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April 4, 2016

Before I get to the meat of this article I would like to reiterate something I have passed along on here a few times since I started writing for the Blather all those many moons ago. After you read it, then get into the article itself, you’ll see the connection.

I’ve been asked many times on here, on the message boards, in person at tailgates, at special Pitt events and functions and at the games, something on these lines ‘Why do you think you are qualified to write a blog and why should we care about what you have to say’.

My response to that has always been pretty consistent in replying ‘Because I’m a fan like you, I have extensive historical ties to the university and actually there is no concrete reason why you should care about my stuff at all’ – or something to that effect.

Those ‘historical ties’ go back to 1908 when my grandfather on my Dad’s side helped the growing Western University of Pennsylvania Medical school become The University of Pittsburgh’s Medical school and stayed on as a staff instructor and professor.

My father was a long time tenured professor and the Dean of Pitt’s Graduate School of Business for a time before he died in 1969; my mother was Pitt’s Assistant Dean of Women and now my oldest brother is one of two Assistant Librarians for the whole of the University’s Library System, reporting only to the Director of the Library. (Actually more of a big cheese then I knew, I just looked him up – we haven’t talked for many years).

My uncle was the Chief of Pathology for Pitt’s Presbyterian University Hospital and my other brother, my cousins, aunts and uncles, all as far back as I can remember,  were Pitt grads and sometimes instructors and administrators at the University also.

I grew up in a true multi-generational  “Pitt Family” and spent my childhood hanging around my parents’ and my extended family’s Pitt friends and when they had their recurring Friday Night cocktail parties at our house the guests would consistently include Chancellors Ed Litchfield and then Wesley Posvar – whose children I grew up with and am still close to today – along with many other decision makers of the university.

Now – all that said, Pitt was a very much smaller place back in the ‘50s and ‘60s when there was a small fraction of as many Administrators as there are now and there wasn’t such a wide divide among those who had long careers there. It was very much a “Pitt Family” in the true sense of the word.

Throw in the fact that we lived in the same areas, and knew, many of the heavyweight Pitt donors back then and that everyone associated with Pitt seemed to know each other, and that is the atmosphere I grew up in and why I’ve many of the same friends today.

That is a hell of a lot of name dropping to be sure  but it serves, I hope,  to establish that I’ve ties to the University that are outside the Athletic Department and not dependent on the media credentials I carry specifically to write on The Pitt Blather

So hopefully you can see that when I say I have a vested interest in the University I have the background to support that statement.

Does any of that mean I’ve more credibility about Pitt athletics than others who write on the subject in the media? No, and I’ll repeat that – No.  Local beat writers have more inside contacts on the Athletic department than I do I would think. It does means however that when I say that I do know something as a fact that’s what I mean – it’s factual.

 (I’m going to bring this around to sports – really, I am.)

You all also know that I hold a close to zero tolerance position on issues that negatively affect the University of Pittsburgh as a whole.  I am of the firm belief that if indeed “athletics is the front porch of the university” as both our new Chancellor and our new AD have stated then it pretty damned well be a clean front porch that is continually worked on to keep it that way.

My personal background laid out above is the reason for this – I truly love the University of Pittsburgh and want nothing but the best for it. Contrary to a lot of people ‘the best‘ that I want has really nothing to do with sports all that much. I like it when we win games and I love it when our student/athletes do outstanding things, both on the field and off,  but I wouldn’t trade wins or championships in any sport for the good reputation the University holds.

My stance on Wannstedt’s firing is an example of my feelings on this and because I was in direct conversations with Pitt people outside the athletic department I passed on to you the actual reasons ties were cut loose with him.  Again, it all revolved around the actions within football program itself, not his wins or  losses, and the negative incidents of 2010 which acutely embarrassed Pitt on a national stage.  The Sports Illustrated article wasn’t the primary reason for DW’s firing – but it was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Now we’re are seeing a (hopefully) more minor version of negative instances happening in the athletic side of the house with Scott Barnes’s  quick hire of Kevin Stallings and the machinations that went on behind the scenes to make that happen.

Those issues have become  intense topics of conversation among fans and the media as it should be and just because it is Pitt doing it we shouldn’t look any less hard or judge any less harsh should found knowledge lead to that. If we do so we give Scott Barnes, who is a newcomer to the Pitt family, and Chancellor Gallagher, again a new comer, free passes on what is costing the University – a public entity by the way – millions of dollars.

