Pitt has parted ways with Kevin Stallings, per a source.— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 8, 2018
Kevin Stallings out as Pitt men's basketball coach
The decision comes two days after the Panthers lost to Notre Dame in the first round of the ACC tournament in Brooklyn, capping off a dismal 8-24 season. In the process, they became just the 13th major-conference team since 1985 to finish the season without a win against a league opponent and the only team in all of Division I to do so this season.
Stallings finishes his brief career in Oakland with a record of 24-41, including a 5-34 mark in ACC play. His overall win percentage of .369 is the lowest for a Pitt coach since Benjamin F. Printz, the first coach in program history, went 8-14 (.364) in his two years at the helm, from 1905-07.
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Pitt has to foot a $9.4 million buyout. If I'm Stallings I'm hitting the lake house for good.
Haha, call me lazy but a golden parachute is basically my dream. Don't necessarily have to "retire" and stop working, but you can work at whatever you want for the rest of your life.
The dream is to have enough money to pursue hobbies all day and when you bore of your current ones, take up something new.
Echoing this: Time=GREATER valued commodity than $$$
"The Joe Rogan Route"
Oakland?
It's the neighborhood Pitt is located in.
neighborhood that Pitt is in a lot of neighborhoods will go by different names despite being Pittsburgh plum Oakland etc. also why the arena is nicknamed the Oakland zoo
Yeah, Oakland is the area of Pittsburgh where the university is located. That's why the student section is called the "Oakland Zoo."
EDIT: I guess I should DRINK now.
His 5 ACC wins in two years include:
#11 UVA
Boston College
Florida State
Georgia Tech (x2)
Wow, who could have predicted that?
literally everyone
Who will they get to replace him? Hopefully someone as equally unsuccessful.
TimeCop? You can say he's not a basketball coach, but I'm not trying to make Pitt successful here.
Well it's not like there'd be a drop-off in production.
I kind of hoped he would get another year. He inherited a huge mess. Kind of like Buzz.
I hoped he would get another year too. Having a gimme in ACC play is great.
For I'll benefit.
EDIT: Drink
This is kneejerk in my opinion. The entire roster turned over to include losing Cam Johnson as a transfer to North Carolina. Five of his top seven players this season were freshmen and its not the freshmen class that an established Blue Blood coach gets but it is one that would likely have been competitive next year. Couple that with losing his one strong Senior, Ryan Luther, who was averaging 12.7 points a game, 10 games into the year.
Now those guys are forced to either transfer out or start all over with a new coach. That also includes two freshmen bigs from Nigeria that were somewhat projects but showed some flash late in the season. Those two bigs weren't in the five freshmen he regularly relied on this season, so he would have had seven sophomores next year plus one senior who happens to be his leading scorer this season in Jared Wilson-Frame.
Ehh, I think it is warranted. Stalling's has proven in just 2 years that he can't recruit and maintain an ACC capable roster.
He had a solid group of seniors last year and still only won 4 ACC games. Half the team transfers out and he brings in a bunch of fairly unheralded freshmen and JC transfers and gets absolutely blown out in conference play.
I am not certain that the team they have now would be competitive next season and onward. Seems like Stallings scrapped up all he could when the team was depleted in the 16-17 off-season. If i'm a Pitt fan, I don't see a lot of promise in Stallings, his current roster or his incoming class's ability to right the ship.
This isn't just about the results on the court.
Stallings wasn't hired by the current AD, he was an unpopular hire among the fanbase from the jump, and Pitt basketball saw a huge erosion in attendance numbers this season.
All of those things were enough to doom him, even before you add in a winless ACC season.
Agreed, with the caveat that Stallings is a turdburger so having him around may have been more costly than $9.5M.
In a vacuum, his situation and coaching resume says give him another year to rebound. Outside that vacuum, Kevin Stallings is a raging genital wart.
Good news is that the poor guy doesnt have to see Pat Narduzzi regularly anymore.
Fuck Pat Narduzzi.
$9.4 million to not see Pat Narduzzi is good work if you can find it.
I think this might be the understatement of the year so far!!
At my gym the guy at the front desk is a Pitt grad, an older guy and every morning we have a friendly conversation about stuff ranging from the weather to on occasion VT/Pitt. The day after we beat Duke I'm walking in the gym and we do our usual good mornings...then he congratulates me on the VT win over Duke. He then proceeds to start asking questions about Buzz and states that Buzz should become the next basketball coach at Pitt. Mind you this is 6:30 in the AM and I just woke up...I turn to him and say Why? and in turn says "Because its Pitt". I have since never given him the friendly good morning.
This sound dirty to anyone else?
Blunt and a crepe?
Bong and a blintz?
There is no pleasing you 😑
I'm curious to see who they pursue as his replacement.
If I were them I'd try and get to the front of the line for Danny Hurley's services. If Ollie gets canned from UConn, I expect them to pursue Hurley pretty aggressively. I would think that Hurley would find the ACC a more attractive destination than the AAC, even if it is at Pitt.
I've also heard that Tom Crean's name might be in the mix. That seems to be a high risk/reward scenario, but it would be interesting nonetheless.
Thoughts around RI is that this might be the year Dan Hurley leaves, they are set to graduate a lot of key pieces this season. He just signed an extension a year ago, but the buyouts aren't egregious enough to keep him in town if a big program comes offering. Idk if that move is to Pitt though.
