Wow, Oats blasted Arizona hard in the postgame interview and man he is cocky

[steel_curtain]

-I cant get the link to upload, its on twitter

-Said he thought they were slow. Arizona was slow with no depth and their guards were better. And said they fully expected to beat Arizona and Kentucky to get to the 2nd weekend. And then he said the more he looked at them the more beatable they were since they arent deep and only had 1 ballhandler and this team had real guards.

-That was one of the fiercest postgame interviews slamming an opponent in a while. You think Crean is cocky? No Arizona was a quality opponent, nothing. Straight ripped them and expected to rip them on the court. And did

 

[steel_curtain]

-This guy has it. You can tell why he can recruit. This is the complete opposite of Dixon and Stallings, young hungry coach with elite confidence. Look up the word swagger in the dictionary and this guys picture shows up. Cant believe that postgame.

-Perfect hire to rebuild. This guy would bring talent here, immediately.

 

[imajericho]

I miss the old days when coach's didn't have to be PC all day and rivalries were heated. I welcome that post game interview. Too bad Kentucky will blast them now due to it.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

I miss the old days when coach's didn't have to be PC all day and rivalries were heated. I welcome that post game interview. Too bad Kentucky will blast them now due to it.

Could very well happen. But don't count on it. Buffalo can play defense and will give UK fits. If UK wins, and that is a BIG IF, it won't be because they blasted UB, and that's because of that defense.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

He is right. As great as Deandre Ayton is, college hoops is a guard oriented game, and Arizona's guards were slower and not as good as UB's.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

He is right. As great as Deandre Ayton is, college hoops is a guard oriented game, and Arizona's guards were slower and not as good as UB's.

Since he has recruited well to Buffalo--one would think he should be able to recruit at least as well--and possibly even better--to Pitt. Overall appears potentially like an excellent "fit" for Pitt.

 

[thebadby2]

Oats is off to an impressive start, but he's way too risky of a hire for Pitt right now. This is a guy who really needs to prove himself at a "bridge" job before anyone hands him a full rebuild job at the ACC level. Before inheriting a strong Buffalo program coming off a NCAA tournament appearance from Bobby Hurley, he spent 13 years or so coaching at Romulus high outside of Detroit. As for his recruiting, literally half of his roster is composed of JUCOs along with one transfer, Wes Clark from Mizzou, who played for Oats at Romulus high. Again, with a bridge job, he will have the opportunity to prove that he can recruit beyond scouring the JUCOs for high major players with academic problems.

I do like the guy, I just think he has more to prove before a major program that's in a desperate spot hires him. I suspect he will get that opportunity very soon.

 

[PerchMan]

Lol. “We could play poorly and still beat the team.”

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

I thought steel_curtain's argument was if you recruit players as talented as Arizona you will automatically win. This is one of the most loaded teams in the country and are again distracted and ineffective when it matters.

 

[rmf05]

Oats is off to an impressive start, but he's way too risky of a hire for Pitt right now. This is a guy who really needs to prove himself at a "bridge" job before anyone hands him a full rebuild job at the ACC level. Before inheriting a strong Buffalo program coming off a NCAA tournament appearance from Bobby Hurley, he spent 13 years or so coaching at Romulus high outside of Detroit. As for his recruiting, literally half of his roster is composed of JUCOs along with one transfer, Wes Clark from Mizzou, who played for Oats at Romulus high. Again, with a bridge job, he will have the opportunity to prove that he can recruit beyond scouring the JUCOs for high major players with academic problems.

I do like the guy, I just think he has more to prove before a major program that's in a desperate spot hires him. I suspect he will get that opportunity very soon.

Great post. There is a lot to his success that indicates "perfect storm". I'd be wary.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Oats is off to an impressive start, but he's way too risky of a hire for Pitt right now. This is a guy who really needs to prove himself at a "bridge" job before anyone hands him a full rebuild job at the ACC level. Before inheriting a strong Buffalo program coming off a NCAA tournament appearance from Bobby Hurley, he spent 13 years or so coaching at Romulus high outside of Detroit. As for his recruiting, literally half of his roster is composed of JUCOs along with one transfer, Wes Clark from Mizzou, who played for Oats at Romulus high. Again, with a bridge job, he will have the opportunity to prove that he can recruit beyond scouring the JUCOs for high major players with academic problems.

I do like the guy, I just think he has more to prove before a major program that's in a desperate spot hires him. I suspect he will get that opportunity very soon.

An immediate influx of quality JUCOs is exactly what Pitt needs so we can be back to around 0.500 in season #1 and at least an NIT team by season #2. A 4-5 year rebuild to NIT level is not acceptable--if it were we would have kept KS because that was the trajectory Stallings was planning for Pitt when he blew up the entire roster. We need a faster turnaround to get fannys back in the seats at the Pete.

Whether Oats is the Pitt answer I do not know. However, I am becoming increasingly skeptical that we will land any sort of "splash" hire who may guarantee more success.

IMHO, we will end up with Oats or someone with similar mid-major success when the hire is ultimately made. Anything more than that, I believe is highly unlikely.

