Maybe it’s just the fact that none of the jobs out there this year look that great. Maybe it is the money that Coach Jamie Dixon already earns at Pitt, makes it harder for other schools to even tempt him. Maybe it’s geographic fit. Maybe the disappointing ending in the NCAA Tournament with high expectations, have dampened the energy other ADs are putting to pursuing Dixon. Or the fact that Dixon hasn’t taken big offers from any other school in this time.
Whatever the reason, there isn’t a lot of buzz for teams pursuing Coach Dixon as in other years. Last week a wish list floated out there about who Tennessee wanted to get to replace Bruce Pearl:
The five coaches that were at the top of UT’s list after Bruce Pearl was fired on Monday are Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, Villanova coach Jay Wright, Alabama coach Anthony Grant, Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon and Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall.
Athletic directors at the respective schools did not return phone calls placed by the News Sentinel on Wednesday.
The list was widely derided. Not just by those who follow college basketball, but even by Vol fans. Even though Tennessee can afford big money for a coach it was telling that their executive search firm didn’t even get a nibble of interest from the guys on this list.
UT Athletics Director Mike Hamilton, working through Parker Executive Search Firm, is believed to have gauged the interest of a number of high-profile coaches, with Jay Wright of Villanova and Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh at the top of the list. Neither Wright nor Dixon expressed interest.
Not even to try and leverage more money from their present job.
Chris Mack at Xavier said no to a $2 million per year for eight years contract offer. If that didn’t tell Tennessee that their job is damaged goods right now, I don’t know what would.
That led to Tennessee settling on Missouri State’s Cuonzo Martin.
Oklahoma and Mizzou are Big 12 jobs that are open. Oklahoma knows its limits and sees Marquette’s Buzz Williams as its top choice.
Mizzou seems to feel it has a shot to land Matt Painter from Purdue. That seems stunning since Painter played at Purdue and was an assistant under Gene Keady there. Of course, Painter has to replace some significant departing talent and there are some real questions — even by Purdue alum about the commitment from the Purdue athletic department and school about wanting to win.
Georgia Tech has significant limits in money after having to pay a fortune to end their relationship with Paul Hewitt, just hired Brian Gregory from Dayton.
That really just leaves one significant job in play that could conceivably still go after/be pursuing Jamie Dixon. NC State.
The Wolfpack have their own big problems. Having to compete annually with Duke and UNC. Immediate and high expectations. A perception problem by coaches and sportswriters that their fanbase expects immediate success to match what Jim Valvano did. NC State really wanted Sean Miller, but Miller appears to have made it clear that he isn’t leaving Arizona after only a couple of years.
John Miller said his son declined an interview with N.C. State and notified athletic director Debbie Yow before Arizona’s surprising 93-77 win over Duke on Thursday night in Anaheim, Calif.
John Miller, a retired high school coach in western Pennsylvania, talked with Yow during the search process, but his son did not. (The younger Miller did talk with the search firm hired by N.C. State to aid in the process.) The elder Miller said the timing was off for his son to make another job change. Sean Miller left Xavier after the 2008-09 season to take the Arizona head coaching job.
“He just doesn’t want to make another move and move his family again,” Miller said.
Plus, he added, the Wildcats are in a “good situation.”
This doesn’t seem like a good fit for Dixon. Oh, I’m sure they gauged interest, but NC State wouldn’t be offering a significant bump. A competitive salary to be sure, but not a mind-blowing offer, for what is at best a lateral move.
At this point, the guess is that NC State will probably look towards pursuing a really hot young coach like Brad Stevens or Shaka Smart. That and continue going after schools that dare to use the term “Wolfpack.”
Speaking of Shaka Smart, Greg Doyel at CBSSports.com has a great read on the building-up and tearing-down of coaches. — written before VCU beat Kansas.
Self was the brilliant young coach at Tulsa in 2000, a 30-something star who was impressive to watch coach, fun to hear speak. He was going places, and he had the wind at his back. Just like Shaka Smart.
