He just called himself a bad situation. That speaks for itself.Sheldon Jeter weighs in:
Sheldon Jeter@JonBlaze_21 Mar 8
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.
Kingsby gone..Stewart alledgedly gone...whos
- Thread starter pittizit
- Start date
This is completely nonsensical. Essentially no school is going to grant a release until they have a new coach on board and that coach has had a chance to talk to the players. Then, if a player or players still want to transfer the release will be given. This is not, will not be, some Pitt-specific bad guy thing.
It's puzzling to me that people are missing the subtext of Luther and Jeter's remarks. Part of the problem with the narrative surrounding Stallings and Pitt basketball the past two years is that the media guys did an awful job getting to the bottom of the story last year.
Why did the team struggle to win with talent like Artis and Young? What was the culture of the program and players like that Stallings inherited? Why did so many players get jettisoned? How could a P5 like Pitt lose by 50+ to L'villle? The answers were/are there, but they are not the answers everyone on this board and social media discusses. Luther posts to Twitter, and people say things like, "You're a nice guy, but you sucked. Put on your big boy pants. It's the real world." If you stopped to see what he's saying without saying it explicitly, he's telling you what happened last year HAD to happen. That's what Jeter means he he says Stallings walked into a difficult situation. You think Chris Jones signed up to be a GA for a coach he hated?
What Luther & Jeter are also saying is that Lyke and university administrators knew the truth. They knew what happened and they knew KS took the high road and did the right thing by the players and program. They knew that he did not, in fact, throw kids under the bus. Frankly, based on what I know, they should be lying under the tires right now, but KS declined to let the story be told, believing he could rebuild the program the right way and would have the time to do it and that kids didn't need to be named and shamed.
No one would have batted an eye if Jeter and Luther didn't make a peep. So why would they do that? They're men. Jeter's gone. Done. Luther can do and go where he wants. They're speaking up because they know the truth, but the problem is, no one's listening.
Why did the team struggle to win with talent like Artis and Young? What was the culture of the program and players like that Stallings inherited? Why did so many players get jettisoned? How could a P5 like Pitt lose by 50+ to L'villle? The answers were/are there, but they are not the answers everyone on this board and social media discusses. Luther posts to Twitter, and people say things like, "You're a nice guy, but you sucked. Put on your big boy pants. It's the real world." If you stopped to see what he's saying without saying it explicitly, he's telling you what happened last year HAD to happen. That's what Jeter means he he says Stallings walked into a difficult situation. You think Chris Jones signed up to be a GA for a coach he hated?
What Luther & Jeter are also saying is that Lyke and university administrators knew the truth. They knew what happened and they knew KS took the high road and did the right thing by the players and program. They knew that he did not, in fact, throw kids under the bus. Frankly, based on what I know, they should be lying under the tires right now, but KS declined to let the story be told, believing he could rebuild the program the right way and would have the time to do it and that kids didn't need to be named and shamed.
No one would have batted an eye if Jeter and Luther didn't make a peep. So why would they do that? They're men. Jeter's gone. Done. Luther can do and go where he wants. They're speaking up because they know the truth, but the problem is, no one's listening.
problem is a large number of homers can't look at it from another perspective. Luther and Jeter are mature enough that they recognize what it was. KS walked into a situation where he replaced the best coach in the history of Pitt basketball. THAT is a tough situation. Let's all recognize there was talent however along with that came a lack of leadership from some players (suspensions and on the court behavior) and if one can't agree with that then you are flat out blind to what actually happened. I supported the move to replace KS however it should be understood that he was not in an ideal situation. He was paid well to take on such a challenge so i don't feel sorry for the guy but those that say it was all flowers and candyland with awesome players and a great venue etc are fooling themselves. KS main fault was not being outgoing to the media and getting them on his side, that might have bought him another year.
I’d say his main fault was that he lost a lot of ballgames
Stallings did absolutely nothing to endear himself with the fans and media. That was a major part of his downfall here. No doubt.
I can only hope so many people defend me if I am that incompetent at my job.
How can any one man be that well defended for doing the worst job in coaching that has been seen in college basketball for decades???? Just from the comments guys like Jeter and Luther made makes me understand that their credibility on this subject is zero. They have no understanding on what is happening and should just keep their mouths shut. Maybe a few guys liked him, which in itself tells me they have no credibility. Liking a coach for some unknown reason is no reason to keep him around. He has to deliver results at some point.
