That story is filled with the kind of things you'd get from a coach's PR rep, not a neutral journalist.
Remember that old saying, the buck stops, ah, over there with him, and over there with that other guy, and don't forget that guy over there too.
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That story is filled with the kind of things you'd get from a coach's PR rep, not a neutral journalist.
Remember that old saying, the buck stops, ah, over there with him, and over there with that other guy, and don't forget that guy over there too.
Don't disagree, but a couple of things ...
For the record, Dixon did not "want to leave Pittsburgh." This is an exact quote to me from someone who knows Dixon very, very well ... spoke with Dixon every day (still talks to him regularly). Dixon was obviously not happy working under Barnes/Chancellor Gallagher. But Dixon did NOT expect Pitt to lower the buyout and on Sunday evening, he told his assistants he was staying. But on Monday morning, Pitt told TCU they would lower that buyout to let him go, and on Monday afternoon, Dixon was announced as TCU's new coach.
If Barnes wanted Dixon as his coach, Dixon would not have gone to TCU. But obviously, Barnes was satisfied enough to let him go.
Beyond that ... like you said ... THEN hiring Stallings was the final death penalty move to Pitt Hoops.
Personally, I'm of the belief that Barnes was simply not very impressed with Dixon and thought he could get someone more cheaply and more easily (aka Stallings) to do what Dixon did.
How do you think this starting five and bench rotation would look for Pitt this year?
PG- Xavier Johnson
SG- Trey McGowens
SF- Justin Champagnie
C- Efton Reid
PF- John Hugley
Bench – Au’Diese Toney, Mo Gueye, Femi Odukale, Jamarius Burton, Nike Sibande and Ithiel Horton.
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I'll take: Rosters That, Have Never & Will Never Happen for $500.
PG- Xavier Johnson
SG- Trey McGowens
SF- Justin Champagnie
C- Efton Reid
PF- John Hugley
Bench – Au’Diese Toney, Mo Gueye, Femi Odukale, Jamarius Burton, Nike Sibande and Ithiel Horton.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll take: Rosters That, Have Never & Will Never Happen for $500.
lol, he had an article a few weeks ago saying Duquesne fans are jerks for not appreciating the coach who just led them to 15 (or whatever) straight losses. They don't know what a great coach they have in Dambrot.
Vuk is a doink
I don't follow it close enough but to this day don't understand how recruiting under Dixon was so bad following the success of the Blair team. It's really hard to believe. Lost his mojo totally and the Rowan/Herron thing was the final nail in the coffin.
But Capel is also a terrible recruiter. Is it systemic here at Pitt? What does it take in basketball? I admit to not having the insight on this.
I wonder what he thinks the lineup that Duke could be putting on the court tonight would look like if they didn't have anyone leave early for the NBA and they got every recruit that they wanted?
I am not convinced that Barnes thought someone like Stallings could do as much as Dixon had. I suspect Barnes was just looking for someone cheaper than Dixon who would do less than Dixon but still keep the program Ws vs Ls at a "respectable" level. Pitt hiring Barnes in the first instance was a huge mistake. He obviously totally misunderstood the wishes of the Pitt hoops fan base.
Keep in mind that for the 2011-2012 season (after the Blair team), Dixon brought in his highest ranked class ever in his tenure (on paper). It featured a top 10ish player with Birch, a top 100 player in Malcolm Gilbert, a top 130 player in Durand Johnson, and a top 200 player in John Johnson. This class was ranked top 10 by Rivals.
Dixon also had a top 25 class with Adams Robinson and Jones. The class with Young Artis and Newkirk was also solid. It wasn’t until the next three years the his recruiting fell off a cliff.
I thought they paid Stallings pretty well from what I remember, definitely not on the cheap
Paul zeise thought this. Maybe he posts on here, but I haven’t an “ummmmmmmm” from any posters on here.
Funny , Duke gets just about everyone they want and the players who leave their program early are lottery picks or first rounders not undrafted free agents !
In some sense, IMHO, the Blair team in retrospect was an upside recruiting anomaly since the big star, Blair was a local Pittsburgh guy. Western PA hoops talent generically had already dropped off due to the population drop when Blair came along as an upside outlier. Otherwise, Dixon was dependent primarily on recruits from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington-Baltimore with a few Western Pa players sprinkled in (e.g., Johnson, Luther). Being a power in the Big East helped to land players from the Northeast.
Then, once Pitt was in the ACC, it became more difficult to recruit the NY-NJ-Philly kids who could more easily be sold on playing in the Big East vs the ACC (unless you were Duke or UNC). Recruiting Baltimore-Washington area kids probably stayed about the same as they were likely to be equally happy about going to an ACC team as to a Big East team. This situation was probably a big factor in Dixon being unhappy that Pitt joined the ACC---keeping in mind that Boeheim didn't like Syracuse joining the ACC either and that Syracuse's hoops program also has slipped (but less than Pitt) since it joined the ACC.
It's just nuts. There is no way any serious writer should ever write something like that.