Yesterday I wrote about what I saw happen over the last few days with this issue and it may well have been done with Patrick Gallagher’s blessing and knowledge from the time Dixon left until the press conference announcing Stallings’ hire… but if that is so then we need to know that’s exactly how things went down.  Saying “Well, its already happened so let’s move on” doesn’t cut it.

Lately I had an interesting discussion on Facebook (on my part, personal insults on the other party’s part) about my status as a member of the media and my “protecting your perceived Bros” in the media, meaning all the local Pitt beat reporters I suppose.  The genesis of the back and forth was when questions arose about the appropriateness of the Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman’s opinion piece on the hiring of Kevin Stallings.

In case you missed it here it is in full glory.  Quoted below are the offending parts which started the rather contentious debate on Facebook (emphasis below are mine):

“But Barnes applied the Steve Pederson playbook for conducting a coaching search: Alienate the alums. Leave out the legends. Trample on tradition.

We all know how well that worked out for Pederson at Pitt and, previously, at Nebraska.

Problem is, Pitt also has a poor record of hiring minority head-coaching candidates for its revenue sports. The only black football coach it has hired, Mike Haywood, was fired 17 days later.

Given that Pitt is an inner-city school, having a black coach who is synonymous with Pitt’s golden era as the face of the program wouldn’t be a bad idea.  But it wasn’t Barnes’ idea, which made it irrelevant.

This isn’t to suggest Pitt had to promote the 34-year-old Knight — though it did promote Dixon to replace Ben Howland — but its treatment of one of its all-time greats was shameful.”

Well, there certainly are some poor choices of words there.

Using “inner city” in lieu of what is a more truthful “urban school” for one. The first phrase leads a reader to believe that Pitt is located in “the usually older, poorer, and more densely populated central section of a city” (the definition according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary).

Boy – did that piss fans off?  But the reality is that the author probably just wrote down the first phrase that popped into to his mind.  I know exactly how that happens.

However and here’s where the conspiracy theories have shown themselves in full bloom, Kevin Gorman is a PSU graduate…!!  How soon fans forget that not so long ago Gorman covered  the Pitt football beat for his paper and not only wasn’t judgmental based on his being a PSU alumni, but he did a fine job in presenting Pitt football in a realistic light.

But wait, there’s more.  Gorman’s observation, based on facts but let’s don’t let that get into the way, that “Pitt also has a poor record of hiring minority head-coaching candidates for its revenue sportsreally got the readers’ dander up.  Some fans felt it alluded to Pitt being racist in its approach to (not) hiring persons of color in our high profile head coaching positions.

I guess I can see that, especially if the Pitt fans in question already had a full head of pissed-offedness going because of the Stallings hire and the way it went down.

To segue into a related issue; Here is that Facebook exchange about that article that I mentioned above:

Him: “Hey chieftain. Look up the definition of inner city. it a negative term. Oakland is most assuredly not inner city. its also a term used by local penn staters to attribute a negative image to pitt. you are not here. YOU SIMPLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT WHICH YOU DO NOT SEE.

Him: i get (it) though reed you think you are part of the media.

Me:  Well, if having full media credentials and full access to the exact same things all the other reporters do then I guess I do think that. Is that a problem for you?

Me:  I also said that “inner-city” was a poor choice of words. I just don’t believe Gorman is out to screw Pitt like you seem to.

Him: It is not a problem with me. I want people on here to know you have conflict of interest. Protecting you(r) perceived bros in the media.

Let me say this – I think I have met this guy only once before but honestly can’t remember him. But he obviously knows me and carries a bit of a grudge for some reason.  In all honesty I went on to read other things he wrote about Pitt and I do believe he is a 100% Pitt fan and loves his school.  But the whole thing smacked of a person  trying to denigrate someone in some sort of attempt to protect the Pitt administration because he believes that the sportswriters were, to paraphrase here, ‘out to get Barnes and Stallings’

On which he went on to post:

Him: Again see if Gorman acts tough when grilling Art rooney, Tomlin, etc. These guys all talk tough when piling on Pitt. Not so much with the other teams in town. Not at all. Reed this was not a good week for the local media. They acted disgracefully Monday. And even the Fan hosts ripped them . You don’t live here so you have no context Pitt fans are fed up with the local media. This is just more piling on.