It took seven years, but we got to Self. He had accelerated from Tulsa to Illinois to the destination job at Kansas, where his first team reached the 2004 Elite Eight but his next two suffered jaw-dropping losses in the first round to Bucknell and Bradley. I asked Self about that, about his once-skyrocketing stock dropping for several months.
“It was longer than a couple months,” he said. He was smiling, but he wasn’t smiling before the 2008 national title game when he noted, “If you follow us closely, we’ve won just about as much as any coach won at Kansas. But those two first-round losses definitely put a negative stigma to us.”
Self has the wind at his back again after Kansas won that 2008 national title, and if it can happen for Self it can happen for Smart. Because Smart is that good. When someone — OK, it was me — told Self that Smart was the “flavor of the month,” Self objected.
“He’s not the ‘flavor of the month.’ He’s not that,” Self said. “He’s going to be around a long time — doing very, very well.”
Doesn’t matter. We’ll pick him apart anyway. Look at Rick Barnes at Texas. He was celebrated at Providence and beloved at Clemson, but he is lampooned at Texas. Barnes’ reputation nationally — even among pockets of Texas fans — is that of an underachiever. He wins big, but not big enough. I may have written that myself four years ago, when Barnes couldn’t lead Texas, starring Kevin Durant, past the second round of the 2007 NCAA tournament. Never mind that Texas had been a basketball graveyard, a place that buried the careers of Abe Lemons, Bob Weltlich and Tom Penders, before Barnes arrived in 1998 and turned Texas into a juggernaut. Nope, not good enough.
Unless you’re getting to the Final Four all the time, it’s never good enough. Nobody reached 200 wins faster than Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon, and nobody won more games in his first eight years than Dixon’s 216, and yet after gauging the reaction around town following top-seeded Pittsburgh’s first-weekend loss to Butler, a Pittsburgh columnist wrote a column titled, “Don’t give up on Dixon.”
Because that’s what we do. We give up on coaches who don’t do what they promised. That’s Shaka Smart. He has promised — not with announcements, but with achievements — to win bigger tomorrow than he has won today. And today he has VCU in the Elite Eight, a ridiculous accomplishment made all the more ridiculous by the fact that VCU actually has won enough tournament games (four) to be in the Final Four by now, were it not for the play-in game it was forced to win.
From ESPN today.
It never ends for coaches, and it never will until you put a few banners in the gym… and even then you have to space them a good 6 to 8 years apart until you’re ready to retire.
Just give us ONE banner in the gym Jamie, and most of us will be thrilled for a lifetime!!!!!
Miller might come back in 5 or so years if the job opens up, because Jamie wins his two and moves on to the NBA or huge college money that Pitt can’t afford. But, that also depends on what he does at Arizona. If he wins a couple of NCs himself, why would he leave?
In regards to Sean Miller, I’d imagine he would strongly consider the Pitt job if it was ever open. ThePitt job is probably equal or better than the Arizona job and he has deep ties to Pitt.
As a group, we really need to appreciate what Dixon has given us over a decade, and that is consistent, exciting, meaningful basketball every year, and the CHANCE to make a run in the NCAA Tournament…
As a fanbase, that is really all we can ask for…
A tweek or two might be in order, mix up the “o” and “d”‘s a little bit, to get a little less predictible.
Maybe a step up in recruiting, which may allready be happening.
Wouldn’t want anyone else, it’s a growing process, even for him. Rarely are his guys in trouble, top 5 or 10 every year. Nope, stay right here Jamie!!
That being said I hope Jamie and Co. are redoubling their efforts. If the luck ever turns we are owed afew victories.
Superstition aside, I did notice how great the guards are on the final four teams. the ball handling is amazing. I think Gibb’s and Woodall’s ball skills will improve. It looked like Gibb’s is getting better at creating his own shot and I think the game will “slow up” for Woodall this year. I think Patterson looks like he may have skills as well. They will need the outside shot from Patterson and Moore. The biggest need is for Taylor to step up like so many Pitt juniors have.
