Ryan's perspective is understandable. But he should remember who pays for his scholarship. This is a business. Life doesn't get any cozier from here, bud.
Kingsby gone..Stewart alledgedly gone...whos
- Thread starter pittizit
- Start date
Come on Gary, I was hoping no one would post that so I wouldn’t have to read all the board experts start trashing on Ryan now.
Ryan Luther@RyShanLu4
Yes I really would like to hear what these really great bb players that left Pitt have to say . Being told that your not good enough isn’t an ego boost . Honestly hurts sometimes and none of those guys will ever have an impact at an ACC level . Had they all stayed Pitts record would’ve been no different . ( except Cam who he didn’t chase off )
I don't know Ryan well at all (only a few conversations), but I would expect nothing less than a statement like this from him. From everything I've come to understand, he's always been the kind of player who would run through the wall for his coaches.
My expectations for Ryan are that he sticks around for the new coach and offers him the same level of dedication and devotion.
Here is hoping Jent is announced as Head Coach by end of day Friday and can stabilize the roster.
Who are all these "board experts" you're always appealing to?
Who? Did you say you want Jent as Pitt’s new head basketball coach lol.
Not surprising coming from someone who loved Stallings....... geezus!
This guy got to be a Penn st fan
I have indicated that I would be enthused of a hire of Matta (if healthy), but would be less so of Jent.
It’s amazing to think that the media and the KS supporters believe Luther would have made any difference. Maybe +1 in the win column... not worried about him or any players who may leave.
Pitt should not go back to being perceived as anti-player. Stallings' stubbornness helped bring his end.
I think you have to really take the reactions from the players within 48-72 hours of the coaching change at face value. Just because they are upset or disappointed it doesn’t mean they are going to leave. Some will, yes. Others will stay. In fact, I would imagine most will stay. They are 18-22 year olds and are all going to act emotionally whether you see a reaction on social media or not.
Theory? You said you were a HS coach of a player who came to Pitt. Did you lie? Were you a HC? Is he one of the terrible scholarship players?
Most won't have true options and none will be released until we have a new coach and he can meet with them.
I remember when Jent was a player at OSU, smart, hard-working blue collar type player. Type of player you can see being a good coach and play a good brand of B.B. But man, I just don’t see where the recruiting connections and abilities are in his resume. Sure hope he can put together a good staff with that expertise.
Getting way ahead of myself though, I have no idea who the coach is going to be and it usually ends up being someone nobody is talking about.
I have no inside information, just making my best guess based on the information out there.
Put what I posted above and combine it with how long this decision has been in the works and Lyke's propensity to hire cronies. That is the conclusion I end up with. Gotta believe the decision is near a done deal (I could be all wrong and it ends up it is really Matta or even someone else) I wouldn't doubt informal contract discussions are occurring with someone this weekend.
Jent did serve 2 stints on Matta's staff. He does have some recruiting experience. He did interview at Ohio State last year. His NBA resume could impress recruits.
She's hired three head coaches. One is a Pitt grad. One is an Arkansas grad and was coaching there. One graduated from a small college but his college head coaching experience was Tulsa then Baylor then Notre Dame.
Not a "crony" in the bunch.
She is big on prior relationships. Crony might be an overstatement but there is some truth to what he says. I’ll be surprised if who we hire hasn’t been thru OSU at some point
Try looking in the athletic department:
Christian Spears, Chris Hoppe and Kelly Brennan
Stallings was the biggest crony hire in the history of crony hires. Kind of rich, this crony comment coming from Stallings' most loyal defender.
Joe you really shouldn’t jump all over someone when you really don’t know everything, you’re making it obvious you really don’t know Lyke’s full track record.
As the other poster said, crony may be a little excessive, but definitely a slant toward prior relationships. Not like it’s a grossly wrong practice as many do the same thing , but it can limit the search net.
Sheldon Jeter weighs in:
Sheldon Jeter@JonBlaze_21 Mar 8Replying to @pittjku
No, I figured Pitt would have some more patience. 2 years and he only had 1 real recruiting class. Walked into a bad situation, hit the reset button and didn't get a chance to finish the job.
That's unbelievably normal. I wonder if some of you have ever worked a day in your life. Hired anyone? Built a team? Fired anyone? Signed a contract? Signed someone else to a contract?
Some people even call it networking (as long as you are willing to "come clean"!)
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You’ve gone off the deep end with this stuff.
If the Robert Morris job came open tomorrow Jent would not be their first choice. He should in no way be a candidate for an ACC job at this point.
So you accused it of cronyism. The first name you mentioned was Christian Spears. The guy took the EXACT same position at Pitt as he had at EMU for 3 years. How is he not qualified? The other two seem perfectly qualified for their positions, as well. Cronyism doesn't apply.
Every coaching staff in the country is built on networks of trusted prior relationships. I have no issue with the AD building her own staff in the same way; bringing in people that she believes in based on her prior experience directly working with them. Direct experience is always more reliable than second-hand recommendations. Nor does her to-date track record of coaching hires imply anything remotely close to the optics of what happened under Barnes. This will be the biggest hire of her professional career thus far, and it will be an immensely important hire for the program, so I hope she has been meeting and talking to every single contact that she has in basketball. Serious candidate for something or not, if she has an existing relationship with Jent and didn't grab an opportunity to discuss the basketball situation with him, and his opinion on it and potential solutions (including potentially his opinions on Matta), then I would be disappointed. While Jent himself would be an eye-raising and less than inspiring hire for hc from my personal perspective, aspersion casting at this point is truly unfounded.
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Sheldon Jeter weighs in:
Replying to @pittjku
No, I figured Pitt would have some more patience. 2 years and he only had 1 real recruiting class. Walked into a bad situation, hit the reset button and didn't get a chance to finish the job.
what bad situation did he walk into? All he had to do was replace a point guard, one who really wasn't much of an offensive threat. Is he implying that Young, Artis, Cam Johnson, and himself were scrubs?
Sheldon Jeter weighs in:
Replying to @pittjku
No, I figured Pitt would have some more patience. 2 years and he only had 1 real recruiting class. Walked into a bad situation, hit the reset button and didn't get a chance to finish the job.
With no sign at all that things would get better. Recruiting was awful and the team didn’t improve at all. Had stallings delivered on the recruiting end he’d still be here. Simple as that
He was Rip van Winkle on the recruiting trail
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he was looking at it in a broader perspective, we all knew year 2 would be rough. Hence why stallings needed to win support in year 1, instead he just stood by counting down the days until Jamie's players left or could be shown the door.