 I’m not sure if one media outlet (The Fan) ripping other media outlets (the reporters at the press conference) means anything at all – I don’t think it means a damn thing actually, but obviously this guy does. I listen to The Fan and unless Pat Bostick is on there I take everything said with a grain of salt.  Those Fan guys have agendas and egos as big as Artie Rowell’s forehead.

I mention all this not because I was angry that he questioned my personal behavior and ethics (OK, maybe a small bit of that on my part) but because it really looked like he was trying to insult me to somehow make the Pitt Administration look less culpable in their questionable actions leading up to the hire.

Plus that whole “YOU SIMPLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT WHICH YOU DO NOT SEE.” stuff makes me think of a $5 palm reader.

The whole BB thing offends me not just because it was Pitt doing it but because it stunk of patronage and an appalling lack of concern about the way it would reflect on the University itself.  This was shown large and in person by Barnes’ astounding arrogance in both conducting the search & hire process itself then again at the press conference trying to justify it.

And what arrogance it was as Barnes dismisses both the fans and the media sitting in at the press conference in one fell swoop:

 “The fans’ reactions, we are going to be above the noise,” Barnes said. “If you are not impressed with him, you are maybe not in the right spot. Today is the first day of the Kevin Stallings era of Pitt basketball, and I am excited and think the fans will be, too.”

Not too long ago before this went down we had a discussion on here about Scott Barnes and fans were pretty much full of praise for him for reasons I just really couldn’t figure out. Looking back he has been riding Narduzzi coattails in fan support and he’s shocked, just shocked I tell you, that any goodwill he had evaporated as soon as you could say “Turner’s Search Firm

I, as I always tend to do with something shiny new, said at the time “What has he actually done for Pitt to get excited about?‘  That’s my default ‘wait and see’ attitude I held with Narduzzi and did also with Barnes.

Narduzzi was already hired before Barnes was picked as the AD (and was on the selection committee to hire his own boss which is patently stupid IMO). We had already been firmly set in place years ago as a member in good standing of the ACC.  Our two major athletic programs, FB and BB, were making good profits (a separate subject article I’m drafting BTW).  So there was really no heavy lifting to be done on his part.

There were no big decisions or influences offered by him needed in the near future with Pitt sports – an on-campus stadium isn’t going to happen any time under Barnes’s watch as the new Chancellor made that abundantly clear earlier in his first press conference.

There just wasn’t anything Barnes was hired and brought in specifically to do that needed fixing or even worked on to avoid future problems. He was a hire to fill an abrupt opening caused by Gallagher’s firing of Steve Pederson and that was about it.   I’ll say this also – everyone of the places Barnes has worked as an associate or full AD are in the lower minor leagues in comparison to Pitt.

Barnes truly hit the lottery in being hired at Pitt and what might have flown under the radar as a normal business standard at Utah Sate (The small Mountain West Utah State Aggies mind you, not their bigger respectable brother the  Pac-12 Utah Utes which would have been at least a little bit impressive), Eastern Washington or any where else he worked should be the business standard at Pitt.

Instituting a “Fan Committee” and selecting persons who  are most probably Yes Men for the athletic department isn’t going to do anyone any good either. Its a fine idea but that whole selection process was hinky from the start and this roster is what we ended up with:

Aug. 12, 2015 Meet Your Panther Fans Experience Committee

PITTSBURGH—Twenty-two people have been named to the inaugural Panther Fans Experience Committee, it was announced today by Pitt athletic director Scott Barnes.

Serving as the pulse of Panthers fans, the group will have its initial meeting with members of the Pitt Athletic Department on August 31. Areas of focus will include, but not be limited to: the Pitt game day experience, customer service, ticketing, donor support and fan communications.

“We received a tremendous response with more than 800 applications for our inaugural Panther Fans Experience Committee,” Barnes said. “The individuals who were selected will provide us with invaluable insight and feedback. It is vital that we engage and listen to our fans. With their help, we can create the best fan experience in the country.”

The first Panther Fans Experience Committee includes 13 men and nine women, 17 Pitt alumni and five non-alumni (including two current undergraduate students). Members will serve a voluntary two-year term and convene quarterly.

