If Pederson were Capable of Hiring Howland, Then It Follows......

[Chescat]

that Barnes should be able to bring in a very good hire. Well, Obviously it's not as simple as that, because Pederson's hiring record was a disaster. BUT ya gotta admit....he did bring Howland here when we were at
our worst both in perception and in REALITY.
With that said, there's no reason why IMO, Barnes can't do as well. OK, let's assume Pederson got lucky
with Howland's hire, and Long was as lucky (maybe even more so) with Dixon's hire. Both hires were
head scratchers to many on this board. Howland??...from Northen Arizona?? Dixon??...no head coaching
experience. Don't forget, not many believed it would work. Pitt, on this board was accused as being "cheap"
and once again settling for leftovers. The media even reported the same. So...I'd suggest we step back,
take a deep breadth and let our AD and our mgmt. team (new chancellor included) due their job.

If the past administrations (with their dismal hiring resume were able to make those moves) then IMO we
have a very good chance with this administration to do as well or better. Relax folks, and let's give em a chance.

 

[ameoba defense]

Yep! for all of the clamoring for a "splash hire", the bottom line is that results will determine whether the hire was the right one. Right now, there are some lesser known coaches out there who will soon become titans of the profession. Can Barnes identify one of them, and get him here? When Pitt hired Roy Chipman, both Jim Calhoun, and Gary Williams, were winning games at lower level schools. Pitt could likely have had either one of them at that point. There are guys like that available right now. This will tell us how good Barnes really is. Anyone could throw a bunch of money at Sean Miller, but it will take a guy on top of his game to identify the less obvious "right choice".

 

[NCanton Panther]

Agree with all this. Just one nitpick on the OP, I don't think you should be giving credit to Long for the Jamie hire. Unless my memory is wrong, wasn't Long already gone and our interim AD Boehm who hired Jamie? And regardless who hired him, I don't think I'd give credit to whomever it was for making that hire. Not because it wasn't a good one, more so because it was a perceived 'settling on Jamie' after striking out on Prosser and a few other options.

 

[pittbb80]

Agree with all this. Just one nitpick on the OP, I don't think you should be giving credit to Long for the Jamie hire. Unless my memory is wrong, wasn't Long already gone and our interim AD Boehm who hired Jamie? And regardless who hired him, I don't think I'd give credit to whomever it was for making that hire. Not because it wasn't a good one, more so because it was a perceived 'settling on Jamie' after striking out on Prosser and a few other options.

Yup, Jamie was plan C. Wonder how many clamoring for a splash hire were jumping up and down screaming the sky was falling when JD was hired. After all the program had some success under Howland.

While we'd all like a name guy like Marshall, the reality is Barnes is likely to be limited to finding an up and coming guy. It Doesn't have to be a splash hire.

These coaching search meltdowns remind me of in game threads where people lose their minds in the first 5 minutes of the game. (I've been guilty of that in the past as well)

 

[rrig5]

Yep, an interim AD hired Dixon, and an interim AD hired Narduzzi.

 

[levance2]

Yep! for all of the clamoring for a "splash hire", the bottom line is that results will determine whether the hire was the right one.

A winning lottery ticket is not retroactively the wisest financial investment opportunity. Pitt got lucky with a Northern Arizona HC. Let's not attempt to repeat that.

 

[levance2]

Yup, Jamie was plan C. Wonder how many clamoring for a splash hire were jumping up and down screaming the sky was falling when JD was hired

A lot of people were disappointed with that hire. At the time, it was a pretty risky move.

 

[ameoba defense]

A winning lottery ticket is not retroactively the wisest financial investment opportunity. Pitt got lucky with a Northern Arizona HC. Let's not attempt to repeat that.

Pitt didn't get lucky, they did their homework and found the right guy. Pretty much any guy who would make a lateral move at the P5 level has some warts. The safest bet that Pitt would be likely to land is a guy a from the BE/AAC/A10. The best of these jobs are probably better than the P5 dregs, and probably a pretty good indicator of success one level up.

 

[PITT92DOG]

A winning lottery ticket is not retroactively the wisest financial investment opportunity. Pitt got lucky with a Northern Arizona HC. Let's not attempt to repeat that.

I wouldn't call Howland a lottery ticket. SP got info (mostly Vacarro) that BH was a good hire. Dixon was luck. They basically took him after a few miss fires on bigger names. Big names are no guarantee either.

