Stallings buyout
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If we pay $10 million to buy him out, Gallagher has to go. He is responsible for Barnes, who was responsible for reducing Dixon's buyout and hiring Stallings.
If we pay a full $10 million, and I doubt we do, I just dont see how we can hire a no-name mid-major who won't sell tickets. We may just have to give up and be held hostage by Barnes's contract special until the buyout is more reasonable.
Honestly, I think Pitt should sue Barnes and the search firm.
Maybe if Stallings stays they can drastically reduce prices to say $100 for the season, everything GA outside of the clubbies. That way they'd probably sell 15K or so ensuring attendance of maybe 5k-6K for ACC games.
I would not pay Stallings 10 million to go away in order to hire a coach in the 1 million to 1.5 million range (with no money for assistants and no recruiting budget for travel, visits, etc.) That is what would happen.
Stallings is a good coach. There is no sensible justification for making a move like that. The hatred for this man is truly beyond belief.
I'm pretty confident that if he is terminated in year 2 he is due the balance of the contract. Zeise and Meyer are probably rounding up a bit to say $10MM.
A structured buyout can probably save a bit. Nonetheless, it will be a bitter pill for Pitt to swallow.
A structured buyout can probably save a bit. Nonetheless, it will be a bitter pill for Pitt to swallow.
Pitt deserves it after making such a horrible mistake. There is no way they can keep this guy here with no winning last year or this year, almost no hope for next year and complete apathy from the fans. You cannot let this continue. No new coach comes in with zero recruits. This guy brought no one his first year, and good guys but not much talent his second. Looks like his third year will be a below average recruiting class too. All of the moron donors who drove Dixon out need to step up and fix this mistake.
Or do nothing because of this contract and watch the program continue to disintegrate.
And it has nothing to do with hatred for Stallings personally, although he wasn't very likable last year at all. It has to do with hating the results the first two years with minimal hope that year three would show any improvement.
Or do nothing because of this contract and watch the program continue to disintegrate.
And it has nothing to do with hatred for Stallings personally, although he wasn't very likable last year at all. It has to do with hating the results the first two years with minimal hope that year three would show any improvement.
I just have to think at some poin Stallings will get exhausted and maybe they can find a middle ground of $5-6 million.
I mean why would he really want to come back besides money? Team stinks, fans all hate him, and nothing seems to be getting better. Get your $5-6 million and take a break or go to a lower level.
I mean why would he really want to come back besides money? Team stinks, fans all hate him, and nothing seems to be getting better. Get your $5-6 million and take a break or go to a lower level.
My money is on him being a tough son of a b and he’s going down with the ship . You want him gone pay him .
Highly likely. He has no reason to settle for less, and I'm sure he feels like he's the one getting screwed here. He was getting run out of town at his press conference. I don't blame him. He just took a job where he got a hell of a good offer when he was on his way out of the last job.
I don’t think it’s quite that high unless he gets the full dollar figure from sources outside of Pitt.
And I hope he squeezes Pitt and this miserable, clueless fanbase for every single nickle if he’s not given through at least mid-conference season next year. Then the crotchety old yinzers can go watch Andy O’Toole with an extra 500 people at the Pete.
Stallings has stunk here no other way to spin it....
But people begged him to keep Dixon’s recruiting class. He did and people bitch.
People thought they would go 0-18 and then they lose Luther they lose games and people still bitch.
We play close should beat NCState and That’s the indicitment that he stinks.
He does stink but he was never given a shot either. It sounds silly but it’s true
But people begged him to keep Dixon’s recruiting class. He did and people bitch.
People thought they would go 0-18 and then they lose Luther they lose games and people still bitch.
We play close should beat NCState and That’s the indicitment that he stinks.
He does stink but he was never given a shot either. It sounds silly but it’s true
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Whether Stallings is good or bad at the Xs and Os is no longer relevant. This team is in far greater need of better talent than just good coaching.
Minimum recruiting expectations from the Stallings hire were:
1. To recruit a JUCO or Grad Transfer point guard for his first year to patch the glaring hole in the roster.
2. To sign 2 or 3 4-star recruits in his first full class--at least one a post player.
These are the most important things he was expected to accomplish during his early recruiting window of opportunity.
He failed to meet either expectation and his second recruiting class isn't any better than his first. It is now clear that whatever opportunity he may have originally had to turn the Pitt program around has vanished as a result of the weak recruiting results.
