From the desk of Jim Snyder
Jamie Dixon and the Pitt basketball program
We had reported in the War Room that last year after West Virginia went to the Great Eight Coach John Beilein was rewarded with a long-term contract at something approaching seven figures and that it contained a stiff buyout clause to discourage others from stealing him away from the Mountaineers. We indicated that sources close to the Pitt situation said that Jeff Long would make a similar offer to Coach Dixon. We also wrote that if we were in Coach Dixon’s shoes the Arizona State job and the Missouri job were not as attractive as the Pitt job and that we would take the Pitt offer. At the end of the day it worked out as logic said it should have although it was a bit of a bumpy ride.
Rumors were flying all over the pace from out of Arizona and Missouri. Just how much Coach Dixon’s agent fanned the flames we may never know but if he was doing his job I am sure he had a hand in it somewhere. Some of these rumors suggested that Arizona State and Missouri might be willing to offer more money than Pitt was offering but we are not sure how CBS Sportsline was able to report it was down to Arizona State and Missouri. We even more mystified how Fox was able to report Coach Dixon had actually signed a contract with Arizona State. That one really had some reporters shaking their heads.
As late as last Saturday morning a Missouri reporter called the Pantherlair convinced that Missouri was making a big run at Coach Dixon. This was after it became very apparent that Pitt would announce that a deal had been reached on an extension later that day. We won’t even go into the rumors about the babysitter who told a friend that told an alum ect., ect., ect. There rumors flying all over the place, which creates some confusion.
Over the years Pitt has had several good basketball teams but overall its basketball history is about as thin as a dime. It has never truly threatened to build a good program until the last five years. The Fitzgerald Field House was obsolete the day it was built. It was a great place to watch a game but it was a lousy facility for recruiting and for building a winning basketball program. Pitt was able to recruit a number of good players but seldom followed it up with another good class. Too often the Pitt coach looked down his bench to find few legitimate Big East caliber players sitting between him at the student manager and on occasion they were forced to dress a student manager.
Pitt has now put five solid years together and figures to do the same again next year. It is slowly building a program that should be sustainable.
In fact Jeff Long has now put in place coaches in both football and basketball that give Pitt a chance to build winning program in both sports. Not just an occasional winning team. Most successful programs have some degree of stability.
It is often difficult to tell just how much a coach is making. My eyes glaze over at articles that compare the salaries of coaches. Unless you have a battery of lawyers and accountants looking at these documents side by side you are often looking at apples and oranges.
Most contracts have a base salary plus incentives. Sometimes the incentives can be easy to reach and sometimes they can be difficult. It would not be bad to have a bonus clause for making the Big East Tournament. It is a lot more difficult if you have to win it to collect. Veteran coaches often have incentives that are easy to collect on while younger coaches often have to hit tougher goals.
In addition to the compensation from the school a coach will often have a lucrative shoe contract, a radio and television contract and monies received from running summer camps. He could end up with 4 or 5 W-2’s. It is what makes comparisons between schools very difficult. I guess the good news is that most agents know so it allows the parties to eventually get to an agreement.
Barry Rohrssen has been mentioned as being a candidate for the Seton Hall job. Over the years he has been credited for helping Pitt open doors in New York and I am sure he has. On the other hand from where I sit Jamie Dixon is a hands on guy when it comes to recruiting. It is a trait he shares with Dave Wannstedt.
Both Coach Wannstedt and Coach Dixon may delegate the scouting of an opponent and the drawing up of game plans but they are both control freaks when it comes to recruiting. They are both hands on guys when it comes to recruiting.
