Recruiting Truth

[Atomic79]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

 

[X2win]

Pitt is going to land at least 1 four star, soon.

 

[Drew1208]

Pitt is going to land at least 1 four star, soon.

Yeah and Trey, and Toney, I believe both were 4 star.
And XJ is better than most 4 stars and maybe some 5 stars.
Basketball is way different than football.
I don't know why people try comparing the two.
I don't how this poster measures "legit 4 stars"

 

[jfk6668]

I was in school with the Page/Knight run of 3 sweet sixteens....not sure how high level guys like Lett/Zavakas/Brown were.....but I recently rewatched some of those tourney games and they were really good......I'm not sure any Pitt fans expect national championships.....I want March to roll around and know we're in and we might make some noise...a final four in my lifetime would be a great bonus....sadly i think 2009 was our best chance at that and possibly the year we lost to Kent State

 

[PittPanther44]

This program also won the 5th most games out of 330 programs over a 12 year span, playing in what was then the best conference.

And that ended a a few years ago, not in the 80s.

And yeah, the tourney success was lacking, but a few plays and games and that narrative changes completely.

So don’t tell me we can only be a “cute mid tier program”.

Some of the point are valid for football because the depth of talent is hard to come by. We’ll always be a nice pipeline but it’s a struggle to contend on a big level.

But in hoops? That’s BS. We already have made giant leaps on the way back

 

[Drew1208]

This program also won the 5th most games out of 330 programs over a 12 year span, playing in what was then the best conference.

And that ended a a few years ago, not in the 80s.

And yeah, the tourney success was lacking, but a few plays and games and that narrative changes completely.

So don’t tell me we can only be a “cute mid tier program”.

Some of the point are valid for football because the depth of talent is hard to come by. We’ll always be a nice pipeline but it’s a struggle to contend on a big level.

But in hoops? That’s BS. We already have made giant leaps on the way back

Yeah that was my point, comparing football to hoops is asinine.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

I totally agree with your analysis about Pitts administrations desire to win , but I disagree with your contentions that JC can’t make Pitt into a nationally competitive team . One or two guys is all it takes to turn a hoops program around and in time JC will find them . On the other hand I just don’t feel PN will ever be successful enough recruiter to ever make Pitt much better than it currently is .

 

[jcpitt]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

You wasted all that time on that useless, uninformative and totally off-base lengthy post? Oh I see, your first post on the Lair. Thanks for wasting my time.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

<SMH>. I continue to scratch my head on the mental capacity of some posters. Knowing reality is not their strong suit.The OP is the poster child for that.

Pitt's hoops program is making progress after being taken down and flushed in the toilet by a couple of doofusses. Now Coach Capel is trying very hard to bring us back from the dead and he is doing a fine job. There are better times ahead and recruits are and will be coming here without the shady, illegal activities that others engage in. That's as it should be. Keep it that way and don't let big money, big mouth donors influence the process in any way. We don't need another Golden Panthers fiasco.

 

[mo cheeks]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

I read the first sentence and knew your angle and knew you were wrong.

 

[Saboteur]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

Ever read "The Little Engine that could"?
Didn't think so.
I love it when people admit defeat before a contest. It makes ignoring them easy.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

The OP well a lot of what he said was true. But I do believe Pitt can pull in top kids in basketball. We are in the best conference, we have recently been a 1 seed and the Pete gained some legendary status. And now with a high profile coach and recruits seeing these Freshman play and have success, that is what is easy to sell. There are a lot of great players, not all can play for Duke and UNC in this conference.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

<SMH>. I continue to scratch my head on the mental capacity of some posters. Knowing reality is not their strong suit.The OP is the poster child for that.

Pitt's hoops program is making progress after being taken down and flushed in the toilet by a couple of doofusses. Now Coach Capel is trying very hard to bring us back from the dead and he is doing a fine job. There are better times ahead and recruits are and will be coming here without the shady, illegal activities that others engage in. That's as it should be. Keep it that way and don't let big money, big mouth donors influence the process in any way. We don't need another Golden Panthers fiasco.

All due respect 85, what do you mean "we don't need another Golden Panthers fiasco". Because that is exactly what we need, especially for football.

 

[Jeffburgh]

HCJC did not leave coach K's side after refuting a number of other offers from similar type programs, to come to Pitt if he was not sure he would recruit at a high level here.

In about three months time he got two four stars and one three star, and he has spent this cycle big game fishing.

It may not be Duke level, but we are going to see a much higher level of basketball recruit under HCJC than we have seen since the mid 80s (and a year or two under Willard).

 

[pittbb80]

Not sure why anyone wasted any time on this drivel after reading the first sentence and seeing this is the trolls first post...........

I feel bad for people who say something never can be done as they live in such a self limiting world..........Are there things that are harder to accomplish than others.........sure.....but times change and events occur that no one would have anticipated.

HCJC has proven he is an elite recruiter and will prove this dope wrong if not this year the next recruiting cycle. HCPN has a much steeper hill to climb as winning and recruiting in FB is much harder to accomplish but its not out of the question that Pitt FB could become very good some day.