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If MBB can’t pay the bills to start with because of attendance, are their enough donors that would pony up for him to go away? If we thought the complete rebuild was uglier than Bob Huggins wearing a speedo, what happens when it’s another new coach and a few of the players with promise jump ship? I hate to be so pessimistic as I just want to see the players succeed and the program get back on the path to respectability, but I am struggling to see how things will get better with him at the helm. I get there is just not much experience on the roster which has not helped when moments in games got tight and Pitt couldn’t respond. They make mistakes of “haven’t been there, haven’t done that”. But doesn’t your coach have to prepare them for those moments? I just haven’t seen the consistent improvement that tells me the team is getting the right kind of coaching. My apologies to those of you who read this as my frustration has most likely been voiced in other ways by other posters prior to this.
Been thinking about this.
As we know, a buyout is usually not times left on contract times years left. Barnes's contract with Dennis Erickson is structured in a way where about half of it is salary and the other half is like a retention bonus. Stallings may be similar. So maybe Stallings is making $1.25 million per year with a $1.25 million dollar retention bonus. So actual salary times years left on contract would be a lot lower.
But lets just say the buyout is $10 million. I have a theory. Last year on his radio show, Zeise said something like the buyout goes down considerably after Year 3. This makes some sense. Hear me out:
Everyone wonders: "why the 6 year contract?" It really may be a 3 year "guaranteed" contract with very low buyouts after the 3 years. And when I say "guaranteed," yea there's a buyout but nobody is paying $10 million to fire a coach. So Stallings probably negotiated a guaranteed 3 years to be given a fair shot.
And if this is the case and there IS a $10 million buyout this year and lets say there's a $2-$4 million buyout next year, you just have to wait. As I said, reduce tickets to next to nothing for the upper deck. Make the entire upper deck GA for $100 for the season (no donation). Make the lower bowl $250-$300 for the season. Billboards, bus signs, commercials. Market the heck out of it and maybe some random 6K-7K yinzers buy upper deck GA season tickets for $100 and go to a couple games or in some cases, go to half the games or most of the games.
As we know, a buyout is usually not times left on contract times years left. Barnes's contract with Dennis Erickson is structured in a way where about half of it is salary and the other half is like a retention bonus. Stallings may be similar. So maybe Stallings is making $1.25 million per year with a $1.25 million dollar retention bonus. So actual salary times years left on contract would be a lot lower.
But lets just say the buyout is $10 million. I have a theory. Last year on his radio show, Zeise said something like the buyout goes down considerably after Year 3. This makes some sense. Hear me out:
Everyone wonders: "why the 6 year contract?" It really may be a 3 year "guaranteed" contract with very low buyouts after the 3 years. And when I say "guaranteed," yea there's a buyout but nobody is paying $10 million to fire a coach. So Stallings probably negotiated a guaranteed 3 years to be given a fair shot.
And if this is the case and there IS a $10 million buyout this year and lets say there's a $2-$4 million buyout next year, you just have to wait. As I said, reduce tickets to next to nothing for the upper deck. Make the entire upper deck GA for $100 for the season (no donation). Make the lower bowl $250-$300 for the season. Billboards, bus signs, commercials. Market the heck out of it and maybe some random 6K-7K yinzers buy upper deck GA season tickets for $100 and go to a couple games or in some cases, go to half the games or most of the games.
So KS is sitting there talking to Barnes about the job what do you think Barnes tells him about the roster and recruiting .
We have four returning seniors two who are all conference , we have a sophomore with pro potential , we have another junior whose an excellent 6th man , we have a 7 ft center who sat out last season that South Carolina wanted , we have a four star sophomore pg waiting to breakout , the incoming freshman are both top 150 guys and a juco combo guard that Oregon wanted .
What Barnes told him about recruiting
Dixon couldn’t recruit worth a shit the last few season this is a great place to recruit to compared to vandy . Academic standards are far easier here and we’re in the best bb conference in the country . You’ll have no problems getting great players here !
Barnes sold KS a bill of goods , while I don’t think in anyway he’s doing
an acceptable job this isn’t all on him . Whomever is the next coach will have no illusions about the roster or the difficulty in recruiting to Pitt and winning in the ACC .
Is it worth the multiple millions to buyout KS and then going cheap on the next coach ? Fans are not going to be rushing to the Pete to see a no name coach . Duquesnes improved play under a new coach isn’t the same , winning some games in a weak A10 isn’t the same as winning games in the ACC . To get the fans back to the Pete will take an exciting team that’s winning and in the ACC that means getting some highly talented players . There’s two ways to get highly talented players , the first is to have a highly successful coach at a highly successful program the second is to cheat . Will Pitt pay up for that kind of coach and even if they’d consider it would a highly successful coach even consider coming here right now ? Pitt won’t go the second way .
Pitts in a pickle it would cost a small fortune to buyout KS and hire a fan appealing coach ( if they can ) . Buying him out and going cheap will not attract fan interest until they’re winning . There no guarantee the next coach can win here and even if he can it will take at least a few seasons to turn this around .