The recent stories about J.O. Stright and the Pittsburgh J.O.T.S. makes you think you are trapped watching the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray. You have seen this movie before. These tensions predate the Howland/Dixon era. Sometimes the conflict arises when the AAU coach wants you to take one of his players and the college coach disagrees believing he can get a better player elsewhere. Legend has it that J.O. Stright once tried to package his son with Danny Fortson. There is also a rumor out there that Yough’s Ben McCauley may have been headed for Pitt when the staff decided they wanted Tyrell Biggs instead. Conflict can occur anytime an AAU coach wants a college to take his player and the college staff disagrees and think they can get a better player elsewhere. This also happens with high school coaches. This happened in football with Walt Harris and a number of football coaches in Western Pa. and it will over time happen with Dave Wannstedt. The relationship between the shoe companies, the AAU coaches and some of the players is one the problem areas the NCAA has never found a solution. Players that have an unstable home life are most vulnerable to the influence of the AAU coach. The monies provided by the shoe companies come into play here.
Yesterday we did a story yesterday on Jessie Bosnik from Elk County Catholic. As far as I can tell in talking to the player and the high school coach Pitt is not yet recruiting him. On the other hand he will be playing for the Pittsburgh J.O.T.S. this summer as he did last summer so you can be sure the Pitt coaches are aware of him and will see a lot of him this summer. The player and his high school coach both feel he is a No. 2 guard and with Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook and Gilbert Brown around I am not sure this would be a position of high priority at Pitt. A back up point guard and a few big people would seem to be a higher priority in the Class of 2007.
Tyler Smith has completed his studies at Hargrave Military Academy and is at his home in Pulaski, Tennessee. We have tried calling many, many times. On the few occasions I have gotten through his father has told me the high school has an open gym right now and he is down there shooting hoops. His father did confirm the Pitt coaches have been down to visit him in the last week. He was not willing to comment on whether he was going to visit Memphis. I guess the easy thing for him to say would have been yes but I am not sure when. Obviously it would be a huge pick up to get Tyler. It might be the last piece needed to build a sustainable program.
A couple of decades ago Pitt lost John Majors and Jackie Sherrill when they were winning in football. Recently they lost Ben Howland to UCLA and Steve Pederson to Nebraska. Had they lost Coach Dixon to Arizona State they might have been well on their way to being branded as a stepping stone program and not a destination program. Jeff Long appears to stabilized the football program with the hiring of Dave Wannstedt and the basketball program with the contract extension of Jamie Dixon. Hopefully the net result will be a lot of wins in both programs going forward.
Spring Football and the Big East
David Fox of Rivals.com recently gave his thoughts on the Big East Conference as they headed into spring camps. His prediction of how they might finish looked like this.
1) West Virginia
2) Louisville
3) Pitt
4) Rutgers
5) South Florida
6) Connecticut
7) Cincinnati
8) Syracuse
Part of his logic was that after a disastrous 1-4 start last fall Pitt finished the year winning 4 of their last 6 games. In addition Dave Wannstedt has had better recruiting classes the last two years. Pitt will be very young. True freshman and redshirt freshman figure to heavily populate the two-deep chart. Pitt will be thin at some positions like fullback and offensive tackle. I guess you can say this about most teams but they need to stay healthy. Yesterday Chris Vangas suffered knee injury. If it is serious they become very thin at center. Hopefully the Pitt staff will get a favorable medical report.
West Virginia will be a consensus pick to win the Big East but West Virginia must travel to Louisville. The Mountaineers were lucky to beat the Cardinals in Morgantown. West Virginia is not a lock to win the Big East. It could be a mad scramble for the other two bowl berths between Pitt, Rutgers, South Florida and UConn.
During the football season we publish the official depth chart released by the University of Pittsburgh. We have an unofficial depth chart up now. It does not include the incoming freshmen but it might help you with where the newcomers have the best chance of breaking through.
