One of the things that people seem to be debating is when it all started going south. Hindsight is on full blast.

Pointing to that failure to advance past the Villanova in the Elite Eight. Or that Butler game. Those are moments. Losing to Wichita State? Those are games.

Things became problematic when Pitt had back-to-back disastrous recruiting classes. That put Pitt in a hole that Jamie Dixon had been trying to get out of for a while.

2010 Recruiting Class

1. Isiah Epps – G
2. J.J. Moore – F
3. Cam Wright – G

2011 Recruiting Class

1. Khem Birch – F
2. Malcolm Gilbert – C
3. Durand Johnson – G/F
4. John Johnson – G

I was just going to point to the 2011 class, but given how bad Epps really was and J.J. Moore never coming close to what was thought to be his ceiling. It really is astounding. Also because of how good they actually looked at the time. Moore was considered a steal of a late get.

The 2011 class had Khem Birch reclassifying from the 2012 recruiting class, resulting in Pitt forcing out top-100 commit, Jaylen Bond. Also creating some real animosity among Philadelphia area coaches for doing him like that. It damaged Pitt’s recruiting in Philly — which became another problem.

The 2011 class was ranked as Pitt’s best under Dixon. This was the one to show the fruits of all the building and Pitt’s rep. A second McDonald’s All-American in 3 years with Khem Birch. Gilbert, Johnson and Johnson were all ranked among the top-100 players by Scout.com.

There is a cruel irony that a coach like Dixon. Regularly crushed by his own fanbase for not being a great recruiter. His best recruiting class was truly the worst

One starter out of all that. Six transfers — and on top of it, none of those transfers turned out to be that good for the schools that got them.

And that was with top recruiting assistants like Tom Herrion and Pat Skerry.

Any. ANY program would struggle with a series of misses like that. With the exception of Kentucky under Calipari, every program needs at least a couple of guys to develop over three to four years. When you only have one guy out of two straight classes. When you don’t even have stiffs on the bench. That’s going to hurt.

And for a coach like Dixon that really depends on developing players over the course of a few years. Who counts on the upper classmen to lead the way. This was especially devestating.

Dixon and the coaching staff resorted more and more to JUCOs, transfers (regular and grad) to try and plug the holes, the last few years. But even if you hit on each hole you try to fill, that would have still been a two year period to try and cope.

Obviously Pitt wasn’t able to plug those holes as well as needed. Coupled with the big recruiting misses (at least at the time) of big centers like BeeJay Anya and Chieck Diallo, the problems remained.

The only other alternative would have been to take some real lumps on the court without trying short terms fixes. Take flyers on players with potential, but would need some time to develop. That’s hardly a guarantee either. Meanwhile the howls would have been even louder if Pitt had missed the NCAA Tournament two straight years.