It is clear something needs to change. The dumbest thing a person can do is continue doing the same things and expect different results…
Many draft analysts speculated that Birch would be a lottery pick if eligible for the draft. Unless he takes more time to develop or just loves life at Pitt, he shouldn’t be around very long. I don’t want him to fail, but I’m not thrilled at the prospect of watching him leave after a year or two a la Blair. That’s the trade-off. I also think Dixon is comfortable playing upper classmen who are ready to play early, but it seems like the younger players are rarely advanced defensively — Birch could be the first to break that mold.
Recruiting is definitely getting better. This incoming class is 15th or so nationally depending on where you look. Birch was the number 2 player in the 2012 class before reclassifying to 2011. He’s going to play major minutes.
Khem Birch took a blow to his eye today. He has a bandage above it. It’s likely he’s got limited depth perception. I would have preferred that he not tried to go.
Still better half speed like that rather than running into something at full speed.
Food for thought: a lot of people here sing the praises of Dixon, and rightfully so. We’re finally starting to see a little animosity as well, which I think is good. No one gets a free ride. To all the Dixon defenders (I don’t like the word ‘apologists’; the guy doesn’t have anything to apologize for) who say that he needs more time, I pose the question: how long did it take the Butler and VCU coaches to get to the Final Four? With less overall talent. I’m tired of hearing about the Calhoun’s and the Boeheim’s; the game is different now. Younger, hungrier coaches seem to be able to more with less these days. In the case of Butler, consistently. Just playing Devils advocate here; again, I like Dixon, but he clearly has flaws, and at some point either he has to address them, or we just have to accept Pitt basketball for what it is – good on a National level, but not “great”. Top 5 or 10 every year? How does that feel right about now? No one will care about our mid season rankings in a year or so. What was Butler’s end-of-regular-season ranking last year? Does anyone care? Everyone remembers that they got to the title game and came within inches of winning it all in an epic game.
Also, has anyone postulated that the top talent doesn’t WANT to come here? Dixon has a system – it works well for the kids he recruits, but what about the top tier guys? Do they want to get “square pegged” into a round hole? I ask this because I feel that a guy like Taylor should be producing more, but to date, he has been somewhat disappointing. I’m not really sure he relishes his current role in Dixon’s master plan, and it would be interesting to hear his true (candid) feelings on the matter. If given a second chance, would he sign with Pitt again? Regrets? Who knows, maybe he’s a super star next year, but guys of his recruiting caliber typically produce earlier; at least they start showing signs. At the end of the season on the national stage, we weren’t top 10. Not even close.
Lastly, I think all the talk about Pitt not wanting to recruit the “one and done” players is inane. I feel like you get the best kids you can as long as they can make it academically (yes, even if they struggle and get a degree in basket weaving). It’s the job of any good college to prepare its students as best they can for the next level. If the next level is the NBA for some kid, and he get’s there in one year, how has the University failed him? If the kid blows his knee out in camp and loses that NBA career, chances are he wasn’t going to be a physicist anyway. Put the issue to bed entirely – offer displaced NBA alumni a free continuance on their education – it doesn’t really cost the school anything, and it’s good PR. Heck, maybe they already do this? We’ve had two-and-done. Three-and-done. No degree is no degree. You never know with a kid; sometimes they develop faster than you thought they would. I think Blair was like that. You can’t force them to stay – you do the best you can for them. If they help you win a championship while they’re here, that’s an added bonus. I don’t think anyone is going to be pointing a finger at Boeheim when he enters the hall of fame saying”.. yeah, but that Carmello kid… he was only there one year… THE HORROR!!!”. IMO Pitt just needs to focus on getting the absolute best players to come, and if they can’t, they need to figure out why.
Hail to Pitt!
BlackMagic, I take no pleasure in it but you were just so pompous about it. Be careful what you say next time.
The big takeaways for me were the comments by Williams and Bardo:
* His offensive game is still very raw. Probably a big reason he chose Pitt. Defense-oriented team that has a reputation for developing big men.