The 2015-16 Panther Fans Experience Committee members are: Kevin Barthelemy, Joan Bigley, Lauren DelSignore, Danielle Dietrich, Casey Doran, David Down, Chris Gates, Richard Gradisek, Adam Gunn, Jai-W Hayes-Jackson, David Jedlicka, Caitlin McLaughlin, Joseph Mills, E.J. Nemet, Lisa Pilewski, Kathleen Slencak, Regina Stover, Kevin Van Kirk, Anson Whaley, John Wilds, Patrick Worms and Nicole (King) Yohe.

Color me unimpressed.  I mean when you have Danielle Dietrich, the daughter of the man who just dropped a $125M dollar check on Pitt five years ago, selected for the committee you just have to wonder just how seriously Barnes takes this whole thing.

Obviously there was no room for dissent from that body of people because when the committee was selected there was only one guy from the blogosphere (Cardiac Hills’ Anson Whaley) and he isn’t exactly either Woodward or Bernstein.  If this committee and the Stallings hire is all Scott Barnes has to show when his 1st year anniversary rolls around, well then… color me totally unimpressed.

To sum things up – I get on a high horse when it looks like the Athletic Department dog is wagging the University’s tail. It has happened in the past, more than once, and it looks to may have happened again.

I hope there isn’t a smoking gun with the BB hired and that nothing overtly untoward has happened, I truly do. But I also challenge Pitt to do the right thing and start an investigation conducted by people who have absolutely no ties whatsoever to the Athletic Department ( and who have tenure if possible)  to get to the details and truths about how this search firm choice and Stallings hire transpired.

Or even get an outside entity to look into things.  If that means ruffling a few, or even a lot, of the AD’s feathers then so be it and have at it… as soon as possible.

Pitt has a impeccable and sterling reputation as an institute of higher learning locally, nationally and abroad and that is so very much more important than an Athletic Director shaking hands with an old friend and passing him  a folded up $100,000+ check while doing so.

As for the football news – here are the Spring Scrimmage Stats:

RB Carries Yards Long TDs
Moss 12 81 18 0
Ollison 6 41 16 0
Hall 3 2 1 0
Ibrahim 6 3 2 0

 

QB Comp/ Att /Int Yards Long TDs
Peterman 11-19-0 185 55 1
Stocker 1-4-0 68 68 1
Bertke 1-3-0 9 9 0
DiNucci 12-3-0 10 7 0
Adzima 0-4-1 0 0 0

 

Reciever No. Yards TDs Long
Aston 3 32 0 12
Weah 2 62 0 55
Araujo-Lopes 2 31 0 23
Q. Henderson 2 24 0 12
Wuestner 2 23 1 15
Moss 1 24 0 24
Orndoff 1 5 0 5
Tipton 1 3 0 3

 





UPitt, my guess is pretty soon. I was always able to say I lived in the first neighborhood past Keller Pointe. Can’t say that anymore. You can probably get the builders to throw in some granite upgrades and appliances. Otherwise, you might have to move into my neighborhood.

Comment by dallas mike 04.04.16 @ 11:06 pm

Sorry to disappoint… but Dixon NEVER coached Defense the way Nova plays it under Wright.

OK, patiently waiting to hear how if Jamie only had Players as talented as Nova.

Comment by PittofDreams 04.04.16 @ 11:11 pm

Reed, your family background is impressive. Their level of success regardless of which enterprise they were associated with was outstanding. Obviously, you are rightfully proud.

I’m the guy with non English speaking immigrant parents and a dad who never went to school. (He taught himself to read and write.)

I always hated the bluebook exams at PITT. I never learned to write well and still can’t spell. So no matter how versed I was in a subject few professors cared for the way I wrote it down. I’m just jealous.

Now back to the main topic. Barnes and the ethics of our present Athletic Dept.

I was one, from the get go, who was excited by Barnes hire. I liked his background. It was similar to my wife’s family. Which by the way has its share of distinctive people starting off with Eli Pierce who joined revolutionary army at the age of 14 1/2

Remember Reed, in addition to Utah State and Eastern Washington, Barnes was also the asst. AD at the University of Washington in Seattle. So he has had his share of exposure to a sophisticated urban campus and press.

I don’t really know what to make of the whole Stalling thing. I know I don’t like it.

As you have stated, I also truly believe Barnes was shocked by the reaction. Gallagher also never expected the hostile reaction.