The University of Pgh that’s who pays for Ryan’s scholarship and they’re trying to wiggle out of a signed contract !
Let the boosters, those big mouths who pushed Dixon out the door and put us where we are today, let them pay for the buyout.
Not many people on this board are defending him , I’m certainly not . I do think he was put in a bad spot and wasn’t able to recruit the players needed to show enough promise for the future . I personally didn’t like the hire or the style of ball he played and I’m glad the university stepped up and fired him . That being said a rebuild will take more time than he was given and the next coach will need at least 3 yrs of recruiting to turn this mess around . Pitt isn’t in the A10 like Duquesne , you need several high quality experienced ballplayers to win in the ACC . It will be interesting to see how successful the next coach can recruit at Pitt .
I also feel that Pitt better have some smoking gun on KS or they’ll foolish once again in the national media eyes and bickering over a guranateed contract will not help in attracting the kind of coach they need .
You on the other hand have felt nothing but complete contempt for KS because he replaced your boy . Your boy who I liked and who I wanted to continue on as Pitts HC really left the cupboard bare . His recruiting here the last three yrs of his stay were in a word horrible . Saying that they’re both gone ands it’s on to the next coach you’ll probably hate because he won’t be Jamie Dixon .
I might not like whomever they hire , but I’ll try and root for his success because he coaches Pitt bb .
Given all the above--Dixon's successor (whoever he would be) was expected by me (and I believe many, or even most, Pitt fans) to be able to overcome whatever lack of player leadership there may have been. In addition, that successor was expected to recruit far better than what we have seen from KS. Had KS, especially given the size of his contract and buyout, met these expectations the dislike for him would have been forgotten. The more specific recruiting and coaching expectations by the fans for KS or any other new Pitt coach were:
1. To immediately land an adequate JUCO or grad transfer point guard for season #1 and, as a result, to at least have made the NIT.
2. To have recruited into his first freshman class a top 150 post player and a top 150 point guard and also to have kept Cam Johnson, recruit Aaron Thompson and a few other returning players resulting in a season #2 team that was not a drastic drop off from season #1---in other words, a team that at least was playing around 0.500 hoops and had a couple of young players who looked like potential future ACC all-star candidates.
3. At the end of season #2 looking like there would be a team in season #3 that would at least be able to return to the NIT and/or be an NCAA bubble team.
Whether these fan expectations were reasonable is a matter of opinion. However, if they weren't reasonable expectations, or if the Pitt admin didn't expect those kinds of results from the hire, that should have been made clear up front when the hire was made. The fan base clearly expected a stabilization at the level of play of Dixon's last few seasons as the platform upon which the new coach would rebuild from. They did not expect further regression followed by a complete blow-up and rebuild. So, either the admin didn't expect what happened either, or they deceived the fan base from the moment of the KS hire.
1st paragraph above - He was fired because he did a horrendous job rebuilding the roster. I never complained about him booting the players that were there, but it's incumbent on him to assemble a competitive roster. He didn't.
2nd paragraph - Why do you assume they (Lyke & admin) would be OK with the crap basketball he produced this year? What coach is right throwing his players under the bus publicly? When is that ever a good option?
He didn't rebuild the program the right way. There is no foundation.
I doubt that the fans money supported the bb program this season . The ACC money no doubt , but I doubt Pitt was cash positive unless invisible people in the empty seats had to pay .
Stallings constantly threw the players under the bus last year. He couldn’t this year because they all were players he recruited And would essentially have been blaming himself.
He doesn't understand that because he didn't follow Pitt until Stallings got here.
Kene played 17 minutes per game this season.
That tells you everything about the dirth of talent on that roster
That tells you everything about the dirth of talent on that roster
When you allow the inmates to run the asylum and things go to hell, sure, you can blame the inmates for not doing a better job. But the person who allowed the inmates to run the asylum is the one who is really to blame.
See, that's the problem. I do know. I also know that she isn't doing anything different than anyone else in her position does. When she has "lower level" open positions she looks to people that she knows and has worked with in the past who have (assumedly) done a good job while she worked with them. The idea that doing that is rare or unusual or something at all out of the ordinary is ridiculous, as anyone who spends time in the working world already ought to know.
