The Citadel Game & Other Dribbles ...
- Thread starter DT_PITT
- Start date
A few. But that's before the current destruction of Pitt basketball at this current moment in time.
Jamie Dixon was a hot name a lot of schools wanted at one time too. Not so much now when the current track record and trend of Dixon is on a major downward spiral.
Actually I agree with some
of what you're posting on
this topic. SOME, not all.
Go back and read your
posts in this thread. You
constantly say things like
"there's no way" or "she's
one bad hire away from....
or "get the next one right
or she's out."
You have no clue if she's
"out" or "one bad hire
away."
You want to throw in an
IMO, I see it this way, or
I sense that.....then I'll
listen to you. You've
got opinions bucko,
nothing more.
She was just approached about the AD position at Michigan State and she turned it down. That was before everything that has happened this year with Pitt basketball.
If I must put my 2 cents in, I really think Lyke will push the right buttons to get the right basketball coach in here if Capel doesn't work out. I certainly do think Pitino and maybe even Sean Miller will be considered among others. I dont know if they get cleared, but I think Lyke is aggressive enough to try to get a name brand coach in here like a Pitino. I do think she will have more money to work with than others think. Uconn was in a much bigger financial mess than Pitt and they still got the funds to get Hurley and a big time staff.
In my opinion, her future career is dependent on getting this new basketball hire right if Capel is indeed let go at some point. I do think she will pull all the strings to get it right if it comes to it. It is up to her to make it happen.
Scott Barnes is probably
vilified as much as almost
anyone else in Pitt athletic
history.
Hmmmm....what did he do
wrong? Not much really LOL.
All he did was make a Bball
hire that put Pitt so far
behind the rest of the
college Bball world. We're
still feeling the results of
that hire.
Consider this.....did it put
his ass on the hot seat? Did
it ruin his career movement
as has been suggested with
Lyke. As I see it, he moved
upward and on to Oregon
State. He's still there and is
listed as Vice President and
Director of Intercollegiate
Athletics. He's highly revered
there. Yet he's literally despised
here at Pitt and sure as hell
hated on this board. Did that
bad hire hurt him?
vilified as much as almost
anyone else in Pitt athletic
history.
Hmmmm....what did he do
wrong? Not much really LOL.
All he did was make a Bball
hire that put Pitt so far
behind the rest of the
college Bball world. We're
still feeling the results of
that hire.
Consider this.....did it put
his ass on the hot seat? Did
it ruin his career movement
as has been suggested with
Lyke. As I see it, he moved
upward and on to Oregon
State. He's still there and is
listed as Vice President and
Director of Intercollegiate
Athletics. He's highly revered
there. Yet he's literally despised
here at Pitt and sure as hell
hated on this board. Did that
bad hire hurt him?
Scott Barnes left before shit hit the fan at Pitt. He was already out while the Stallings disaster was taking place.
It will be interesting with Barnes. He hired Jonathan Smith as a football coach for Oregon State who has been a disaster so far over the last 4 or so years. He had to replace Pat Bailey who won multiple NCAA baseball titles and so far his new baseball hire has been a bust in terms of OSU baseball expectations. He does have the basketball coach who made the Elite 8 last year on that cinderella run. Tinkle has made 1 NCAA appearance in the last 8 years. Expectations for OSU sports certainly aren't high except baseball. If Barnes wrecks the baseball program, then some people are probably not going to be very happy with him.
He's lasted 6 years in what
he called his "dream job."
Now that I brought his name
up, it got me thinking. Bad as
his hire of Stallings was.....the
hire of Barnes himself was
IMO even worse. As for
Pitt's leadership at the time.
they,,,,,
1. hired him
2. let him bring in a washed
up crony who Wake Forrest
was trying to get rid of.
3. I've heard that hastened
the departure of the then
Chancellor. I'm doubtful of
that.
You mean Vanderbilt?
Vandy was trying to do the same thing with Stallings as Pitt was trying to do with Jamie Dixon.
Stallings was Dixon. Dixon was Stallings.
Stallings SEC - Overall. 332-220. Conference. 138-142
Dixon. ACC. - Overall. 66-37. Conference. 28-26
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Good comparisons, but I
always felt that Dixon's
Big East conference record
was more reflective of his
coaching ability.
I remember his comments
about the change to the
ACC. He wanted to stay in
the BE. I felt he never was
able to recruit the type of
players that were ACC types,
as opposed to the rough and
tumble play in the BE. His
teams were great in that
league. His move to TCU
has not been anywhere
near the success he had at
Pitt.
I don’t think that’s so far fetched . Since KS left Vanderbilt they’ve absolutely stunk . They like Pitt thought they could do better than what they had .
You managed to forget Dixon's Big East record.
His totals at Pitt: 332-123 overall, 143-81 conference. Much better than Stallings any way you want to look at it.
There is 1 way where Heather isnt fired if she messes up the next hire: if Narduzzi elevates Pitt football from a 6-6/7-5 every year program to a 9/10 win most years program. At that point, football would be so good, no one would want to risk Duzz leaving
There is basically one problem program in the athletic department right now. And sure, it's the second most important one. But how many problem programs were there when Lyke took over? Four? Five? More?
If people don't think that the football team more than likely winning a division championship isn't buying her a lot of good will with her bosses then they aren't paying attention. While people like SMF and others on this board don't think so, if anyone doesn't think that men's soccer and volleyball and wrestling and baseball are buying her a lot of good will with her bosses then they are clueless.
Even the people who are saying that her seat is warm or hot are talking about what will happen if/when Capel gets fired and the replacement that she hires also fails at the job. We all realize that that isn't going to be determined for like four or five years, don't we? So yeah, if you want to say that she's in a position right now that four or five years from now her job could be in trouble, then yeah, sure, absolutely. Of course that also means that she most certainly is not on a hot seat, or even really a warm one, right now.
