't throw a temper tantrum all the goddamn time, and that's what Pitt fans love to do. Have a good tantrum. So don't support basketball because Stallings is a horrible hire. Fine. Puff out those chests and continue doing another thing Pitt fans love to do, not support football either. That's what Pitt football deserves. Dip out entirely because you're mad about basketball, right when Pitt finally has a legitimate shot to be good at football again. And don't forget baseball, women's BB, volleyball, wrestling, all of the other sports. They all deserve to take a hit because the AD hired a bum to be the new men's BB coach, right? No, they don't.
Don't sit there acting like there's no connection between Pitt's fanbase not contributing and not supporting Pitt athletics and Pitt athletics being mediocre. If going all-out on abandoning Pitt athletics is supposed to have an impact, and it assuredly will if enough fans do it... well if people would open their eyes and minds they'd see what 30 years of piss-poor fan support has wrought. If the fans aren't involved and wielding their influence and increasing it, you get guys like Smiley Steve running the athletic department for 15 years doing whatever dumb things they want because there's not enough people with enough pull to put pressure on the people who could stop them. If Pitt fans ever tried going all-out in support, maybe they'd find out they could have more influence on the administration. Maybe even to the point where guys like Stallings would never be considered, and Barnes would still be at Utah State. Pitt fans will never have the chance to find out, though, they're too busy declaring they're not going to have any influence, instead of trying to increase their influence.
I guess I'm just tired of hearing how it's not the fanbase's fault, nope, not one bit, never was, never will be. It's our entitlement to have winners dropped in our laps by the university, and screw em if they don't deliver. We've been subjected to incompetence for so long, they don't deserve a thing from me, blah, blah, blah. That may even be (probably is) true. But it isn't going to accomplish what we want accomplished. It's a narrative of defeat and shirking any kind of responsibility for the past, present or future. It's certainly not behavior that will result in Pitt athletics producing winners.
Standing up and taking responsibility doesn't have to mean excusing others or taking blame you don't deserve. It could mean taking the responsibility to do your part turn things around. Cutting and running isn't the way to do that.