Stallings to Pitt

[uglyduckling]

Poor Pitt fans. Guy's biggest advantage was coaching at that funhouse of an arena and he still could never win his much weaker conference. Grade A crybaby. Then again, the constant underachieving in the tournament under Jamie Dixon can now continue with Kevin Stallings.

[KevinHall]

Vandy will have a hard time hiring as good a coach as Stallings was for them. His biggest downfall was winning in the NCAA's but otherwise he did a good job. They were usually in the SEC mix and that's about all you can ask for at Vandy. I wonder if Stansbury has wished he waited a little longer before accepting the WKU job?

[Matt Dillon]

I'm not sure how many coaches there are that could do much better at Vandy given their high academic standards.

[Wonderstruck]

Biggest news out of Pitt isn't even the Stallings hire. It's that he now gets to coach a player who wanted to transfer from Vandy to Pitt, but Stallings blocked that from happening. So kid goes to another college for a year, then to Pitt, and now Stallings get to coach him again.

Awwwkward.

[boomdaddy]

I'm not sure how many coaches there are that could do much better at Vandy given their high academic standards.

James Franklin turned the Vandy football team into a winner in the blink of an eye and it fizzled out just as fast, when he left. I would venture a guess that his teams weren't filled with Rhodes scholars and computer nerds.

[BobS]

Stupid hire by Pitt. They get a mediocre underachiever from an awful conference and lose Dixon. Stupid.

[Joneslab]

Stupid hire by Pitt. They get a mediocre underachiever from an awful conference and lose Dixon. Stupid.

I'm not sure there's that much of a difference in the two. Both had a penchant for flaming out in the offseason. Both are pretty good X's and O's coaches. It might be good for both to have a change of scenery to shake things up.

[surveyor]

I'm not sure there's that much of a difference in the two.

I think it's a noticeable difference.

Dixon won 20 or more games in 12 of 13 seasons in arguably better basketball conferences than did Stallings. Interestingly, Dixon's lone sub-20 win season was his second year in the ACC.

Stallings has been to the big dance 7 out of 17 seasons. Dixon, 11 out of 13. Dixon's been to the Elite 8 once.

Pittsburgh's entry into the ACC translated to a bigger struggle for Dixon, for sure and his 1st 3 seasons in that league were somewhat foreboding.

IMO, Dixon probably did about the best he could at Pitt considering the competition. Stallings won't touch that, I'm afraid.

[Joneslab]

Well you have to look at what the programs were like when they took over.

Dixon took over for Ben Howland, who handed him a 28-5 team just off the Sweet Sixteen. Jan Van Breda Kolff gave Stallings a sub .500 team.

Stallings was essentially running an intramural program at Vandy. The competition is ramped up at Pitt...but so are the perks. (And also the geography: as far as its location, there might not be a better job in all of a college basketball than Pitt. Incredible basketball talent there with a significant history of being able to plumb New York City.)

Vandy is a tough place to win for a lot of reasons. Stallings really underachieved this season and had a weird propensity for stumbling in the NCAA Tournament, but he put together some very good teams. I still don't think there's a huge difference.

[BobS]

Dixon was a lot better coach than this guy.

I understand that Dixon may have flamed out too early at times and yada yada but when Pitt was in the Big East, Pitt was a power broker. If they want to go back to that, hiring someone like Stallings sure isn't the way.

In my eyes, they sure could have done a lot better.

[Joneslab]

I think the guy Pitt wanted was Will Wade.

But VCU has become a premier job. Really hard to get coaches out of there because they can spend.

[Matt Dillon]

The general consensus of those posting in this thread is that Pitt could have done better. If that's true, I wonder why they didn't?

[KevinHall]

Pitt couldn't have done better. It's a city school with a limited following. I think any bigger name coach sees that and with the fact they are now in the ACC will make it very difficult for them to win or win big anyway. I think a lot people are way underestimating Stallings. He's a good but not great coach. Not many great ones around. He did lift Vandy up from the pits to being very competitive in the SEC nearly every year. Vandy is a tough school to recruit because they have higher academic requirements. Stallings is a very prickly person no doubt but it doesn't make him a a less than average coach. He will do well at Pitt. Probably as good as Dixon and they will probably continue to flame out early in the NCAA's.

[surveyor]

Well you have to look at what the programs were like when they took over.

Dixon took over for Ben Howland, who handed him a 28-5 team just off the Sweet Sixteen. Jan Van Breda Kolff gave Stallings a sub .500 team.

I took that into consideration when I formed my opinion.............

It took Stallings only 4 years to return the Commodores to a sub .500 team again.

I also look at what they've done on there own merits in their respective leagues. Dixon's clearly the better coach.

[surveyor]

As for recruiting Pittsburgh and getting northeast kids, that won't be a sure thing.

Most thought it would be a sure thing to recruit to Kentucky, but Tubby didn't recruit well here - and during the time period - it shouldn't have been terribly hard to do.

In today's game, I can't seen Stallings being a hit in that area with regard to recruiting. It takes a guy with a certain amount of charisma and salesmanship.