At this point we play it out. We have to see where this takes us. Ethics? Who knows.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 04.05.16 @ 12:20 am

Wow, what a NC game!
I have to tell you I started out rooting for NC, as they represent the ACC. By games end I was cheering wildly for Nova – Huh?
Yes, that’s right because as the game wore on I started thinking ” you know what, I don’t give a rats a$$ about North Carolina, or for that matter NCSt, Georgia Tech, Duke, Clemson, or any of the original ACC teams.
We have NO history with them tobacco chew’ schools. Our history is in the northeast of our country.
I concluded how sad it is that we play in a conference as a red headed step child. We have lost our history and our true identity because of conference alignment big money.
I’m quite glad that our old PA friends won the game!!!
Thank you Nova for helping me remember the good old days and our good friends. I miss them both!

Comment by pittman4ever 04.05.16 @ 12:32 am

The question now moves to next season and the out of conference scheduling for Pitt. Does Barney and Stallings add nova and wvcc or do we continue to play Savannah St and Lil Sis OP?

Once you lose your integrity, you have to take many steps to repair it. The first steps for Barney is to back up his tough guy words on scheduling with actions. His problem will be to balance “wins” with integrity. Barney can’t afford a losing record before conference play and then once in the ACC games, Pitt needs a winning record to put seats in the Pete.

It can be done, but the track records say otherwise.

Tough loss for UNC – money out of Pitt’s pocket.

Comment by Erie Express 04.05.16 @ 4:16 am

Glad to see I wasn’t the only one questioning the quality of the officiating. I saw numerous walks not called. I saw lots of uneven contact calls. Lots of handchecking.

Did anyone else notice that much of the rules enforcement promised at the beginning of the year once again eroded throughout conference play and into the tourney? It will be interesting to see whether they actually try to do it again next year.

Comment by Barvo 04.05.16 @ 4:20 am

Pitt blather should do an expose on the search firm.

Wouldn’t a PA FOIA allow you to see how many times and at what cost Pitt gave money to the AD pal?

Comment by Dcpinpgh 04.05.16 @ 5:27 am

Emel is 100 percent right on wanny. Smiley couldn’t stand the power and influence wanny has. That article was used as a scapegoat. I know this from someone on the inside. Old news now though.

Comment by 18 melba 04.05.16 @ 5:53 am

Methinks we beat the Barnes’ fiasco to death. The guy bungled the process (whether he hired the right coach or not), everybody knows it, nothing we can do about it now. And can we drop the Wanny stuff as well? Loyal guy, not exactly a great coach, thankfully gone. the end.

Now: Would love some spring football comments… Or even hoops recruiting…

Comment by 1618mt 04.05.16 @ 7:30 am

melba, FWIW, I left Pgh 6 months before Wanny’s firing but that power struggle was pretty well known. Not only did I also know someone from inside, I also heard it from someone from the FB radio broadcast group (not an on-air person) and even the bar owner from the southside where the weekly Pitt show emanated from.

What I heard after the firing though is how SP curried favor with Dixon as part of his political play with Nordy. He bent over backwards to please Jamie who of course was well regarded back then. Didn’t think much of it then, but now it appears that he may have created a monster … JD having total control of his non-con schedule, having carte-blanche authority of who he hired as assistants, etc. … yet SP kept control of FB scheduling and continued to limit the FB budget. (Wanny actually took a salary discount to have more money for his assistants — pretty well documented now.)

But this, like the Stallings’ hiring, is all water over the dam. It’s time to move forward (and I believe Barnes now realizes that he is now under the microscope.)

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 7:37 am

Video up from Saturday Scrimmage.

link to pittsburghpanthers.com

Comment by PittofDreams 04.05.16 @ 7:46 am

Lets write a group letter to the head of NCAA officiating and tell him we are pissed North Carolina lost and cost Pitt a million dollars. With that million Pitt could have changed the Sweet Caroline song with a newer song AND brought back the script Pitt on the helmets.Pitt might have to pay 1/2 million dollars to whomever holds the rights to the trademark Pitt script. If there isn’t a trademark issue then why hasn’t Pitt brought back the script?

Comment by Boo Boo #1 04.05.16 @ 8:23 am

Coach Jay Wright was a class act when Villanova beat Pitt to get into the final four and was a class act last night. If Stallings can Perform at that level — win or lose — I won’t complain about his being the head basketball coach of the Pitt Panthers. Hail to Pitt!

Comment by MariettaMike 04.05.16 @ 8:31 am

@Marietta, so was Brad Stevens when GB missed that second free-throw. I watched that with my 9yo son at the Verizon Center. Little consolation….hope Stallings gets the opportunity to be as classy as Wright and Stevens over the next couple of years.

