How many of you on here, who keep hoping for Musselmen, Oats & Odom even knew their names and where they coached just 2 months ago? Could be dangerous to hire a Coach, who had a Team get hot or had a major upset in the Tournament in the same year our own school needs to hire a Coach(although, certainly does not mean any of these Coaches might not be a Great Hire if given Time to rebuild this Program that has hit rock bottom, but just would be cautious on names that no ACC Program would have considered hiring 4 months ago).
A Great Recruiter will be vital skill needed in the next Coach hired by PITT, as like I always say also for Football, a Great Coach is important, but it is the Jimmys and Joes that is still more vital than the Xs & Os(look at how good Milkdud recruits to Creepy Valley, as do you think his Team would not have lost another 5-6 Games the past 2 years without having Barkley as their RB? And Milkdud now has a Top 5 Recruiting Class to add to a boatload of other 4 Star Players already on his Team).
That being said, if Hurley does not accept the PITT Job, I like Earl Grant, as he was an Assistant under Gregg Marshall at Wichita State, who I think is a Top 10 Coach, who I wanted PITT to try and get 2 years ago until realizing he has it good at Wichita State(including a Private Plane for Recruiting and Sell Out Home Crowds), and at this point would only leave for a Top 6-7 Program.
Back to Grant, I liked what I heard of an interview with him on what he learned as an Assistant Coach under Marshall, and how he would identify Players to recruit. He also has a background in the ACC(I assume prior to going to be an Assistant Coach at Wichita State). How do we know that Grant(or even other potential Coaches in the Rumors for consideration will not be better than Dan Hurley over the next 10 years.
Actually, 2 years ago, I wanted PITT to go after Bobby Hurley, and not sure how much he is being paid now, or if he would like to get back to the East Coast, but why not reach out to him again? Although, he just signed a contract extension with Arizona State, which might include an expensive Buyout on his updated contract, and with PITT needing to pay Hackett-errr. I mean Stallings(sorry mixed up Program Destroying Coaches at PITT), doubt they will have money to also pay any Coach with a big Buyout to leave a current school he is at this year.
My guess is that Hurley's Agent leaked the PITT 3 Million per year offer to get UCONN to increase their offer as by accounts I have read, he seems to prefer the UCONN job(or his Wife prefers to live in that area and keep their kids in school there-not sure how close their kids RI School is to UCONN).
If Hurley ends up taking the PITT job mainly for the money, it will just be a sign that if he wins at PITT and turns the program around and get to a few Elite 8s & Final 4s, that other Schools who can pay more money or are one of the Top Tier Programs(which UCONN really is, except their Conference affiliation might undo that Status, although there are a few other Great Basketball Programs from Non Power 5 Conferences like Gonzaga, Villanova, Butler, Wichita State, etc. so UCONN certainly with even more recent Success, can still, with the right Coach, be one of those Basketball Programs) will go after Hurley and he will listen to them, unless he and his family loves Pittsburgh and he likes working for the current AD or any future potential AD(this is PITT, and we never seem to have stability in the AD Position), and would like to stay for the long term.
