I remember 2 win seasons with over 20 losses (including a loss to Carnegie Mellon) at Fitzgerald and a few hundred fans at a game when someone threw a fish on the court during a timeout. I don't want to go there again. Unfortunately, if Dixon leaves that might be as, or more, likely than getting better results than we have been having lately.
Updated Post-Gazette Dixon article by Zeise
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I remember 2 win seasons with over 20 losses (including a loss to Carnegie Mellon) at Fitzgerald and a few hundred fans at a game when someone threw a fish on the court during a timeout. I don't want to go there again. Unfortunately, if Dixon leaves that might be as, or more, likely than getting better results than we have been having lately.
Look at this play and the crowd here - this is what I want Pitt basketball to come back too!!!
Agree 100%. I've been through those dark days and now I've experienced what a good basketball program is like at Pitt. I'll take what we have and know now to what we had before. Yes, I want us to improve and Dixon wants to improve. But as you said so well, I prefer the devil we know to the devil we don't know. There are no guarantees with coaching.
I also think that Dixon is smart enough to know that he is talking about his future and how he will succeed for the next 15 years or so. Will he do better at a TCU or do his chances of long term success increase if he stays at Pitt? That is his decision to make, but I think he is smart enough to know that his chances of success are greater here than at TCU. I'd be surprised if he made the switch. But stranger things have happened.
Exaggerating a good bit. But, B.C.-like results are potentially on the horizon--almost guaranteed, IMHO. Just wait a year and see.
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He should take the money and invest it if things fall apart at TCU. Even if he only stays 5 years he should have more than enough saved up to live comfortably the rest of his life.
He may even get the chance to coach better "talent" at TCU, if they are throwing money around like crazy I assume they wouldn't really give a damn about going the straight and narrow path with regards to recruiting.
I wouldn't say guaranteed, but I think that has a better likely good of happening than getting to be a top 15 program.
If I had to put odds in it, I would say 10% chance a new guy gets us there. 60% we stay in the same range as of now. 30% chance we tank.
Dixon I put the chances of tanking at about 10% and him improving back to top 20 at about 20.
Agree love to get back to that type of intensity. A play last Friday in the second half epitomizes this bunch of Pitt players: Wisky player beats his man to the baseline going hard to the hole while Artis stands nearby and videos the resulting dunk for Wisky's 2015-6 highlight reel. Chevy, Dejuan or Naz would have driven that guy into the stands and made him earn two at the charity stripe. Pretty hard to watch 2x hardcore City kids like Jamel and Mike play like suburban Euro's. Just a roster full of pacifists and finesse players and who's responsible for that? Simple the guy courting yet another University after another hard to watch flameout in the Tourney. H2P
Actually the fish was thrown out in 1974, our most memorable basketball year in a long long time at that point.
NCAA team, Billy Knight, NCState/David Thompson year.
I'd go there again.........
My memory for details of the early Buzz Ridl era is obviously a bit hazy--or fishy.
Buzz coached the Billy Knight team that won over 20 games in a row. Best Pitt player I ever saw Billy Knight!
My grandfather used to swear by Don Hennon but I'll go with Charlie Smith. Just an absolute stud and if he doesn't injure his knee so severely probably an all-time great in the NBA too. Damn was he good.
Trust me I saw both Smith and Knight . Smoothest player you ever saw , played when there was no 3 pt shot and freshman weren't eligible to play , never played with the kind of talent Pitt had during the Smith ,Lane , Gore yrs. NBA ALL PRO . Just a great player.
You can't compare Pitt basketball now and 30 years ago and correlate that too what is expected out of Dixon. How the university supported back then and compared to now is night and day. He is the highest paid employee at Pitt.. A brand new basketball arena was built, and it needs filled up for every game. Dixon is more than compensated enough...he is the CEO of the program. If there is a decline in finances...then he is on the hook. He accepted the pay raises and the responsibility that went with it.
That is a fair point. Pitt basketball now is very different than Pitt basketball 30 years ago. The university is much more committed to the sport than it ever was before – as is best exemplified by the facility in which the team plays it's home games.
However, the last time Pitt basketball was really, really bad wasn't 30 years ago, it was the late 90's – before Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon arrived. In fact, before those two guys set foot in Pittsburgh, we were almost always bad. We had a nice run in 1974 and an even better run in the late 80s, but other than that we were generally somewhere between mediocre and a flat out laughing stock.
That's my whole point.
Nobody thinks that they're going to go backwards during a coaching transition but the statistics show that most teams do indeed regress. Some eventually rebound and others do not. Where would Pitt fall on that spectrum? Who knows? It would definitely be a big time roll of the dice.
Also, if you take an honest look at Pitt's overall history, what do you think the odds are that we're going to make out in this transition? Using history as my guide I would put those odds as being decidedly low.
Look, I'm sure when Boston College was replacing Al Skinner, they never imagined it would become this bad in the Heights.
Similarly, I'm sure when Illinois decided to replace Bruce Webber, after he replaced the wildly successful Bill Self, they too never imagined that their program would fall as far as it has. I mean Chicago is right up the road and St. Louis right down the road. How could they possibly falter?
Do you think Georgia Tech thought it's program would fall off a cliff when Bobby Cremmins left? That school is located in downtown Atlanta for Pete's sake!
As I said earlier, I don't want to make Jamie Dixon out to be the next Mike Krzyzewski because he still does some things that infuriate me and he has definitely left some big-time wins on the table. Also, I am worried that his recruiting has stagnated.
We were dependent on New York City and Philadelphia area kids for much of our success and we simply don't play in that area anymore. We don't play Seton Hall or Rutgers or St. John's or even UConn anymore and I think that is killing our recruiting. NYC kids grow up dreaming of playing on a Saturday night in March are they sold out Madison Square Garden. It's not the same to try to sell them on the same dream in the Greensboro Coliseum versus Wake Forest.
However, isn't it nice to be in a position where a middle of the conference finish has everyone so upset?
I can tell you that I have followed Pitt hoops for a very long time now and there are not too many periods in the program's history in which a middle-of-the-road finish would constitute calls for the coach's head.
There have been times in Pitt's history – many times in fact – where a middle-of-the-road finish would be met with talk of a long-term extension.
That is not to say that we should keep him forever because it's the safe thing to do. That too would be a big-time mistake. However, we know that this man can go build a program in an extremely strong program in a big time league. We have seen him do just that. Also, unlike any other coach in Pitt's largely undistinguished history, he was able to really sustain that success over a period of several years. Do we know that his yet to be named replacement can build a program at this level? Barring a major surprise, I would say no.
A change may still be for the better for all concerned but it is hardly a slam dunk.
Actually, our football DNA is much closer to Rutgers than our BB DNA. Compare football and basketball since 1986, it ain't close which has been far more superior.
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