Soccer and volleyball weren't her hires. She has kept them happy but the reality is nobody cares. They are non-revenue sports with tiny fanbases.
Pickett has bought Heather some goodwill but it depends what Narduzzi does from here on. In this very realistic scenario, she'd be gone:
22-23: Football 6-6, new bball coach (2-18 ACC)
23-24: Football 7-5, Basketball 4-16
24-25: Football 7-5, Basketball 5-15
25-26: Football 6-6, Basketball 5-15
I agree with all of that but this is clearly a program in real trouble with no progress on the horizon.
Plenty of coaches who go four years and never really come close to finishing any better than 12th in a 15 team conference. There are plenty of reasons to believe that he will be back next year.
But it’s hard for me to believe that Lyke isn’t wooried this could be a 2-3 ACC season. And if so, how she will handle the pressure there will be to make a change.
So by your standard, that sounds like a 2 to me.
Still, first things first. I’m sure she’s not going to start to give this any serious thought for a couple months as we see how the season truly unfolds.
Well first of all, it doesn't matter if she hired the men's soccer or the volleyball coaches. The fact is that those teams are achieving what they are under her watch, and her bosses will and are most certainly giving her credit for it. And as I said, the reality is that YOU don't care, but for her the far more important thing is that her BOSSES do care.
Secondly, once again you have made my point for me. You've mapped out a scenario that you think is plausible that will have her getting fired in FOUR AND A HALF YEARS from now. If that's really what you think could happen or is likely to happen (and I don't disagree that something like that could happen) then what you are saying is that she is most certainly NOT on the hot seat or even warm seat right now.
Every AD in America, literally every single one, could be fired FOUR AND A HALF YEARS from now. Are they all on the hot seat?
Never mind Joe. I didn’t read. I thought the hot seat scale was for Capel.
I agree — Lyke is at 0 or 1 at worst.
No they cant. She messed up 1 hire. Shs gets to make 1 more. Another scenario is that in Year 2, the new coach goes 1-19 and has 2 players arrested. They'd both probably be fired then.
I'm not arguing that there isn't a problem (and I think you see that). I'm simply saying that at this time she is in no danger of being fired.
Are there hard choices coming? There absolutely are. Is it possible that she completely screws the situation up? Yeah, sure, she's certainly not perfect. But the consequences to her job status, as even SMF points out, aren't going to happen right now or four or five months from now or a year from now. They are going to happen four or five YEARS from now. Someone who has four or five year's worth of "rope" isn't in trouble now.
I don't see how. The combination of a 1-3 win ACC season + no recruits any higher than A10 level + more mass transfers can't be overcome.
Recruiting could have saved him. Mintz was good but he wasn't getting anyone else and he wasn't enough.
Oh, yeah, if we are talking about Capel then sure, he's a lot higher than a 1. I'd peg it at even higher than your 2. If things don't change it is going to happen, it's just a matter of timing. And I don't know how he is going to effect enough change to stop it from happening.
The last sentence is what I don’t see either.
How does he right the ship enough to stay?
Ironically enough the two recruits that could help are Gallagher and Barnes.
I know Mintz is still considering us but can we / will we win enough to reel him back in? Recommits seldom happen - I am hoping for our programs sake it does but hope isn’t a strategy that works often.
I see us struggling to win all of the cupcake games on our OOC. Then once we hit ACC play it could get ugly not Stallings level ugly from a margin perspective but certainly from a W/L perspective. We have struggled in ACC play when we had more talent on our roster under Capel.
I think when I looked on ESPN yesterday we are favored in 5 ACC games right now and that includes Virginia at Home. By the end of the OOC I wonder how many we will be predicted to win? I can’t see us winning more than 2 and honestly am struggling to see where those 2 would come from.
Even if Burton comes back he isn’t really a shooter and even if Horton comes back he isn’t an elite shooter and as much as he adds on offense he usually gives up on the defensive end. Then on the flip side if something happens to Femi or John we are in trouble.
Good ideas pro and con on
Lyke and her future at Pitt.
Right now and in the near
future she leaves IMO if
she decides to leave on her
own accord. I don't feel
she's anywhere near a hot
seat except for some posters
on this board, and some
other scattered Pitt fans.
The REAL decision makers
reside in the Pitt administration,
the Chancellor, and the Board
of Directors.
The real decision makers know
damn well how past Pitt leaders
totally f...ked up the AD job here.
Need I remind everyone of
Barnes, Pederson, and Jaynes.
Where the entire athletic program
is now, compared to where it was
under those incompetents is
night and day. My feeling is
those very leaders are damn
happy with the overall state of
the athletic program and the
poor status of one program
isn't going to change their minds
about Heather Lyke.
Lyke and her future at Pitt.
Right now and in the near
future she leaves IMO if
she decides to leave on her
own accord. I don't feel
she's anywhere near a hot
seat except for some posters
on this board, and some
other scattered Pitt fans.
The REAL decision makers
reside in the Pitt administration,
the Chancellor, and the Board
of Directors.
The real decision makers know
damn well how past Pitt leaders
totally f...ked up the AD job here.
Need I remind everyone of
Barnes, Pederson, and Jaynes.
Where the entire athletic program
is now, compared to where it was
under those incompetents is
night and day. My feeling is
those very leaders are damn
happy with the overall state of
the athletic program and the
poor status of one program
isn't going to change their minds
about Heather Lyke.
Duzz will be approaching 60 at that point and doubt there’d be any attraction - in either direction?
You use a strange version of math to get from 1 to 4. Last time I checked she’s only hired one basketball coach. The next one will be her second.
The 2 year extension doesn’t count as one of her “tries to get it right.” It’s college athletic industry standard to do that anymore.
