So, anyway, that's how I think he let last season come to pass. Before he knew it, it was too late. He should've made the hard decisions right away. He did not. He is, however, making them now. Reworking the roster to suit his ideology.
Manigault transferring; Pitt waves goodbye to final remnant of '16 recruiting class(PG article)
- Thread starter PittPoker
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You can say there wasn't enough development and probably be right. I just think it's a leap to say that was a result of assistant coaches. The reason you can't point to career development is because so many of our guys left or flopped that we had very few four-year players to evaluate. That's more a recruiting and talent evaluation blunder than a development failure.
It's also hard to talk about development of Robinson, Jeter, or Artis because all of those guys were really active and talented as freshmen. Sure, they didn't necessarily take a Great Leap Forward, but unless they turned into lottery picks, that wasn't really possible. It's a lot easier to pick a guy like McGhee and point to visible development than to analyze Artis and say what he could potentially have done if developed differently. I'm certainly not enough of an expert to make a claim like that.
It has baffled me since day 1 that Stallings kept the class of the guy walking out the door, who almost universally was regarded as a poor recruiter lately. I would go as far as to say that is the primary reason he is no longer here, and Stallings says "good enough for me."
My comment wasn't in regards to the subject of your statements. Rather just the logical contradictions.
I really, really don't think he was expecting this job. Treated it somewhat leisurely until it sunk in mid season. Just slid Artis to PG and rolled with the other returning Top 6 as starters. Then learned... This ain't the 3+ bid SEC. It's the 9+ bid ACC.
Pitt's team as he made it in the SEC might even be an NCAAT team. Whole bunch of Clemson's in that league outside of Florida and Kentucky.
I'd go as far as to say that Pitt last year beats Vandy last year 6+ times out if 10. I'd say the same applies to Pitt this year versus Vandy this year as well. ACC is brutal.
The SEC is a league where you can actually make a turn around. Look at what Vandy did this year after starting 8-10. As you said, there are a bunch of mediocre or bad teams in that league, and if you manage to keep your head above water, you can pretty easily turn things around end up 10-8. As I thought was possible this year, the ACC doesn't give you any benefit of the doubt. Pitt was basically an underdog in their first 10 league games. With this specific roster, they were never going to handle that adversity well. The only chance KS had was for them to come out and beat ND and Cuse in the first 3 games and give themselves some inflated sense of competition. Since they ended up losing both of those, it was basically already over.
Given the entire roster is turning over, I don't really see light at the end of the tunnel. They might actually end up with a worse OOC, and I can't see any possibility of getting more than 7 conference wins. I'd say a low NIT seed would be the absolute ceiling.
We lost to Clemson @ Home tho...
Terrible.
They (Clemson) had a 20+ point lead (in the 2nd half too) on Oakland last night in the NIT & ended up losing the dang game...
L
I realize that. Mostly meant the depth of high level teams in ACC dwarfs that in the SEC. It's really UK and UF and everyone else. I have no doubt that Pitt wins 8+ if they have an SEC 18 game schedule.
Pitt's 8 game losing streak dilemma was a real problem.
The if the team didn't have that we might have actually made the Tournament!
Cuz really we played ok up till then, and not terrible after it.
Really beating Duquesne before it, & winning just 1 more game after it. & picking up 2-3 wins in it were a top 9 seed in the NCAAT.
I don't know what would or wouldn't have happened in the SEC, but that slice of games was HORRIBLE.
I honestly don't believe it would happen in the ACC. Louisville was in there twice in addition to @Duke, @UNC, @Syracuse, Miami. I think it would've been a streak of ineptitude but I doubt 8 games. Maybe 6.
Definitely agree that kind of ineptitude can cripple you no matter where you play.
A coaching staff of Dixon/Herrion/Slice/Sandle would be very good IMO.
Yeah well I posted that Barton was a piker over 3 years ago and was told "well Jamie knows better than you". So..........
Well we basically had that, substitute out Slice for Rice. It was a really good staff.
By you maybe...because you weren't enamored with his staff either. But by some of the others....
No maybe about it.
And others said the same.
But carry on with the martyrdom