 

[below0w]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

Your characterization of Blair and Adams' recruitment is hilariously ignorant. Thank you so much for making that the first thing I read, which enabled me to confidently disregard the rest of your pathetic screed.

 

[jfk6668]

It's interesting considering his first class gave him no time and has to be considered a home run....the freshman have been great

 

[KennyTheKangaroo]

I read the first sentence and knew your angle and knew you were wrong.

Agreed.

What is the point of following pitt if you are just going to mope around, minimize and positives, and wallow in your own misery.

 

[Las Panteras]

First off,

The OP appears to be a bit more intelligent than the "first post" PSU teenage trolls, so his post is worthy of a response, so here goes.

1) Nordenburg....who was more clueless and less invested in Pitt athletic success than the current Chancellor, he oversaw a BB program with multiple #1 seeds and a sold out building every night.

So from your post, you are suggesting that the Pitt BB program became too successful.

Sheer lunacy.

Pitt BB collapsed because of one thing; The most mind numbing decision by an athletic director at any P5 school in the last 20 years.

And when.....not if but when Capel has this program shooting for number 1 seeds, I hope you will come back for a healthy plate of crow.

As for football, my 11 year old nephew can see the inherent problems at Pitt. It has nothing to do with handlers, bagmen, etc.

Let me ask the OP this; Suppose Beville develops into a first round QB and Pitt has success. Now, you have big time players wanting to come to Pitt to play football. I mean, after all.......you said kids from inner city environments (your words) are where the talent lies.

Wouldnt those kids want to be part of something in a city with all kinds of stuff going on (a version of the U?) in a program that is trending up?

And lastly, a follow up to the OP; Should Pitt football elevate (and they can), and Pitt BB get to elite 8 status and beyond (which they will),

Your post suggests Pitt will say enough is enough...and demand that these programs scale it back.

You sure you dont want to re-word your post?

 

[rockypanther]

Yeah and Trey, and Toney, I believe both were 4 star.
And XJ is better than most 4 stars and maybe some 5 stars.
Basketball is way different than football.
I don't know why people try comparing the two.
I don't how this poster measures "legit 4 stars"

One real challenge we will have is landing a top 50 big man.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

One real challenge we will have is landing a top 50 big man.

Doesn't everyone but a few programs at the very top have exactly the same problem?

 

[rockypanther]

First off,

The OP appears to be a bit more intelligent than the "first post" PSU teenage trolls, so his post is worthy of a response, so here goes.

1) Nordenburg....who was more clueless and less invested in Pitt athletic success than the current Chancellor, he oversaw a BB program with multiple #1 seeds and a sold out building every night.

So from your post, you are suggesting that the Pitt BB program became too successful.

Sheer lunacy.

Pitt BB collapsed because of one thing; The most mind numbing decision by an athletic director at any P5 school in the last 20 years.

And when.....not if but when Capel has this program shooting for number 1 seeds, I hope you will come back for a healthy plate of crow.

As for football, my 11 year old nephew can see the inherent problems at Pitt. It has nothing to do with handlers, bagmen, etc.

Let me ask the OP this; Suppose Beville develops into a first round QB and Pitt has success. Now, you have big time players wanting to come to Pitt to play football. I mean, after all.......you said kids from inner city environments (your words) are where the talent lies.

Wouldnt those kids want to be part of something in a city with all kinds of stuff going on (a version of the U?) in a program that is trending up?

And lastly, a follow up to the OP; Should Pitt football elevate (and they can), and Pitt BB get to elite 8 status and beyond (which they will),

Your post suggests Pitt will say enough is enough...and demand that these programs scale it back.

You sure you dont want to re-word your post?

One thing I disagree with is that Dixon after Khem Birch and Pat Skerry became way too cautious with recruiting. His unwillingness to do anything that other coaches were doing, even within the rules killed his recruiting. So he wasn’t able to bring in players to compete at the level Pitt once did. I believe that was largely a decision made by Dixon. And led to his tenure ultimately coming to an end. I believe he is taking a different approach now and has loosened up his stance and mentality on recruiting at TCU. And letting his assistants recruit with way less constraints than BK and others had at Pitt towards the end.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I don't how this poster measures "legit 4 stars"

Seems pretty clear, really. "Legit 4 stars" are the ones that don't come here. "Non-legit 4 stars" are any that we manage to bring in.

 

[rockypanther]

Doesn't everyone but a few programs at the very top have exactly the same problem?

That’s kind of what I am saying. Pitt isn’t going to land the Kofi’s and more highly regarded recruits until Capel gets Pitt back to a higher level and/or is here longer to build those relationships with the handlers earlier.

And to respond to someone else, all 4 stars aren’t the same for us right now. It is about need and position. A 4 star big guy is way more of a priority than another 4 star guard.

 

[sonofabit]

I was in school with the Page/Knight run of 3 sweet sixteens....not sure how high level guys like Lett/Zavakas/Brown were.....but I recently rewatched some of those tourney games and they were really good......I'm not sure any Pitt fans expect national championships.....I want March to roll around and know we're in and we might make some noise...a final four in my lifetime would be a great bonus....sadly i think 2009 was our best chance at that and possibly the year we lost to Kent State

Not sure if your lifetime includes the Vandy loss, but that team could have won it all. The brackets lined up and that team was very very good.

