Realistic thoughts on Pitt basketball recruiting

[gary2]

for where we are at now, not coming off of #1 seeds, league championships and long consecutive tourney appearances:

Typical 4 man class: 2 players in the 100-150 range and 2 players in the 150-250 range. Every 3rd or 4th season a top 50 player.

Maybe that is not satisfying enough, but anything above that (save hiring Rick Stansberry) is unrealistic.

We will not win by out recruiting the ACC. We need to get back to our best approach.: Playing our experienced and physically mature 21 to 23 year olds against the Duke, UNC, FSU and Louis one and dones.

 

[rockypanther]

for where we are at now, not coming off of #1 seeds, league championships and long consecutive tourney appearances:

Typical 4 man class: 2 players in the 100-150 range and 2 players in the 150-250 range. Every 3rd or 4th season a top 50 player.

Maybe that is not satisfying enough, but anything above that (save hiring Rick Stansberry) is unrealistic.

We will not win by out recruiting the ACC. We need to get back to our best approach.: Playing our experienced and physically mature 21 to 23 year olds against the Duke, UNC, FSU and Louis one and dones.

Agree. I would add that we have to retain as many of the recruits as we can so they can develop and turn into experienced 22 and 23 years old quality players. It seems to be a lot harder to do that in college basketball as it was when we were successful.

 

[rockypanther]

for where we are at now, not coming off of #1 seeds, league championships and long consecutive tourney appearances:

Typical 4 man class: 2 players in the 100-150 range and 2 players in the 150-250 range. Every 3rd or 4th season a top 50 player.

Maybe that is not satisfying enough, but anything above that (save hiring Rick Stansberry) is unrealistic.

We will not win by out recruiting the ACC. We need to get back to our best approach.: Playing our experienced and physically mature 21 to 23 year olds against the Duke, UNC, FSU and Louis one and dones.

Also, I think having top 100-200 players are important. We also need to make sure they are hard workers, gritty and tough, and fit the style we are trying to play. Then be patient with them and develop them like we used to.

 

[gary2]

An example of how silly recruiting ratings can be:

Late in this recruiting season, Pitt was associated with Marek Dolezaj. I never heard of this player. I am sure many on the board would have belittled him as a late signing period reach.

He signed with Syracuse and after not have being listed in any recruiting rating I read for the entire year, is now listed at #84 by 24/7.

 

[whirlybird optio]

for where we are at now, not coming off of #1 seeds, league championships and long consecutive tourney appearances:

Typical 4 man class: 2 players in the 100-150 range and 2 players in the 150-250 range. Every 3rd or 4th season a top 50 player.

Maybe that is not satisfying enough, but anything above that (save hiring Rick Stansberry) is unrealistic.

We will not win by out recruiting the ACC. We need to get back to our best approach.: Playing our experienced and physically mature 21 to 23 year olds against the Duke, UNC, FSU and Louis one and dones.

That's all we'll and good but if we are going to have to wait 4-5 years to be competitive again are we sure we want KS at the helm? If the position you are taking is "no one can recruit here", why not just hire a better coach? Don't hire the guy who has a looong resume of mediocrity in a worse league give you pause?

It's not as easy as sign a bunch of so/so recruits, wait 4 years, win. Maybe that's Pitt's best chance, but if it is, I'd rather have the better coach.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

That's all we'll and good but if we are going to have to wait 4-5 years to be competitive again are we sure we want KS at the helm? If the position you are taking is "no one can recruit here", why not just hire a better coach? Don't hire the guy who has a looong resume of mediocrity in a worse league give you pause?

It's not as easy as sign a bunch of so/so recruits, wait 4 years, win. Maybe that's Pitt's best chance, but if it is, I'd rather have the better coach.

Also mitigating against the success of our former gritty approach are the NCAA rule changes to promote freedom of movement. These changes have only served to help the blue bloods at the expense of every team with lesser talent.

 

[gary2]

That's all we'll and good but if we are going to have to wait 4-5 years to be competitive again are we sure we want KS at the helm? If the position you are taking is "no one can recruit here", why not just hire a better coach? Don't hire the guy who has a looong resume of mediocrity in a worse league give you pause?

It's not as easy as sign a bunch of so/so recruits, wait 4 years, win. Maybe that's Pitt's best chance, but if it is, I'd rather have the better coach.

I don't love Stallings. I would have wanted someone younger. Didn't need to be a power 5 head coach in my opinion. Maybe someone on the way up or someone younger on the way out.

I don't know how popular of a position this is, but if I knew Geo.Tech was going to fire Brian Gregory, I would have hoped Pitt had waited for him instead of hiring Stallings.

Gregory would have been near the top of my list.

 

[drp1tt]

I don't love Stallings. I would have wanted someone younger. Didn't need to be a power 5 head coach in my opinion. Maybe someone on the way up or someone younger on the way out.

I don't know how popular of a position this is, but if I knew Geo.Tech was going to fire Brian Gregory, I would have hoped Pitt had waited for him instead of hiring Stallings.

Gregory would have been near the top of my list.

