What has gone wrong?

[DC_Area_Panther]

My theory is simple: ACC, ACC, ACC.

In the BE we were playing teams from our traditional geography and recruiting area. Kids from that area were attracted to Pitt to play against other teams from the region.

In the ACC we are playing league opponents that are out of our traditional region and are not very attractive to the kids we have typically recruited. Most of the best New York and Philly kids are now off the table. Only the Baltimore - DC area remains in play.

The ACC may prove very good for football and athletic revenues abut I think we are destined to be middle of the pack in hoops in the ACC because i don't believe we are an attractive recruiting destination for kids from the Northeast any longer while we remain a low interest team for the better kids from most of the ACC footprint.

Syracuse is in a similar position. There is a reason Boeheim and Dixon were opposed to joining the ACC. They saw the recruiting handwriting on the wall.

The only solution IMHO, if it is even possible, would be to load up the OOC schedule with quality former BE teams (Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's UConn, etc.) and play an overall killer schedule every year.

 

[76Stingray]

We had a perfect opportunity to add a guy familiar with the ACC territory when Slice left. So what did Dixon do? Hired a guy from Detroit. Brillliant! This was an opportunity to reset the brand. Embrace the change, tell kids they are now going to play Duke and UNC every year, sell the new exposure. This could have been huge. Not using this change as a springboard was Dixon's second biggest failure, the first being his failure to capitalize on an Elite Eight appearance with two players going to the NBA.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

I really don't think so since the conference formerly known as the Big East is no longer in that form, and teams like Syracuse and Louisville are in the ACC. I don't think the ACC has or should have changed anything. We have seen a team take Pitt's blueprint and win the ACC (UVa). So it is also not a style thing. We saw what, 5 ACC teams amongst the Sweet 16, again that is what the Big East used to be.

You would think kids WANT to play in the ACC, the highest profiled conference. Just like they did in the Big East.

I just think this is a bad recruiting staff and Jamie has completely lost his mojo either in recruiting or identifying the type of player he wants.

 

[thebadby2]

Not only did he hire a guy with Detroit connections.....

He also hired a guy who won't be able to deliver any of the better prospects in Detroit or Michigan.

As you said, Brilliant.

 

[CCHS-74]

Excuses. Didn't bother Louisville, did it?

 

[evahflow]

ACC has very little to nothing to do with whats gone wrong. Dixon has missed on a lot of guys recently. It happens but usually not this many. We don't have the horses to run the race no matter what style ball he wants to play. He hasn't adjusted and found a way to right whats wrong. 1. We need a top tier staff. 2. We need a top tier staff and I bet you can guess what 3 would be. St Johns went out and hired slice and a big time recruiter from iowa st. You mean to tell me Pitt cant grab a guy who is killing recruiting at another school? Im sure we could if Dixon wanted to. If smoke doesn't have any real in's with the next 2 classes then he needs to go. So does Barton. You hire two proven guys who will land you the guys you need and you try to rebuild. This kind of thing can get righted with 2 classes or it can crash and burn and probably not get fixed.

 

[Jeffburgh]

Where this team is at now started BEFORE the ACC

Young and Artis, the two best players in the program were recruited after the ACC invite.

They HAD Heron, when they had Slice. They had the SG from Florida/Pittsburgh.

What should have been the core of this team was recruited before the ACC invite - the Birch, DJ class recruited before the ACC invite.

The ACC is not the problem, the problem is a bit of a run of bad luck, but primarily JD not having enough around him on the bench.

 

[pelfrey]

Evahflow is spot on. This is 90 percent about getting better recruits, and better recruiters will do just that. Jamie needs to move on this YESTERDAY!

 

[Protes]

A: Everything has gone wrong

DC--you've echoed my sentiments here as I do think we actually have less to sell being in the ACC than the Big East; for the reasons you mentioned and others. I was worried that the move could have the same results for us as it did for BC. BC's basketball--and football programs--have been hurt by the switch to the ACC. I don't know how anyone can argue otherwise.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Re: A: Everything has gone wrong

Protes,

I agree except that I don't think the ACC will hurt in football. I could see us reverting to only slightly better in hoops than BC, however.

 

[zoomer]

Re: Problem is MONEY


Dixon, can't go out and hire Top assistants unless the Administration gives him the funds to pay for top coaches and to increase the recruiting budget. But seems to me Pitt is more interested in keeping the money they are making every year from the ACC than spending some of it to be a top program. Hell why spend when they can be average and make big bucks without spending. If Dixon is smart , he will leave this program sooner than later. And Pitt will have it's self to b.
lame.

 

[Harve74]

Re: Problem is MONEY

People really should pay attention when Cazy Paco keeps posting we are still subsidizing the Athletic Department by over $7 MILLION yearly. We are not making big money. We are LOSING money.

Our fans love to b*tch but they basically don't donate enough to carry the load. The posts about people invested in Pitt sports were unintentionally hilarious. Most aren't even good customers. We've got guys who brag sbout how they game the system to avoid buying season tickets, yet they are constantly complaining about how the program is run.

 

[73CAV]

Originally posted by DC_Area_Panther:
My theory is simple: ACC, ACC, ACC.

In the BE we were playing teams from our traditional geography and recruiting area. Kids from that area were attracted to Pitt to play against other teams from the region.

In the ACC we are playing league opponents that are out of our traditional region and are not very attractive to the kids we have typically recruited. Most of the best New York and Philly kids are now off the table. Only the Baltimore - DC area remains in play.

The ACC may prove very good for football and athletic revenues abut I think we are destined to be middle of the pack in hoops in the ACC because i don't believe we are an attractive recruiting destination for kids from the Northeast any longer while we remain a low interest team for the better kids from most of the ACC footprint.

Syracuse is in a similar position. There is a reason Boeheim and Dixon were opposed to joining the ACC. They saw the recruiting handwriting on the wall.

The only solution IMHO, if it is even possible, would be to load up the OOC schedule with quality former BE teams (Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's UConn, etc.) and play an overall killer schedule every year.

The ACC schools have recruited New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania quite successfully since I began to follow it (some forty plus years ago). I don't think you can say that the kids in these areas are unfamiliar with the ACC or are not attracted to it. On the other hand, I think you can make an argument that the quality of prep basketball in New York City has been in decline in recent years. I'm not sure about Philadelphia. How much of an impact this has on Pitt, I don't know. An argument can also be made that Atlanta is beginning to emerge as a very rich source for scholastic basketball talent. Again, I'm not sure how this effects Pitt. Regardless, the rosters of the upper echelon of the ACC are full of kids from the mid-Atlantic states, and this has been so for decades.