 

[sonofabit]

OP should have begun the post with IMO.....fellow posters are tough but I just enjoy reading anything relevant to Pitt sports. For those posters with thousands of posts that took lots of time and thought saying the OP wasted their time...really?

 

[MyNameisJoe]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

Trey isn't pleased. Chris Taft, Levance Fields, Sam Young, Gil Brown, James Robinson, Mike Young, Birch and Donte Taylor *not pleased* neither is Vonteego or half the recruits from the Willard years. This post is a fallacy. It's harder to recruit here, yes, but it isn't what you make it out to be. I won't even go through the football recruits because hell, even HCPN gets 3 or 4 a year.

Next post please.

 

[gcpanther]

The recruiting truth for Pitt hoops is we are in good shape, especially with Capel. The rating/star system for recruiting is very average in their assessments. It's not Coach K and Ben Howland rating the prospects, it's the media guys who in all honestly don't sometimes know more than any of us. The top 4-5 players may be easy to predict, but it gets very difficult from there. Who would have thought when we signed Cam Johnson and Ryan Luther, two average at best P5 recruits, that they would transfer and be able to start at two blue blood programs in UNC and Arizona?? How good was the system in rating TJ McConnell? Good coaches can always coach their players up and do well, happens every year.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

That’s kind of what I am saying. Pitt isn’t going to land the Kofi’s and more highly regarded recruits until Capel gets Pitt back to a higher level and/or is here longer to build those relationships with the handlers earlier.

And to respond to someone else, all 4 stars aren’t the same for us right now. It is about need and position. A 4 star big guy is way more of a priority than another 4 star guard.

Again, why won't they? Why would Illinois land them and not Pitt? We are a better program right now than they are.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Pitt football and basketball will never get top recruits, other than one-off anomalies - DeJuan Blair goes to school 5 minutes from campus, plays back to the basket at 6’6” and has no ACLs in his knees...Jamie Dixon played in New Zealand and became acquainted with Steve Adams’ family....In the case of football, an underrated out of high-school Aaron Donald or James Connor exceed all expectations. These anomalies are not sustainable and are not how top end programs are built. Like it or not, the lifeblood of big-time programs in 2019 is players from inner city environments with posses, handlers, AAU coaches, part-time daddies, demanding mommas and sneaker pimps.

Going BIG, winning BIG, is a conscious DECISION made at the highest levels of administration and board leadership of an institution. It involves empowering and activating a FULL-SPECTRUM and COMPREHENSIVE approach and commitment. Do you think Jamie Dixon breathed the fresh Texas air, got his recruiting mojo and learned how to be a street-smart pimp in the living room? Do you think the BILLIONAIRE who bought Holgy for the University of Houston will support recruiting efforts?

The senior leadership at Pitt from the Chancellor’s office on down and the Board of Trustees explicitly DO NOT want to go BIG in Football and Basketball. They want competitive, clean, by the book programs with no off field drama and absolutely will not allow any significant alumni or booster influence or engagement in attracting coaches and assistant coaches, keeping coaches or assistant coaches, and certainly in recruiting. They have extreme Buddy Garrity phobia. Not allowing alumni and boosters to influence and control the athletic programs, and not allowing football and basketball to influence and control other university business, has been a prime directive for 30 years.

The idea that if Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel can start winning some games and selling the program n’at then the 5 stars and legit 4 stars will start coming is a FANTASY. Because the decision at the very top is to NOT do what it takes to bring in that type of talent.

Do you think Coach Capel does not know how to “play the game” with top recruits, posses, handlers, AAU coaches, sneaker company pimps, parents and influential relatives? He could do that at a world champion level but he won’t do it here.
1) The university leadership won’t allow it.
2) A large part of the local media is between trolling and actively hostile including individuals on the FLAGSHIP station, and many are graduates of PSU, WVU or other rival schools, and the media would go Woodward and Bernstein to bring down our HOMETOWN UNIVERSITY SMU style if we ever went BIG in athletics.

Coach Capel will do a very good job and build hoops back to respectability but he’ll do it clean. In a few years he’ll take a team of gutty, gritty 3 star recruits to the tournament, pull an upset or 2, and then move on to a true BIG TIME basketball program that is committed at the highest levels to going to Final Fours with a supportive, immersive, full-spectrum recruiting culture and environment and a local media that is SUPPORTIVE and not trolling and antagonistic. And he will then use the whole bag of recruiting tricks. Heather Lyke will do likewise in a few years.

This is all not to say that the University of Pittsburgh leadership is in the wrong. There is validity in the view that a university’s function and mission is education and research and that obsessing over sports, having sports be the main focus, and letting sports run the institution is ludicrous. But for those of us who follow and love Pitt athletics, there is a need for radical honesty about how things are.

Capel will get this team back to the tournament but my fear is that he will find out that he cant land the guys he needs by being too clean and since Pitt doesnt have bagmen, he may head off to someone who does

 

[sappycrease]

Success in college basketball/football comes with large budgets. It is what it is, OP isn’t wrong.