Some confessions...

[thebadby2]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

Of course the assistants do those things on every team. But the head coach isn't relying on them to have all the answers--they all watch the same things. I'm sure it's more helpful to have a Herrion or Lutz on the sideline as an extra set of eyes than, say a Smoke--but I don't think our assistant coaches have much to do with the failures of this team on the court. I challenge anyone to explain to me exactly how they are deficient from an actual coaching standpoint.

 

[33pitt99]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

Well, maybe a better, more experienced assistant would have had some different ideas on how to get the team to play defense, given their physical and mental deficiencies. They better figure this out before next year or we'll be looking at a similar result.

I don't know how much Jamie listens to, or has ever listened to his assistants. I know Ben Howland used to talk about Jamie's contributions and from what I can gather they weren't so much on the recruiting side, but on strategy. Jamie used to single out assistants for work they had done in various areas, outside of recruiting. As I said, I don't recall hearing about that as much in the past couple of years. Maybe Jamie has taken all of that on himself, but it seems odd for a coach to delegate less as he gets older. Usually, as with any manager, you learn to trust and delegate tasks as you gain more experience.

Obviously, every coaching staff is different. Head coaches need different things from their assistants based on their strengths and weaknesses. I just don't think this group provides Jamie with what he needs either from a recruiting or actual coaching standpoint. However, he hired them, so he has to deal with the consequences. Hope it works out for the best...

 

[PITTLAW]

Reply

He may be a good coach...but why is he in a position to have to create something out of nothing? Really good coaches are able to attract players that want to play for them. Really good coaches are able to attract guys that buy into their system. I'm not sure how or why you expect the returning talent to suddenly start playing good defense? Look at how many minutes the returning guys have logged during their Pitt careers? These are not young or inexperienced college players. These are not guys that have not been coached by Dixon or do not know what he wants or expects.

If you are in the camp that the guards are the problem...well news flash...they are mostly returning. If you are in the camp that the interior players are the problem [which I am there], those guys are also returning. If this team is going to take a step up and forward...it is going to require some or all of the new incoming talent to make MAJOR contributions. I'm hoping...but certainly not encouraged--as it has been pretty rare during Dixon's entire tenure that a first year player stepped in, played significant minutes...and yielded majorly positive things [Steve Adams may be the best?]. Oh well, spring football begins soon! Hail to Pitt!

 

[PittMan 72]

Originally posted by whirlybird optio:
1) I'm tired of defending James Robinson. He'd be a perfectly fine PG on a team with elite talent at the 2-5, but on this team he's just so blah

2) I'm not tired of defending Dixon against the mob, but this roster, and maybe even moreso this staff is a complete mess

3) I always assumed this team would get a lot better next year, now I have no idea

4) I'm kinda glad Cam Wright is done. When he defends like this he is a negative player

5) If for whatever reason Mustapha Heron is not on this roster in 18 months I will for the first time be ready for a change. We need guards, and we have an elite one coming soon

6). I was kinda hoping we lost by a ton after I saw the effort early. Maybe a 30 point loss or something like that might make the situation clear how bad we are. But i suspect Jamie already knows this

7) I think the roster has a lot of twists and turns before next season. Hopefully the staff too. nC st had lutz, and Wittenberg...and we have Barton and regan. At least Jamie, and Brandin, look like they care. The rest of the coaches and team...not so much. That's the worst part.

Personally I wouldn't be surprised at - or disappointed with - major overhauls on BOTH the player roster and the staff. Looks to me like some sort of a shake-up is needed. Not exactly sure why things fizzled so badly at the end. But they sure did. Complacency? It's always very difficult to be able to determine what may be going on inside someone's else's head. But it definitely looked like, at least on the part of some, there was some energy missing. If nothing else, at the very least, that has to change.

 

[Black_Man_Panther]

Re: I'm glad you posted this ...



I think instead of looking at the individual comparisons - you have to look at how they play (or not play) as a team. It's simple things like the example I used from the FSU game where Artis merely has to set a back screen and Newkirk has a layup. Instead he wanders out of bounds and Newkirk gets his shot blocked.

Maybe last year Patterson gets in Artis face? I don't know anyone of them personally, but from what I could tell both Patterson and Zanna seemed like no-nonsense people. Now you have a bunch of wishy-washy personalities who don't want to upset the #1 scorers game.

You got Young, Jones, Artis, Jeter making selfish/stupid decisions on both sides of the floor pretty much regularly.

Originally posted by DT_PITT:

... because that's exactly what I thought happened too.

I was going to go back and check but I can't stomach watching this again just yet.

I kept rewinding during the game to watch Cam being beaten (more than James anyway).

Having said this, I don't think it wise to say anyone was better or worse than anyone else defensively. Everyone was below the line.

 

[DT_PITT]

Completely agree*

*

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Dixon needs to first, look in the mirror and decide what kind of team he wants.

You want thoroughbreds? Great. Go all out- and for the love of god, please stop thinking we can contest jumpers alone. Aggressive defense sells.

You want tough coachable kids like the early day? Churn over those who aren't fitting the mold, and rebuild in that image. Go get winners from winning programs, who may be at their potential coming into college.

This caught in between two things is just awful to watch..and we're going to be capped out being middle of the pack at best.

 

[Pav9870]

I'm not sure where this fits in, but listening to the post game radio show was enlightening. The words may not be exact, but either Bill or Dick tried to set up an answer about improvement next year to Brandin. He was obviously exasperated and said before they could see any improvement the players would have to acknowledge that defense wins games. I think he said they have been working with them all year on this to no avail.

If the players aren't buying in to defense, it's reasonable to get other players.

 

[IamHeisenberg]

Re: I've been saving this ...

Originally posted by DT_PITT:
... but I'll use it here, in response to this comment from you:

"I was kinda hoping we lost by a ton after I saw the effort early. Maybe a 30 point loss or something like that might make the situation clear how bad we are. But i suspect Jamie already knows this"

I'm sure he already knows this.

How do I know?

Well, before the Chaminade game, on the ride over, as part of a casual conversation, the person closer to Dixon than anyone said to me (verbatim). "Well, this is going to be a really tough year. We'll be much better next year. But this year will be really tough."

With this information in mind, I've never expected much from the season, and this is why this season has been more than I ever thought it would be.

I didn't know that Mrs. Dixon cared that much about Pitt Hoops.

All kidding aside. How could it have gotten that bad?

 

[Harve74]

Re: I've been saving this ...

We lost the linkage with past physically and mentally tough players.

It has been posted by several different posters with contacts close to the team and staff that this group of players only want to play offense.

It was also reported that Dixon said in an interview after the game that the players do go hard and intense in practice, then came out the last several games and played passively. It is very frustrating.

It's possible the offensive success in beating several good teams in mid-season actually hurt the program more than helped it because guys thought they could win only playing hard on ine end of the court.