Well, damn.
Pittsburgh assistant Pat Skerry has been hired at Towson.
Sources told FOXSports.com that a news conference is scheduled for Tuesday.
Skerry, 41, replaces Pat Kennedy — who parted ways after a 4-26 campaign this past season.
Skerry is regarded as a relentless recruiter. He helped Providence land its backcourt of Gerard Coleman and Vincent Council and also was responsible for getting Jamie Dixon his highest-ranked player in Pittsburgh school history with the commitment of Canadian big man Khem Birch.
Good luck to Pat Skerry at Towson. But, damn. Would have like to have him stick around for another year. Towson will be a tough place for Skerry to build his head coaching resume.
Looks like Coach Dixon will be looking at options again for a new assistant. I’m extremely curious who is hired (or promoted and someone else hired below). One area I don’t think anyone can argue has been Coach Dixon’s track record with hiring assistants.
In the meantime, Coach Dixon beats Jay Wright once more. This time in a cook-off.
Pitt is in the middle of several recruiting battles for 2012, so it will be interesting to see how this move affects those recruits.
Really like what I see of Gaudio on ESPN. He seems to be a really good guy who knows his stuff. It might be hard to pry him away from there, because it looks like he enjoys what he’s doing and his role has gotten bigger as the season progressed. I also seem to remember him saying that coaching isn’t as glamorous as some think when some high-profile coaches were taking criticism for their teams’ performances. He might not miss it.
Of course we see what Rice did with the RMU job, though that was nowhere near the rebuilding job that Towson is.
Just seems off.
This does seem odd — didn’t even stay with the program a full yr. And Towson? Why not stay at Pitt 1-2 yrs to see if, with the new talent, we can get to the Final Four or better, then see where your stock is? I’m a little uneasy.
That one player, as an example, could be a PG who can shoot, dish and penetrate all season long (with all due respect to Wanamaker, he lost his confidence in his shooting; otherwise he might have been THAT guy). Or, a Gibbs who can create his own shot/drive to the hoop better. Or a McGee who can score. IMHO, It seems like, as good as the players have been, I’d love to see players who are less one dimensional come into the program. Although the players have always seemed to compliment one another, sometimes that seems like a nicer way of saying PITT has a lot of role players. They are often excellent at their role, and there aren’t many players who had glaring defensive weaknesses (Jamie just wouldn’t play them if they did), but very few players could be labeled as dynamic offensively on a consistent (sorry Gilbert) basis.
I know I sound like I’m asking for the next Kemba Walker, but I’m really not. I’d just like to see a starting 5 w/ two guys who can hit the three, two who can penetrate, two who can distribute, and two guys who can bang/rebound. That can be a total of 5 guys. They just need to be multifaceted. It sounds like Birch is, or at least will be, one of those guys.
I just hope the new hire can help PITT attract these kind of players so they don’t always seem to end up at Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, or some other team that makes me want to vomit. If those guys are one and done, I’m confident Jamie can maintain team cohesiveness. I’d love to see him get the chance.