H2P!!!

Comment by TVax 04.05.16 @ 8:40 am

Boo Boo — Pitt Script: It’s about the $$, always.

Comment by MariettaMike 04.05.16 @ 8:45 am

Villanova shot 58.3% and held UNC to 42.9%. Holding Brice Johnson to 14 points was the difference.

Comment by gc 04.05.16 @ 8:47 am

I am very confused as to why there is so much fuss to Stallings hire.

The administration wanted a complete 360 from Dixon. They also know that football runs the show (this is the first admin since I have been a fan that football is the top revenue generator).

Hire an offensive guy on the cheap (that is a good coach for the money) and take the excess money that would have been wasted on yet another Dixon disappointment and give it to football (i.e. where it should have been for last 30 years).

Comment by Altoona_Josh 04.05.16 @ 9:04 am

A few observations:

– Pitt plays 3 of the Final Four teams on the gridiron this year. I’m calling 3-0.

– So does UNC FINALLY go on probation now that their national title hopes have been dashed? Their academic fraud case investigation started in 2010. Pretty solid evidence that the NCAA is completely castrated at this point.

– In the last 40 years, Duke and UNC have been in a combined 17 National Championship games. So basically one of them is in the title game every other year. That’s insane domination.

– Amazingly UNC and Duke have never played each other in a title game – they never seem to peak at the same time.

– The old Big East has now won 4 of the last 6 national championships.

Comment by Iron Duke 04.05.16 @ 9:13 am

Altoona Josh, the issue is not Stallings’ style .. it’s how he was hired. You would think that Barnes would use the same search firm that brought in Narduzzi before he (Barnes) came on board. Instead, he used the search firm ran by the guy who had hired Barnes at Wash and hired Stallings at Vandy. And of course, Stallings was the very first candidate identified, and the first one interviewed.

So despite the fact that Stallings was in jeopardy of being fired at Vandy, he ends up smelling like a rose. It stinks of collusion.

And by the way, this collusion was not created her on Pitt Blather .. it was brought up by at least a couple of national media members who follow college BB for a living

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 9:34 am

Iron Duke, speaking of collusion … don’t underestimate the power of ACC Commish John Swofford who just happens to be a UNC alum …. I’ll be very surprised if the NCAA lays down the hammer on UNC.

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 9:37 am

If Jay Wright was the coach at Pitt he would of been run out of town after his 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 years..when he finished 9th, 13th and 7th in the Big East…and was under 500 in a weaker Big East conference.

He’s one of the good ones…glad to see him win a National Championship and Villinova deserved it for sticking with him.

Comment by milobloom 04.05.16 @ 9:52 am

Norman Chad ? ?@NormanChad
Nice gesture by Roy Williams, telling seniors that as reward for nat’l-title near-miss, they can skip phantom classes the rest of the week.

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 9:57 am

Just to set the record straight it didn’t matter who won last night the ACC pot from the tournament was already set win or lose.
link to espn.go.com

Comment by michmike 04.05.16 @ 9:59 am

wbb – I did not know Swofford was a Tar Heel. That’s fabulous.

I am glad for Jay Wright and Villanova. Looking over the list of recent coaches to win the title – Calipari, Pitino, Calhoun (and protégé Ollie), and yes Roy ‘Know Nothing’ Williams, it is nice to see a coach on there besides Krzyzewski who hasn’t been associated with violations.

Comment by Iron Duke 04.05.16 @ 10:23 am

Williams made the same mistake as Dixon. Didn’t guard the inbounds pass. looked like Scotty Reynolds all over except for the assist

Comment by DocJLK 04.05.16 @ 10:47 am

Was Danny Hurley even contacted?

Comment by Punxy Panther 04.05.16 @ 10:57 am

milo –

Jamie Dixon finished 13th (tie) in 2011/12

5-13 record in Big East

Comment by notTimGrgurich 04.05.16 @ 11:02 am

Reed, not sure “inner city” was a bad choice of words.

South Oakland perfectly typifies that Dictionary definition!! Sadly. (like many people, I took my kids to Pitt and they LOVED it…then they saw the off campus housing. Love affair broken.)

