Internally with this team that none of us have any clue about , hopefully it comes to the light eventually .
I think something is going on ..
- Thread starter iMissTheOldDays
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I suspect there is a need to turn the roster over and to recruit guys who will play with effort and mental and physical toughness.
We have lost the linkage with the traits that built the program. This team has fallen apart two seasons in a row after losses at Louisville. The core upperclassmen who should be team leaders are playing like individuals only concerned with their own statistics. The ball movement and internal passing which made this offense lethal earlier has disappeared into guys trying to dribble through a double team or just go one on five.
Castng any light on internal issues beyond that wouldn't really help anything and could make it worse. We've had other years when internal issues on the team caused problems but we've regrouped and moved past them. Airing your dirty laundry in public is rarely a good idea.
There are enough games remainng for these guys to find themselves. If that doesn't happen, I don't know what Jamie might do.
Personally, addition by subtraction and a REALLY bad season next year might be the only way to salvage this. This isn't pro sports where the players hsve long-term expensive contracts and the only solution is to fire the coach or manager. In college, it's easier to fire the players. They leave after a couple years anyway. This roster will be almost totally different by the 2017-2018 season.
Given that about 90% of the top 250 high school players are signed or committed by now, it would not surprise me at all to see another mass recruitment of 5th year guys to fill out several new vacancies on the roster after this season. If we are not competitive and lose to all the good teams WITH our "star" forwards, we might as well lose with our younger guys, backed up by transfers who want to test themselves against better opposition and might LISTEN to their coaches. Maybe some of them might actually defend an opponent in the paint. Or a shooter on the wing. What a concept!
Hasn't Dixon already "turned over" his roster a few times in the past 5 years? How many times does he get to do this, Harve? It is not good business.
Sadly Harve you're probably right. Young & Artis seem to think that they're NBA talents in waiting and they don't have to play team ball, defense or scrap for every loose ball on every possession. I've got news for both of them: neither one of you are lottery picks so I'd strap it up and ride hard with a well respected coach the rest of the year if you wanna get paid to play hoops someday.
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I think Dixon is a great coach, but a terrible psychologist. I think he hates dealing with players who are emotionally fragile, and instead of either getting tough or being calming he just seems to get frustrated. That doesn't work well when things start to go in the wrong direction. He needs players that are mentally tough enough to fight through adversity on their own.
He is a good coach that is too robotic. I agree about the psychological aspect. That is a key component to coaching.
I mostly agree. Up until now I wanted Young and Artis to return, because without them they likely have no chance to be competitive next year. But, if it is skunked as bad as it appears to be, that would do as much harm as good.
I do NOT want to see fifth year seniors, that just runs completely counter to what needs to happen. It is a roll of the dice not knowing who they are, they will probably be fringy guys like Smith, ANO and Maia are ...
Don't waste scholarships on HS kids who are fringy, so just don't use available scholarships if they don't return and try to blow out on the 2016-17 class.
I think 5th year rent-a-player guys are actually the best answer for 16-17 if some or all of Young/Artis/Jeter are cut loose. They don't tie up a scholarship so we still would go all out on recruitjng for the '17 class. And, we simply would need bodies and fouls. If all 3 of those guys would go, we'd have Nix, Luther and Manigault, and maybe a project center as our entire front line. With of course, Slim and Chris Jones as SF's. We'd have Wilson, Kithcart, Milligan and a rehabbing Clark in the backcourt. We gotta have more bodies , really, even to practice effectively.
To Spectacle, a recurring problem on here is so many people making business analogies to sports teams, particularly college teams. They're just not the same. A college roster turns over in 4 years at most and effectively in about 2 years. Even in the NFL, for example, the Broncos started ony 2 or 3 guys in this recent Super Bowl from their starters in the 2014 Super Bowl only 2 years ago.
Turnover is constant. Dominant motivating factors in the "workforce" in college sports are loyalty and emotion, which are basically alien to today's business.
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Has he? There have been players who have left, but that is hardly a Pitt thing. It's an NCAA thing. Durand is a special case because he caused his own leaving by being dumb. That's not a Pitt thing either. That can happen anywhere. Adams going to the NBA was a good thing for him, bad in some ways for Pitt.
I would agree though that if we do it the end of this year, it would be two purge years in a row. That isn't good at all, but may be the right path in this instance. I just don't see MY or JA getting any better next year. We have had some bad misses too. I just don't recall full purges of guys with eligibility left like we saw last year, and possibly this year.
First, you are forgetting Jeter on the front line.
That said, its probably going to be ugly either way.
What he needs more than anything is to get the identity of the team reset, to re-establish the Pitt way.
In some respects make it a retreat/team building season.
Get away from the transitional nature of the roster.
For what he does, until he gets things back on track, he shouldn't even touch a fifth year guy.
I didn't forget him. Jeter is a tough decision. He's arguably the worst defender on a horrible defensive team. Because of his brother's status as a target for the FB program, and his local status, he might have to stay.
But, Matt has listed him as tuning Dixon out too.
Toss up. At best, he would have to promise to commit to being a good citizen on the roster.
Since I figure Nix will be in constant foul trouble with the new rules emphasis, I gotta load up with more 5th year front court bodies. They're disposable. Otherwise we might end up with the St . Mary's kid defending Kennedy Meeks next year.
Oh, you are probably right. I said that's what I would do, and what maybe should be done. I doubt Jamie will do that.
But, a couple more benchings and some of them might move on themselves.