There will be 12 Nike Camps around the country this year. They generally start down south and out west and move later to the Northeast as the weather improves. The first camp will be in Miami on Sunday April 9th. We have indicated in an earlier War Room that Pitt will scale back their recruiting in Florida this year. Charlie Partridge, however, will continue to recruit South Florida so the Nike Camp in Miami should have prospects that Pitt will be recruiting.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
Jamie Dixon and the Pitt basketball program
We had reported in the War Room that last year after West Virginia went to the Great Eight Coach John Beilein was rewarded with a long-term contract at something approaching seven figures and that it contained a stiff buyout clause to discourage others from stealing him away from the Mountaineers. We indicated that sources close to the Pitt situation said that Jeff Long would make a similar offer to Coach Dixon. We also wrote that if we were in Coach Dixon’s shoes the Arizona State job and the Missouri job were not as attractive as the Pitt job and that we would take the Pitt offer. At the end of the day it worked out as logic said it should have although it was a bit of a bumpy ride.
Rumors were flying all over the pace from out of Arizona and Missouri. Just how much Coach Dixon’s agent fanned the flames we may never know but if he was doing his job I am sure he had a hand in it somewhere. Some of these rumors suggested that Arizona State and Missouri might be willing to offer more money than Pitt was offering but we are not sure how CBS Sportsline was able to report it was down to Arizona State and Missouri. We even more mystified how Fox was able to report Coach Dixon had actually signed a contract with Arizona State. That one really had some reporters shaking their heads.
As late as last Saturday morning a Missouri reporter called the Pantherlair convinced that Missouri was making a big run at Coach Dixon. This was after it became very apparent that Pitt would announce that a deal had been reached on an extension later that day. We won’t even go into the rumors about the babysitter who told a friend that told an alum ect., ect., ect. There rumors flying all over the place, which creates some confusion.
Over the years Pitt has had several good basketball teams but overall its basketball history is about as thin as a dime. It has never truly threatened to build a good program until the last five years. The Fitzgerald Field House was obsolete the day it was built. It was a great place to watch a game but it was a lousy facility for recruiting and for building a winning basketball program. Pitt was able to recruit a number of good players but seldom followed it up with another good class. Too often the Pitt coach looked down his bench to find few legitimate Big East caliber players sitting between him at the student manager and on occasion they were forced to dress a student manager.
Pitt has now put five solid years together and figures to do the same again next year. It is slowly building a program that should be sustainable.
In fact Jeff Long has now put in place coaches in both football and basketball that give Pitt a chance to build winning program in both sports. Not just an occasional winning team. Most successful programs have some degree of stability.
It is often difficult to tell just how much a coach is making. My eyes glaze over at articles that compare the salaries of coaches. Unless you have a battery of lawyers and accountants looking at these documents side by side you are often looking at apples and oranges.
Most contracts have a base salary plus incentives. Sometimes the incentives can be easy to reach and sometimes they can be difficult. It would not be bad to have a bonus clause for making the Big East Tournament. It is a lot more difficult if you have to win it to collect. Veteran coaches often have incentives that are easy to collect on while younger coaches often have to hit tougher goals.
In addition to the compensation from the school a coach will often have a lucrative shoe contract, a radio and television contract and monies received from running summer camps. He could end up with 4 or 5 W-2’s. It is what makes comparisons between schools very difficult. I guess the good news is that most agents know so it allows the parties to eventually get to an agreement.
Barry Rohrssen has been mentioned as being a candidate for the Seton Hall job. Over the years he has been credited for helping Pitt open doors in New York and I am sure he has. On the other hand from where I sit Jamie Dixon is a hands on guy when it comes to recruiting. It is a trait he shares with Dave Wannstedt.
Both Coach Wannstedt and Coach Dixon may delegate the scouting of an opponent and the drawing up of game plans but they are both control freaks when it comes to recruiting. They are both hands on guys when it comes to recruiting.