 

[Fredact]

Under Pederson the team was top 20 all the time. Under Barnes, not so much. I know some fans hate Pederson, but he is the architect of the hoops program. You've got to give him credit for that.

 

[pittzap]

A lot of people were disappointed with that hire. At the time, it was a pretty risky move.

Yes, a lot were.

 

[pittzap]

Pitt didn't get lucky, they did their homework and found the right guy. Pretty much any guy who would make a lateral move at the P5 level has some warts. The safest bet that Pitt would be likely to land is a guy a from the BE/AAC/A10. The best of these jobs are probably better than the P5 dregs, and probably a pretty good indicator of success one level up.

No, Sonny Vaccaro found the right guy for Pederson. He completely changed his style after coming to Pitt. He had the "recruit to shoot" mentality at Northern Arizona because they couldn't match up with teams head-to-head with talent.

At Pitt, we got manhandled by BC and Howland said that wouldn't happen again. He changed his philosophy to try to win with defense.

 

[pittzap]

Under Pederson the team was top 20 all the time. Under Barnes, not so much. I know some fans hate Pederson, but he is the architect of the hoops program. You've got to give him credit for that.

Barnes has been AD for less than a year at Pitt.

 

[Fredact]

Barnes has been AD for less than a year at Pitt.

It's what have you done for me lately. Haven't you been reading all the threads?

 

[Pittbaseball11]

It's what have you done for me lately. Haven't you been reading all the threads?

I believe it's actually "what have you done for me over the past 5 years". That seems to be the only relevant timeframe.

 

[PITT92DOG]

It's what have you done for me lately. Haven't you been reading all the threads?

Yeah and what does this have to do with JDs declining record? It start 3-4 years before Barne's got here. Should SB fired JD the day he got here? Ridiculous.

 

[rrig5]

A lot of people were disappointed with that hire. At the time, it was a pretty risky move.

Skip Prosser was the No. 1 choice. He leveraged the Pitt offer into a healthy raise from Wake. He was a good coach, and would have been a good choice. Luckily Jamie turned out to be one, too. Wake has struggled since Prosser died. Replacing good coaches is not easy.

 

[OhnoBilly!]

Yeah and what does this have to do with JDs declining record? It start 3-4 years before Barne's got here. Should SB fired JD the day he got here? Ridiculous.

Perhaps jd's record did decline... In fact, you can't deny it.

That said , his record was still pretty good. In 13 years he had exactly one bad year, one below average one, and the rest were in the tournament.

Even the recent teams that were worse weren't awful. The 12 team and 13 teams both finished in the top 20 pomeroy ratings, but got seeded horribly, especially the 12 team who went 12-6 in the big east , had 25 wins, and somehow got an 8 seed.

 

[PHATWOOD]

Skip Prosser was the No. 1 choice. He leveraged the Pitt offer into a healthy raise from Wake. He was a good coach, and would have been a good choice. Luckily Jamie turned out to be one, too. Wake has struggled since Prosser died. Replacing good coaches is not easy.

Wake made a somewhat emotional decision at first to hire Dino Gaudio, who's records look kind of okay but his teams had a habit of swooning down the stretch. It's not shocking that he's not coached at all since 2010. But it's easy to see why you would hand him the reins. I think they actually offered the job to the other Wake assistant at the time but his wife was ill and he said no.

Then they got Bzdelik. I mean, a guy that was finishing 12th out of 12 in the Big 12 at Colorado. So the Wake AD fires Gaudio who was at least going to the NCAA Tournament and replaces him with an utter and complete stiff who was getting out of Boulder ahead of the posse and who had no business being on an ACC bench.

Their A.D. is an utter and complete moron. If you wanted to fire Gaudio, ok fine. But he literally ran his program in to the ground with the Bzdelik hire and he has never been made to truly answer for it. Danny Manning will be a miracle worker if he's able to fix the smouldering pile Wake is now. So yes, it's a story worth noting because a bad hire or two can put you in a very bad place you might never get out of.

Pitt needs to not only find a good head coach, but they need to ensure he's got more than enough to hire good assistants, and they're likely going to have to do some serious facilities work. The arena itself is okay, but these other ACC schools have practice facilities that Pitt simply can't compete with right now. That stuff matters too. Just like with football and the millions they poured in to the facility as soon as Narduzzi took over - we're in the ACC and we're going to have to spend like it and act like it.