 

[Panther_in_Kentucky]

-This guy has it. You can tell why he can recruit. This is the complete opposite of Dixon and Stallings, young hungry coach with elite confidence. Look up the word swagger in the dictionary and this guys picture shows up. Cant believe that postgame.

-Perfect hire to rebuild. This guy would bring talent here, immediately.

I agree. After watching that game he moves to the top of the list in my book. The Buffalo guards were much faster than Arizona's. The clear mis-match.

 

[PaulEvans!]

View embedded media

Lol. “We could play poorly and still beat the team.”

It’s as if he knows that Miller will be his competition for a potential new gig.

 

[thebadby2]

An immediate influx of quality JUCOs is exactly what Pitt needs so we can be back to around 0.500 in season #1 and at least an NIT team by season #2. A 4-5 year rebuild to NIT level is not acceptable--if it were we would have kept KS because that was the trajectory Stallings was planning for Pitt when he blew up the entire roster. We need a faster turnaround to get fannys back in the seats at the Pete.

Whether Oats is the Pitt answer I do not know. However, I am becoming increasingly skeptical that we will land any sort of "splash" hire who may guarantee more success.

IMHO, we will end up with Oats or someone with similar mid-major success when the hire is ultimately made. Anything more than that, I believe is highly unlikely.

I'm sure the AD and the University will tolerate a couple of JUCO band-aids to help get the rebuild started. I'm also reasonably sure that they won't tolerate a program that is annually constructed of JUCOs, the best of which are typically academic non-qualifiers coming out of HS.

 

[thebadby2]

It’s as if he knows that Miller will be his competition for a potential new gig.

That video clip was from his presser after the Buffalo versus Pitt-Bradford game, not Arizona.

 

[thebadby2]

I agree. After watching that game he moves to the top of the list in my book. The Buffalo guards were much faster than Arizona's. The clear mis-match.

This is the mentality we see every year. A mid-major guy pulls one huge upset in the NCAA tournament and suddenly he's the best coach in the country, why can't we get him?

Use your head. Oats has coached college basketball for 3 years--he's 4 years out of high school coaching--and he took over a program that was already strong. He hasn't proven enough yet.

 

[PaulEvans!]

That video clip was from his presser after the Buffalo versus Pitt-Bradford game, not Arizona.

I noticed. I’m just referring to the discussion in this thread.

 

[pittzap]

This is the mentality we see every year. A mid-major guy pulls one huge upset in the NCAA tournament and suddenly he's the best coach in the country, why can't we get him?

Use your head. Oats has coached college basketball for 3 years--he's 4 years out of high school coaching--and he took over a program that was already strong. He hasn't proven enough yet.

The real basketball people out there have had their eye on this guy for a few years. They have said he's going to be a star and his ascent is just beginning. That was before this season started.

 

[Atch]

-This guy has it. You can tell why he can recruit. This is the complete opposite of Dixon and Stallings, young hungry coach with elite confidence. Look up the word swagger in the dictionary and this guys picture shows up. Cant believe that postgame.

-Perfect hire to rebuild. This guy would bring talent here, immediately.

Hire him now.

 

[JS School]

I'd rather have him than Miller.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I'm sure the AD and the University will tolerate a couple of JUCO band-aids to help get the rebuild started. I'm also reasonably sure that they won't tolerate a program that is annually constructed of JUCOs, the best of which are typically academic non-qualifiers coming out of HS.

No quibble with that--I would not expect teams annually built mostly with JUCOs.

However, for season #1, given the current roster and roster uncertainty, I would be happy to see even as many as 3-4 JUCOs for immediate season #1 help in order to jump start the program to something like 10-11 OOC wins and 3-5 ACC wins in season #1. That could serve as the platform to bridge the gap to a more stable freshman recruit based team for the future. After that start an occasional JUCO or grad transfer to fill gaps that may develop would be fine, as well.

 

[thebadby2]

The real basketball people out there have had their eye on this guy for a few years. They have said he's going to be a star and his ascent is just beginning. That was before this season started.

So they were eyeballing him while he was coaching Romulus high from 2002-2014? Or do you mean just in the 3 years he's been a college coach?

Look, the guy is doing a good job and making a name for himself, but he inherited the best team in the MAC from a very good coach and he has only been there for 3 years. Do you think Pitt would be wise to take a chance on him with those credentials? He may end up being the next Coach K, or he could be in way over his head at the dumpster fire that is the Pitt --program-but I don't think Pitt is in a position to take the chance on someone so unproven.

 

[Harve74]

Arizona's guards weren't as quick as Buffalo's.

But both wings, Trier and Alkins are probable 1st round NBA draft choices. "That ain't chopped liver."

There are basically zero coaches who would have signed the Buffalo guys ahead of the Arizona guys.

Throw in AZ's two 7-footers and Miller just got badly out coached, NOT out-talented.

 

[steel_curtain]

-He's literally still ripping them. He interviewed again and talked to Hurley about Arizona and said he was tired of watching Arizona games because they were so soft as a team

-This is epic. Dam, if they beat Kentucky the flex this guy is going to put on the media and how he rips Kentucky and Calipari is going to be huge. Most anticipated game I want to watch now with all that cocky arrogant talk. Flex away if you back it up