Regardless, all I think is that if Stallings didn't change this roster we would have absolutely sucked this year. Not one players sans Cam even transferred to a decent D1 program. I am willing to see the product and potential before overly pre-judging.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Regardless, all I think is that if Stallings didn't change this roster we would have absolutely sucked this year. Not one players sans Cam even transferred to a decent D1 program. I am willing to see the product and potential before overly pre-judging.

He did change the roster and we will suck

 

[h2p_5150]

Realistic thought on Pitt basketball recruiting: It's garbage and has been for the better part of 5 years now. Not looking great for 2018 either after another garbage class in 2017.

 

[Jpripper88]

An example of how silly recruiting ratings can be:

Late in this recruiting season, Pitt was associated with Marek Dolezaj. I never heard of this player. I am sure many on the board would have belittled him as a late signing period reach.

He signed with Syracuse and after not have being listed in any recruiting rating I read for the entire year, is now listed at #84 by 24/7.

Your example is a kid from Slovakia. Awesome.

for where we are at now, not coming off of #1 seeds, league championships and long consecutive tourney appearances:

Typical 4 man class: 2 players in the 100-150 range and 2 players in the 150-250 range. Every 3rd or 4th season a top 50 player.

Maybe that is not satisfying enough, but anything above that (save hiring Rick Stansberry) is unrealistic.

We will not win by out recruiting the ACC. We need to get back to our best approach.: Playing our experienced and physically mature 21 to 23 year olds against the Duke, UNC, FSU and Louis one and dones.

If this is your thought process, why doesn't it apply to other coaches and programs? Why can other coaches (without the experience and history of Stallings) immediately recruit better than him at similar programs? All you do is make excuses for Pitt not being able to recruit and lower the ball lower and lower with every single post and recruiting miss.

You realize a recruit "in the 250 range" is an unbelievable longshot, right? They have practically no chance of being a capable player rather than someone who never contributes.

Right now we aren't just behind Duke, UNC, Louisville, and FSU (no clue why they are included in your list, though), but we are essentially fighting to not be the worst recruiting ACC program. We are trying to be somewhere 8-12 in recruiting and then hope we got it all right, everyone else got it all wrong, and our coaching is much better than the rest. Good luck with that.

Whether or not (it isn't) the only way we can be a decent (not even good) program again is not even all that important. If that is Kevin Stallings approach, he has 0% chance of seeing it through because, right now, we are going to go at least 3 years without sniffing the NCAAT and this year could be historically bad. He can't wait until his 4th and 5th year to become decent.

 

[drp1tt]

Regardless, all I think is that if Stallings didn't change this roster we would have absolutely sucked this year. Not one players sans Cam even transferred to a decent D1 program. I am willing to see the product and potential before overly pre-judging.

He did change the roster and we will suck

Hopefully not as bad as we absolutely would have.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Hopefully not as bad as we absolutely would have.

You mean winning 4 conference games with a substantially more talented team?

 

[heybandguy]

I know KS fancies himself as an offensive genius, but I just don't know that his scheme with the players currently assembled will get more than 4 wins in the ACC, and I am not convinced that a + .500 OOC is a reality. Maybe he knows something and has seen something we haven't - and I certainly hope so. I just want to see young players grow and development, respectability and accountability on the court, and I want to see the program move forward and improve. I don't know that the current trajectory will allow KS to see this to any kind of fruition. I make no apologies for sounding down before the season starts, but it is difficult to be positive when you are a program in hard transition in the best mbb conference in the nation.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

Regardless, all I think is that if Stallings didn't change this roster we would have absolutely sucked this year. Not one players sans Cam even transferred to a decent D1 program. I am willing to see the product and potential before overly pre-judging.

It doesn't matter what the roster is with Stallings. We will still suck. That's the point! If we have the talent level we are used to with Stallings, we will suck. If we somehow get a couple of top 50 guys every few years, we will suck. It's not the players, it's the coach when it comes to Pitt. I don't think Stallings would have success with a team full of top 50 guys.

 

[andypappas]

We just have to wait the time till Stallings moves on. Only then can we try and get an up and coming coach to put the program back on it's feet. I have not disliked a coach as much as I dislike Stallings. I couldn't stand watching him when Vandy games were on tv. There is just something about him that I never have liked

 

[NTOP]

We just have to wait the time till Stallings moves on. Only then can we try and get an up and coming coach to put the program back on it's feet. I have not disliked a coach as much as I dislike Stallings. I couldn't stand watching him when Vandy games were on tv. There is just something about him that I never have liked

Why should we wait?? KS will not quit.....can Pitt pull the trigger? Maybe a $10 million price tag....thanks Barnes.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

for where we are at now, not coming off of #1 seeds, league championships and long consecutive tourney appearances:

Typical 4 man class: 2 players in the 100-150 range and 2 players in the 150-250 range. Every 3rd or 4th season a top 50 player.

Maybe that is not satisfying enough, but anything above that (save hiring Rick Stansberry) is unrealistic.

We will not win by out recruiting the ACC. We need to get back to our best approach.: Playing our experienced and physically mature 21 to 23 year olds against the Duke, UNC, FSU and Louis one and dones.

Maybe that's realistic but that's not good enough.....unless your coach can coach like Jamie.

A class that Pitt needs to be successful is:

1 Top 75 player
2 100-150 guys
1 Top 200 guy

1 reach maybe every 2-3 classes is permissible. Anything more than that is a problem.