Crean can recruit, he took Indiana from the depths and proved he can rebuild a program. Still in his early 50's too. Somebody is going to offer him a HC job this year. I like him as an announcer too though, won't be mad to see him stick to the broadcast booth for another year, especially if coaching Pitt is the alternative.
The other thing is Hurley is making about a mill a year at URI. Pitt can offer him a substantial raise. Hurley also did his work before URI in NJ, Pitt is just about as close to his old stomping grounds.
That's my thought process as well - the area he'd be recruiting for Pittsburgh is familiar enough due to his Tri-State roots & time spent in the northeast. I'd also bet on him being a good enough recruiter in the Mid-Atlantic to pull Pitt out of relying mostly on Tri-State area players.
I follow URI BB as well as the Hokies. My Dad taught there and I grew up there.
Hurley's antics on the floor (not as bad as his brother) might not be palatable at Pitt. He averages about .7 technical's a game.
The other knock potentially against him could be recruiting. He is winning with his own players but I also don't know what if what the Atlantic Ten and URI benefits over Pitt would be. I think with the absence of Xavier (jumped conference) and Shaka it is a lot easier to win at URI now.
I know his hot-head tendencies make news, but I don't think they're enough to deter any power conference school from hiring him. Results are what matter.
I understand where you're coming from on the relative strength of the A-10, but I honestly think it's just a down year at the top of the league. The middle has been far more competitive than previous years, as evidenced by the plethora of teams that finished near .500 in conference play.
I think VCU will continue to be a strong program under Mike Rhoades - the thing that's killed them is that this is their 3rd coach in 4 years. They've lost major pieces of two recruiting classes due to coaching turnover and they've had to fill in some holes with grad transfers to balance out classes. Given that Rhoades was in Richmond a long time before taking the head job at Rice (first at Randolph-Macon, then at VCU under Shaka), he's likely to be at VCU for a long time. That will help the program long-term.
Dayton will bounce back with Anthony Grant too. Besides losing Archie Miller, they also lost a great senior class (which is what might happen to Hurley & URI after this season). VCU & Dayton both have the resources & commitment to basketball success, so they'll bounce back soon. Davidson will be good as long as McKillop wants to coach, St. Louis & GMU look like programs on the rise, and Duquesne will be far more competitive under a really good coach in Keith Dambrot.
TL;DR version - I think this is the year for Hurley to move on, as I think it'll get tougher in the coming years as some of the programs get their feet back under them. I do think he's a solid recruiter though, as they've been in the top half of the A-10 the last four seasons. Out of those 4 years, the only season they weren't a top 3 team in the conference was when EC Matthews was hurt most of the year.
Yeah, I think your right in that he has built the team to be back to back competitive and they got a win in the first round over the much hyped Oklahoma. I don't think that URI will back up the money to keep him. That is what happened with their last good coach (Al Skinner) getting snapped up by BC for a lot more money.
Think of it this way, the Atlantic 10 put three teams in the Tourney and have more wins than the PAC 12.
UConn to hire Dan Hurley as Kevin Ollie's replacement. It appears he was weighing offers from UConn and Pitt, and an extension/raise from URI
URI couldn't come anywhere near matching triple his existing salary. 1 million <<< 3 Million per year. He will make in the first two years at UCONN what URI was going to pay him over the 6 year contract extension he signed last year. Hopefully they were smart enough to include a decent buyout.
One other thing to consider - it's doubtful there's going to be a bunch of power conference jobs available this year. UConn might be the only other opening that has any cache, though I wonder how far their stock has really fallen.
Ole Miss is an open job & they've already been linked with Thad Matta. Perhaps Georgia lets go of Mark Fox, so that could be another opening in the SEC. Maybe Iowa will be available in the B1G. The only Big East job that might be available is DePaul.
Louisville will be the one to keep an eye on, assuming they don't elevate Padgett permanently (which seems unlikely). If you're choosing between Louisville & Pitt, I think the Cardinals have a lot more to offer and have a much higher ceiling than Pitt.
"I'm curious to see who they pursue as his replacement."
Seth Greenberg is available.
Which brings up an interesting question: what is Coach Buzz's record vs Greenberg??
Almost the entire team wants to leave.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22792196/eight-pi...
Changing coaches and coming off a winless ACC campaign is going to tank your next season or two anyway. Is it that big a deal to lose all your players from such a stellar team?
Doesn't matter what your record is, it's a pretty big deal when you can only have 13 scholarship players and currently only have three returning players and one recruit because everyone else wants to transfer or is requesting to be released from their NLI.
As it currently stands, Pitt has a roster of four players next season; the only thing they have to their benefit is that college basketball repealed the 5/8 rule back in 2004 so they can have a recruiting class of nine players if they wish it.
Either way, it almost makes me wonder if Pitt will even be able to field a full team next year if everyone who has requested a transfer does transfer.
They'll dress and play walk-ons if they have to. We were starting two former walk-ons in Buzz's first season. They should be able to nab a few kids with no other P5 offers who will jump at the chance to play on the ACC too.
It can't get any worse than it did last season anyway.
Last recruit requested release from his NLI today. It doesnt matter who the coach ends up being, they will likely be pretty bad for the next two years. Seems telling that most of the players cite really loving playing for Stallings and being upset that no one in the administration even bothered to feel out the state of the program from their perspective. Says to me the issues at Pitt go deeper in the athletic department than the coaching staff. Even the last recruit leaving said that he had connected with the existing freshmen class and had thought they would be given the chance to grow together rather than have it all blown up.