There's no easy anwser , my bet is that they stick with KS and hope for improvement . If none occurs next season his only chance to see year 4 is a great recruiting class . The Pitt job could be the most unattractive P5 job in the country right now they’ll be able to find somebody just not the high profile guy they need .
Another one who blames and hates Pitt fans. This is weird.
I have a feeling the discussion was, Vanderbilt is going to fire you. Do you want to go to Pitt or do you want to go to St Louis to coach?
So what you are saying is that Stallings took the job without doing any due diligence about the job he was about to take.
Normally that wouldn't make any sense, but maybe since he knew he was going to get fired at Vanderbilt the situation where he was going didn't make any difference to him.
"What? You'll sign me to a SIX year contract? No, I don't care about your situation, where's the pen?!?!"
So you are basically saying Stallings is an idiot. Who takes a job like this without looking into the situation himself? He should have watched games, talked to opposing coaches and others who knew the situation here. If he actually believed a bill of goods like this, I have even less respect and sympathy for him!
I read comments regarding ticket prices. I haven't checked, but people have stated that lower bowl tickets can be bought for $6. If these tickets go unsold why do people think they could offer a $99 package and it will somehow increase attendance?
The solution is for Stallings to go. If he stays and the team wins, say 4 conference games next year, then what? My opinion is that he is what he is an average coach. If this is what the fans want, then keep him. I on the other hand think the best option for program is get rid of him.
The solution is for Stallings to go. If he stays and the team wins, say 4 conference games next year, then what? My opinion is that he is what he is an average coach. If this is what the fans want, then keep him. I on the other hand think the best option for program is get rid of him.
No , I think he talked to someone who he thought was a straight shooter and was mislead . JD was pulling his hair out over this team and it looked much better on paper than in reality . Losing the glue in JRob that team became uncoachable . The incoming guys looked good on paper too .
I think he takes the job ,but if he realized how bad the bench was I believe he blows it up last yr while he had the buffer of Young and Artis .
It happens all the time another job ( or woman/ man ) looks more attractive until you actually get there .
I for one believe the Pitt job isn’t very attractive and finding a replacement whose going to turn it around quickly is a pipe dream . Pitt had the winningest coach in BE history who was struggling in the ACC whose now finding immeadiate success at TCU . Pushing out JD and firing Stallings , an experienced D1 coach after two years into a 6 yr contract and you people expect aquality HC to come flocking here for
interviews ? Pitts bb is in a heap of sh.t and there’s no quick fixes and firing KS now will not solve the problem . All it will do is cost millions of dollars . I don’t know who the right coach is for Pitt to hire , but he’s not coming cheap and with a big buyout and an empty Pete I’d be very surprised to see anything happen for a yr or two.
Ps I think KS wished he was at St Louis !
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There is literally no chance his buyout is $8-10M. None.
Of his salary? That is possible. That wouldn't be near $8-10M, though. At most that would be 2/3 of his compensation, so if he is making $2M total (from Pitt) a year then about $1.34M of that would be salary. $1.34M x 4 = $5.36M. Obviously no one in their right mind would count this year's $2M compensation. Now, it could be slightly higher than that $5.4M number because it probably has yearly escalators that lead to an average $2M yearly compensation, so if you figure a 7% yearly increase you'd end up with a buyout of about $5.8-5.9M. So, the buyout for years 3-6 is somewhere between $5.3M-5.9M. It would be hard to believe it is immediately payable, either, but it could be.
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You have no idea or information about that. Plenty of others disagree. However, it is not $8-10M.
Geez, enough of this it is tough to recruit here. Bob Huggins was able to recruit to Kansas friggin State his only year there. In the 80's we recruited Charles Smith, Jermoe Lane, Aiken.....all top guys with worse facilities and even less tradition than we do now. It is the top conference, good recent history, a top facility, plus an urban setting which should help when recruiting urban kids from NYC, etc. Stallings is a putz. He whiffed on most of his targets his 1st year. If you can't reel them in the 1st year when you are selling your new vision for the program, there isn't much hope.
You do know how Pitt landed Charles Smith, Jerome Lane, Bobby Martin, etc?
Pitt has had periods in FB and BB where we were "active participants". Those periods come and go.
I do not believe we are currently in one of those periods. Should we once again become "active participants", I would guess recruiting results would improve substantially.
This is probably the most logical and sensible approach I have heard thus far. We simply have to persevere for another season and plan a long term replacement that would be the splash hire this program needs.
So he was thinking about taking a job and the only person he talked to about the place that he was thinking about going to was the guy who was trying to sell him on taking the position? Wow.
I can't fathom that someone who had reached the position in life the Kevin Stallings did being that monumentally stupid. I mean good god, people do more due diligence than that when they take a job as a stock boy at the local Giant Eagle.