But notice, when she had three "high level" positions open she didn't go out and hire the women's soccer coach at Eastern Michigan or a gymnastics coach from Ohio State. She went out and found the best people (in her eyes) that were available. None of them were people that she worked with before. And oddly enough, one of the coaches that got fired was someone that she may very well have worked with before, seeing as to how they were both at Ohio State at the same time.
Imagine that. She fired someone who actually may have been a crony and replaced him with someone she had never worked with before. Who'd a thunk it?
If he hasn't followed Pitt until Stallings got here, then why are we listening to him or responding to him? He knows nothing about Pitt basketball. Following Pitt while Stallings was here and making any statements about Pitt basketball based on that is very shortsighted.
No. His main fault was the inability to recruit competent players! If you are going to blow it up and your best 2 recruits are 150-200 range - the rest not even rated... you will fail... miserably.
All he needed to do was get a semi-functional PG his first year. One of the reasons was at 55 and just being a grumpy old man he didn't have the ability to build the program. He wasn't building anything except his retirement fund. Screw him.
exactly, but the keep stallings contingent doesn't see this. Very strange, even for message board standards
Your 1st paragraph- you really think that’s why he was fired?? Maybe indirectly but definitely not directly. Only one reason why he was fired, butts in seats.
He was fired because he blew up the program and wasn't recruiting to make it any better. The fact you can't see that is astounding.
Well, in Dixon' last three classes he signed two guys who were top 10 scorers in the ACC as seniors (Young, Artis), the 3rd leading scorer on the nationally ranked #2 ACC team (Cam) and a solid 6-8 kid (Luther) whose untimely stress fractures cost several wins in each of the last two seasons.
Add a 4-star PG ( Damon Wilson ) who has underperformed his ranking and a well-regarded juco wing (Clark) who tore his ACL, twice. Bad recruiting or misfortune?
Yeah, everybody would want MORE guys at that level but he also used scholarships for grad transfers to plug holes caused by attrition while still earning tournament bids.
There were FOUR very solid ACC-level guys in those classes. I'm not sure any of Stallings' 4 best signees is as good as the worst of those 4 Dixon guys.
Neither recruited where we need to to get to the top third of the ACC. But, Dixon went to NCAAT's with teams of his guys. Stallings went winless.
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I’m not trying to turn this into JD vs KS recruiting contest , but some of these freshman if they stay and improve will be a far better class than any of JDs last 3 . Was giving JD all the credit for the Kithcart class . So the Young and Artis class was four yrs ago under my accounting system . ( and would be a great level for any new coach to aspire to .)
Sometimes guys are overrated , Wilson would fit that bill .
Cam was an afterthought and a late recruit without any notable offers other than Rice and Lurthur was only offered after all JDs primary targets went elsewhere .
JD couldn’t even sign any significant grad transfers and probably the most significant gaff was not signing
Konate.
Neither coach recruited the players needed. , but there’s no doubt who the better coach was .
Don’t forget newkirk, a guy that started 20+ games at IU. Was he a high level acc player? Meh. But good enough to play power 5 hoops
Man are you stretching. If you can’t admit that Jamie’s recruiting deteriorated significantly to the point he was having a hard time signing anyone, you’re blinded by your love affair with him.
You only get a feather in your recruiting cap by properly evaluating and signing talent. You don’t get a feather for pursuing an improperly rated recruit - see Wilson.
Likewise you get feathers taken out of your recruiting cap for mis-evaluating talent and not pursuing recruits you should have that wanted to come here.
You don’t get a feather in your recruiting cap for taking flyers on recruits with questionable health because you struck out on all viable candidates and subsequently have no other options - see Clark and big Joe.
And you don’t get a feather in your recruiting cap for all the questionable and average grad transfers you had to sign to fill out a roster because you couldn’t attract anyone else.
Get real. And you castoff about 5 current freshman as nobodies when they all show much more promise than the majority of what Jamie was able to bring in his last 3-4 years.
Again, seriously get real.
Newkirk is better than anything we currently have on our roster. It would have been great if he were here and Stallings weren't.