* He has a huge wing span. Love those long, athletic guys. He, Taylor and Zanna should give Pitt quite an inside rotation.
* He fits the Pitt system well. ‘Nuff said.
I do hope he plays on Wednesday. A couple of nice in-your-face blocks and a slam or two on the other end, and people will forget all about the dunk contest.
As much as I appreciated the Seniors and think there’s more to success that NBA-talent, it seems abundantly clear that the foreseeable future has much more talent than the past. Presuming Taylor stays until he’s a senior and Birch stays until he’s a Soph, our rosters will include:
–> 2011-2012: Woodall (PG for undefeated nat’l champ highschool champ); Gibbs (all BE, possible all-american); JJ Moore & Patterson (top 100 recruits – ie better than any of the 2010-11 Srs); Taylor (McD all-american); Nas (4-star recruit, glue guy); then Zanna/Epps/Gilbert/etc off the bench.
–> 2012-2013: Two McD All-Americans (Taylor as a Sr!/Birch); Raw center who may be NBA-level talent (Adams), Zanna/Gilbert as reserves — that’s just the front court. Senior PG (Woodall), with a bevvy of SGs anyone one of whom may break-out as a star (Patterson/Moore/the Johnsons/Bond) most of whom are top-100 recruits.
These are very well-rounded, very talented teams. Potential, nat’l title? Who knows. But, we will be in the mix for yrs to come and sometimes its just a matter of how many times you have to knock on the door before you get in. This is a great program Dixon’s developed and its still clearly trending upward.
Last point — three yrs ago, when you first saw McGhee and Wanny and the rest of the soon-to-be upper classmen, did you expect much more from they’re senior yrs than what we got? Me? With no top-100 recruits except a yound & raw Taylor playing out of position, I thought we’d be barely eking out a place in the BE. I never would have thought McGhee could even be servicable. Never thought Gibbs would be more than a decent 3pt shooter like Ramon. Wanny was perpetually out of control and played like a deer-in-headlights. We got a lot more than we could have asked for from this class. They just played so far above expectations last year and most of this year that they got our expectations up.
Year in and year out Dixon does more with less than any teams other teams other than the occasional “lighting in a bottle” teams like Butler’s and VCUs this yr.
Again, this program is in very good shape and there’s no coach out there (other than maybe – MAYBE – Brad Stevens or Sean Miller – neither of whom are coming here anyway) that I’d rather have than Jaime Aloysius Dixon.
I finally got to the NYT Sunday Magazine piece about Perry Jones — good lesson that elite talent is not always what it seems. In many case, elite prospects pose coaching challenges with selfishness and ego. In Jones case, it seems opposite — he’s too nice and lacks killer instinct despite his ridiculous athleticism. Oh, and Baylor (not a basketball power mind you) was a program on life support when Dixon took over at Pitt.
Don’t get me wrong — psyched that those two are coming, though I’m sure it will take a couple years for Birch’s offensive game to mature.
Woodall’s not a BE starter and everybody’s wondering whether Epps will even be back next year. If those two turn out to be misses (I, along with plenty of others, would argue that Woodall already is), then Pitt’s looking at a couple years without a quality ball handler and distributor. That stinks.
I was holding out slim hope that Dixon would have to let John Johnson play next year, but now we’re hearing prep school. That also stinks.
Nevermind shooting guard. I think they lucked out with Gibbs. I really believe they recruited him because he had a quick release and a great shot and he surprised them by working hard on the rest of his game. He’s still one-dimensional, but he’s a testament to what hard work can do for your all-around game. If only more kids were like that.
But back to my point on SGs; there are no other SGs on the roster and only Johnson (maybe), who’s evidently a PG/SG hybrid, coming in.
WHERE ARE THE GUARDS? Are we really going to have to watch Woodall and Gibbs handle the ball next year?