The recent stories about J.O. Stright and the Pittsburgh J.O.T.S. makes you think you are trapped watching the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray. You have seen this movie before. These tensions predate the Howland/Dixon era. Sometimes the conflict arises when the AAU coach wants you to take one of his players and the college coach disagrees believing he can get a better player elsewhere. Legend has it that J.O. Stright once tried to package his son with Danny Fortson. There is also a rumor out there that Yough’s Ben McCauley may have been headed for Pitt when the staff decided they wanted Tyrell Biggs instead. Conflict can occur anytime an AAU coach wants a college to take his player and the college staff disagrees and think they can get a better player elsewhere. This also happens with high school coaches. This happened in football with Walt Harris and a number of football coaches in Western Pa. and it will over time happen with Dave Wannstedt. The relationship between the shoe companies, the AAU coaches and some of the players is one the problem areas the NCAA has never found a solution. Players that have an unstable home life are most vulnerable to the influence of the AAU coach. The monies provided by the shoe companies come into play here.
Yesterday we did a story yesterday on Jessie Bosnik from Elk County Catholic. As far as I can tell in talking to the player and the high school coach Pitt is not yet recruiting him. On the other hand he will be playing for the Pittsburgh J.O.T.S. this summer as he did last summer so you can be sure the Pitt coaches are aware of him and will see a lot of him this summer. The player and his high school coach both feel he is a No. 2 guard and with Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook and Gilbert Brown around I am not sure this would be a position of high priority at Pitt. A back up point guard and a few big people would seem to be a higher priority in the Class of 2007.
Tyler Smith has completed his studies at Hargrave Military Academy and is at his home in Pulaski, Tennessee. We have tried calling many, many times. On the few occasions I have gotten through his father has told me the high school has an open gym right now and he is down there shooting hoops. His father did confirm the Pitt coaches have been down to visit him in the last week. He was not willing to comment on whether he was going to visit Memphis. I guess the easy thing for him to say would have been yes but I am not sure when. Obviously it would be a huge pick up to get Tyler. It might be the last piece needed to build a sustainable program.
A couple of decades ago Pitt lost John Majors and Jackie Sherrill when they were winning in football. Recently they lost Ben Howland to UCLA and Steve Pederson to Nebraska. Had they lost Coach Dixon to Arizona State they might have been well on their way to being branded as a stepping stone program and not a destination program. Jeff Long appears to stabilized the football program with the hiring of Dave Wannstedt and the basketball program with the contract extension of Jamie Dixon. Hopefully the net result will be a lot of wins in both programs going forward.
Spring Football and the Big East
David Fox of Rivals.com recently gave his thoughts on the Big East Conference as they headed into spring camps. His prediction of how they might finish looked like this.
1) West Virginia
2) Louisville
3) Pitt
4) Rutgers
5) South Florida
6) Connecticut
7) Cincinnati
8) Syracuse
Part of his logic was that after a disastrous 1-4 start last fall Pitt finished the year winning 4 of their last 6 games. In addition Dave Wannstedt has had better recruiting classes the last two years. Pitt will be very young. True freshman and redshirt freshman figure to heavily populate the two-deep chart. Pitt will be thin at some positions like fullback and offensive tackle. I guess you can say this about most teams but they need to stay healthy. Yesterday Chris Vangas suffered knee injury. If it is serious they become very thin at center. Hopefully the Pitt staff will get a favorable medical report.
West Virginia will be a consensus pick to win the Big East but West Virginia must travel to Louisville. The Mountaineers were lucky to beat the Cardinals in Morgantown. West Virginia is not a lock to win the Big East. It could be a mad scramble for the other two bowl berths between Pitt, Rutgers, South Florida and UConn.
During the football season we publish the official depth chart released by the University of Pittsburgh. We have an unofficial depth chart up now. It does not include the incoming freshmen but it might help you with where the newcomers have the best chance of breaking through.
There will be 12 Nike Camps around the country this year. They generally start down south and out west and move later to the Northeast as the weather improves. The first camp will be in Miami on Sunday April 9th. We have indicated in an earlier War Room that Pitt will scale back their recruiting in Florida this year. Charlie Partridge, however, will continue to recruit South Florida so the Nike Camp in Miami should have prospects that Pitt will be recruiting.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