That is only good for sitting around with your buddies while drinking some Bier. The fun and silly conversations that are had. Heck, just imagine Brian Shorter being eligible as a freshman. That would have been great fun but, he wasn't. So it is pointless to put in a publication. Every team has that sort of history.
Writers should know better.
What a stupid article. This guy gets paid to write trash!
Vukovcan: Go Ahead and Blame Jeff Capel for All of Pitt’s Struggles, But I Won’t
What was pretty much known was made official Friday night by Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke, when she announced that Jeff Capel will return for his fifth season as Pitt’s men’s basketball coach. With his overall record and the current state of the basketball program, the majority of the...pittsburghsportsnow.com
Exactly. It might be a fun (or in our case, a horrifying) exercise for fans, but the idea that something like that shows why a coach isn't really doing a bad job is just nuts.
Agreed, you can play that game with almost every team in the country. Gonzaga would be almost unbeatable this year with Jalen Suggs still in the lineup. Arkansas is pretty good, but with Moses Moody they would be great.
My guess is outside of his family his subscriber base has got to be small.
I agree. I think Barnes knew he would not get results similar to what we had with Dixon. Barnes was trying to save money and get recognition for himself, the narcissist that he is. He wanted someone cheaper that would use Dixon’s momentum to be semi-respectable. The problem is it backfired on him. So here we are with another horrible coach while Dixon is fortunate he isn’t here, since Gallagher still is.
I agree. I think this was a Barnes power move . The high end donors may have grumbled just like you guys but they didn’t run off Jamie . Jamie was also fed up with the media
I posted this in another thread but Rivals is the worst at basketball recruiting ranking. I mean, they have gone all in with football. But in football at least they try and slot "3 stars". In basketball, a Nate Santos or Malcolm Gilbert gives you the same amount of points than a Sam Young. Plus my god, I was looking at some of the past rankings and they are much worse than football.
If Dixon wanted to stay, he should have used the media and stated that he wasn't going anywhere. Nobody had the power to force him to accept the TCU job, regardless how much they lowered the buyout.
I think Dixon knew his days at Pitt were numbered had he stayed. Just because the last 6 seasons have been garbage doesn't mean Dixon's last 5 were good enough to merit any further job security. He needed to move on.
I’m not sure if I understand the “saving money” logic. They weren’t really paying Stallings too much less than they were paying Dixon (about $500k) and Stallings had a bigger staff.
I think making the tournament 3 of your last 4 years (with the 4th year being an NIT) should merit job security at just about any program.
I was told it was closer to a million. But from what I understand, Barnes actually sold people (regardless of the amount) that he was going to use the savings on football coaching assistants.
Absolutely not.
Like bowl games in football, there can be a wide discrepancy in the quality of teams and programs that make the tourney. If a hoops program is churning out .500 conference records and barely getting in as an 8 to 10 seed, and no real threat of making a deep run, that won't get a lot of job security at most places. It will buy some good will at a program that has been a bottom feeder for a while or never had a taste of success. At most major programs, that won't cut it. It may or may not get you fired, but it certainly won't buy you much job security.
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Probably all true. However Jamie did have a really bad habit of flirting with the hot looking job. At some point you do want your coach to ACT like he doesn’t want to leave you. its a thing with Jamie cause it clearly happened at TCU still. In retrospect would I still want him around even if he was named for every opening. Sure. But it did get tiring.
"The other big reason for Dixon’s departure was that once Pitt made the decision to switch to the ACC, he wanted no part of that and that was well known throughout the athletic department. Dixon wanted to stay in the Big East and that wasn’t going to happen."Vukovcan: Go Ahead and Blame Jeff Capel for All of Pitt’s Struggles, But I Won’t
What was pretty much known was made official Friday night by Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke, when she announced that Jeff Capel will return for his fifth season as Pitt’s men’s basketball coach. With his overall record and the current state of the basketball program, the majority of the...
Why did Dixon want Pitt to remain in the BE?
4 consecutive losing teams at the same school is incompetence. 6 consecutive losing teams at 2 schools is incompetence magnified for the most blind.
I agree, but unfortunately this is s##t sandwich we have in front of us.
Question for you - Do you really believe Hubert Davis is the long-term answer for UNC?
I don't think that's well stated by this article.
Here's what I know. Dixon was actually instrumental in making the connection that would have brought TCU to the Big East for football (can't remember if it was for basketball too). So he was initially a little pissed that the move taking Pitt and Syracuse out of the Big East undid this workl
There was also talk that he though his identity was changed going away from New York. But it's not true that "he wanted no part of it."
Actual quote to from the same guy who knew Dixon well. "If he could take his pick, he'd pick the Big East. But he gets it and likes the ACC too."
No. UNC should have done a proper search and tried to hire the best, proven HCs. Davis might work out. He might be revealed as utter mediocrity.
That makes sense. And it is not nearly the same as Dixon not wanting Pitt to leave the sinking ship that was BE football.