Pantherlair says Pitt is after James Robinson a 6’3″ PG out of DeMatha. Certainly a good pedigree, and he’s currently #60 on the ESPN Super 60. Might be a nice catch, and a further indicator of Epps’ status with the team.
In terms of guards, there is also Cam Wright as a redshirt freshman, and Durand Johnson as an incoming true freshman, although either might also be classified as a small forward.
Besides the ballhandling (and distributing) deficiencies we’re facing next year, what about the defense? Gibbs can’t play a lick of D and Woodall’s only nominally better.
After watching Nored take Gibbs out of the game and then watching Strickland absolutely confound Brandon Knight, I remembered what it was like to watch a great backcourt defender ply his trade. It’s a beautiful thing and it’s something we Pitt fans got used to seeing with Knight and Page an and we had to wait a couple years and then we got a brief blip of defense with Jermaine Dixon.
All I can say is, it would have been nice to stick a shut-down guard on Mack. But that’s not an option Pitt had this year or will have for the foreseeable future……….
You’re also correct about Cam Wright. Someone who watches things closely, boubacar aw, Omar or someone else, reported that he was doing pretty well in practice.
Durand is also a potential as a 2 and Bond is listed as a 3 by some, so there are certainly plenty of bodies to fill the wings. That’s why I like the move of Patterson to the 2. It’s just a gut feeling, no inside info. But I like his floor game and I think he could eventually be a better Wanamaker than Wanamaker.
I do share hugh’s concern about PG. While I don’t think Woodall is a bust, I don’t know if he’s a 35 minute guy either. I liked the Gibbs, Wanny, Woodall rotation that we had this season, actually for two seasons, so I’m wondering if Jamie finds a way to continue it.
Gibbs wasn’t an afterthought — he also went to Bradin Knight’s alma mater Seton Hall Prep. He may have exceeded expectations but he was and is a legit player. So is Woodall, who played for an undefeated #1 ranked HS team at St. Anthony.
Epps has a single red shirt season under him. He was a top 50 recruit, but let’s write him off because he didn’t transition to all-american in a single season in which he struggled to gain acedemic eligibility.
This year Pitt did not play team defense up to standards set in past seasons, and some of that can be attributed to talent, desire, etc. They got good individual performances from some players (McGhee in particular) and inconsistency from others. They did perform better offensively as a team.
You don’t need a revolving door roster of 5 star recruits to win. Calipari is a good coach — he doesn’t just win based on talent (though it doesn’t hurt).
Patterson’s a good role player and can fit in a number of places, but can’t imagine him handling it much. Moore will be interesting. Saw him get his own shot in summer league, then he didn’t look comfortable in the Big East this year, so maybe that was just too much of an adjustment and Dixon’s just not a fan of playing freshmen anyway. If he can play SG, that will make me feel a lot better about next year’s offense, but won’t do much about my defensive reservations.
Epps was no Top 50 recruit by the time he came out and we should know by mid summer whether he’s an option.
It just sounds like the cavalry is coming for the frontcourt but nobody’s owning up to some holes in the back……
I believe Moore’s ceiling is higher, but right now I think Patterson has the better overall game, which will make him more than just a role player next season. So, he may end up starting at the 3 with Moore first off the bench as either the 3 or 2. Of course, that could all change over the next 6 months depending on how hard each works on his deficiencies in the offseason.
“unathletic” for a WING player who’s usually described as an above average BASKETBALL athlete? I agree he’s not as athletic as Moore, but who is? And there’s a big difference between being tentative, which Patterson can be, and “slow”. You need to get a better command of the English language. Then perhaps people won’t jump on your comments so readily.
Their HS only matters in as much as so many people on this blog obsess over pedigree and HS/camp circuit is the ONLY basis for this assessment. Dixon has proven over and over again that he can develop players with the right attitude and skill set, yet everyone wants the Rivals stamp of approval in assessing Pitt’s talent level.
Within the past 3 weeks Pitt lost to 1/2 the Final 4 field be a total of 3 points. Let’s get some perspective here.
