nobody was listening the first time. Pitt athletics has learned nothing from the debacles of Gottfried and Wanny, and now Jamie Dixon. We always concern ourselves with what others think rather than believing in Pitt. Mike G. was steady at 8-3 and 7-4 year in and year out beating everybody he was supposed to beat and never failing to win one or more games against PSU, WV, and ND each year (the only schools that we appear to sell out for so that means that mattered). But personal matters and national college football prominence rather than what we knew Pitt stood for influenced our actions.
Wanny was Pitt, a blue collar guy that had Pitt's best interest at heart. He won 27 games during the final 3 years yet we let national perspective with off the field incidents that truly did not represent what Pitt is about, cloud our judgment . Wanny's shortcomings as a day game coach could have been corrected with a better OC and DC letting him wonder the sidelines on game day while allowing him to handle his strength which was recruiting.
Now we come to Jamie. He ran a clean program, was a great game day coach, produced successful seasons never experienced before at Pitt. He even saved a woman from a burning automobile. But he altered his typical recruiting process going after higher profile players like Birch, Adams, Young, and Artis rather that the blue collar players like Troutman, Wanamaker, Patterson,and Robinson. He needed to get back to his type of players who contributed once they were experienced juniors and seniors but we didn't give him the time to bring the program around. Barnes didn't like Jamie having so much autonomy with the basketball program. Barnes didn't know what Pitt stands for nor what Jamie stood for otherwise Jamie would have been given the chance (something he earned) to bring Pitt basketball back. UVA certainly shown us that blog ball can win in the ACC.
Stallings first season had 4 returning players from an NCAA tournament losing James Robinson, any coach including Jamie knew to find that one piece (Robinson) through the Juco or grad transfer ranks.
Jamie would have made it 12 tournament appearances in 14 years Stallings didn't.
Jamie should be at Pitt and his signature should be on the court. Bottom line Pitt always concerns itself with what others may think rather than believing in Pitt and history repeated itself for a third time with Pitt athletics.
Wanny was Pitt, a blue collar guy that had Pitt's best interest at heart. He won 27 games during the final 3 years yet we let national perspective with off the field incidents that truly did not represent what Pitt is about, cloud our judgment . Wanny's shortcomings as a day game coach could have been corrected with a better OC and DC letting him wonder the sidelines on game day while allowing him to handle his strength which was recruiting.
Now we come to Jamie. He ran a clean program, was a great game day coach, produced successful seasons never experienced before at Pitt. He even saved a woman from a burning automobile. But he altered his typical recruiting process going after higher profile players like Birch, Adams, Young, and Artis rather that the blue collar players like Troutman, Wanamaker, Patterson,and Robinson. He needed to get back to his type of players who contributed once they were experienced juniors and seniors but we didn't give him the time to bring the program around. Barnes didn't like Jamie having so much autonomy with the basketball program. Barnes didn't know what Pitt stands for nor what Jamie stood for otherwise Jamie would have been given the chance (something he earned) to bring Pitt basketball back. UVA certainly shown us that blog ball can win in the ACC.
Stallings first season had 4 returning players from an NCAA tournament losing James Robinson, any coach including Jamie knew to find that one piece (Robinson) through the Juco or grad transfer ranks.
Jamie would have made it 12 tournament appearances in 14 years Stallings didn't.
Jamie should be at Pitt and his signature should be on the court. Bottom line Pitt always concerns itself with what others may think rather than believing in Pitt and history repeated itself for a third time with Pitt athletics.