Comment by DD 04.05.16 @ 11:08 am

I think they hired a guy from Vanderbilt, just to remind us every game of:

link to youtube.com

Comment by Emel 04.05.16 @ 11:32 am

ID, Swofford played Fb at UNC as an undergrad, got a Masters from Ohio U, and the became UNC AD from 1980 to 1997 before being selected ACC Commish

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 11:35 am

…. so the improprieties at UNC may have actually started under his (Swofford’s) watch!

but of course, he knew nothing about it

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 11:38 am

I don’t get the theory that Barnes hired Stallings as a favor to one of his buddies. Think about it — it’s pure nonsense to think that in his first major hire at Pitt, Barnes would not try to get the guy who he thought was best for Pitt. Put yourself in Barnes’ shoes. Barnes will be judged for a long time on the success of this hire.

I would bet that Bryce Drew or Drew Bryce, or whatever his name is, had no interesting in the Pitt job. Doesn’t seem like a “fit” for the type of school (religious affiliation, etc. ) he might want to coach at.

I don’t think the hate for Barnes is rational.

Go Pitt.

Comment by MajorMajors 04.05.16 @ 11:46 am

again majorsMajors, this conflict of interest didn’t originate on Pitt Blather — it was brought up immediately by the Rothsteins’s and DeCourcey’s of the world

Comment by wbb 04.05.16 @ 11:57 am

Let me lay this out for you MajorMajors(and for other late arrivals, MIA’s, etc).

1) Barnes hires Collegiate Sports Associates(CSA) to be the search firm to supposedly search for a new basketball coach. (out of all the search firms out there)

2) The founder and CEO of CSA is Todd Turner.

3) While Todd Turner was AD at the University of Washington in the mid 2000’s he hires one, Scott Barnes as Senior Associate AD (that by the way is the guy below the AD, Turner)

4) In Turner’s previous gig, as AD of Vanderbilt, he hired Kevin Stallings as Head Basketball Coach.

5) Stallings was one of Turner’s first clients at
CSA and remains so.

6) Barnes taps his former boss’s(Turner) client(Stallings) to be Head Coach at Pitt. After supposedly conducting an exhaustive nationwide search.

7) It is learned that Stallings was indeed contacted by BARNES, the very same day Dixon resigned. 5pm of that same day.

8) Stallings confirms this during the Presser and then fumbles his way thru the time-line and the process. Now this just happened within days, but he can’t remember the details.

9) Barnes confirms during the Presser that indeed Stallings was the first one interviewed. And declines to name who else was interviewed, besides Brandin Knight.

Hopefully this puts things into perspective. This isn’t a theory, those are the facts.

And those facts only lead to one Conclusion.

Comment by Emel 04.05.16 @ 12:13 pm

Wow Emel…great explanation of a confusing issue… thanks.

Comment by Reed 04.05.16 @ 12:16 pm

Also guys remember, from the get go, PITT fans didn’t like Stallings because of what he did to Jeter. That alone made it a dumb hire. Sorry Jackagain, it’s not going away.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 04.05.16 @ 12:18 pm

Working on the theory alluded to by Reed, that Barnes was in way beyond his depth, it could be that he was played by his former boss Turner.

Consider:

Barnes knows days ahead of the announcement that dixon is on his way out.
He calls his old pal Turner to start a discrete search.
Turner knows that stallings is on borrowed time. He also sees an opportunity to do a favor for Vanderbilt while serving his client stallings.
Turner goes thru the motions and tells Barnes that the hot shot coaches aren’t interested but he has a lead on a veteran coach that fits the bill. Power 5 experience, great recruiter,coaching genius. And he’s available.
Trusting his old pal, and being in over his head, Barnes takes the bait. By the time Jamie announces it’s all but a formality.
And here we are.

Does that fit the known facts?

Comment by Dinosaur 71 04.05.16 @ 1:12 pm

Just posting this quote from a local sports personality that appears to have a different opinion on this subject than the majority of you guys.

“Pitt hired a search firm (Collegiate Sports Associates) headed by Barnes’ old boss, Todd Turner, who also happened to hire Stallings 17 years ago at Vanderbilt. Barnes has used Turner’s firm before. Maybe, just maybe, because he believes Turner does good work. Or maybe I’m naïve and can’t see that Barnes would sabotage the biggest hire of his professional life to do his old boss a favor.”
Joe Starkey, TribLive

Comment by mc 04.05.16 @ 2:32 pm

Emel — just tell me one thing — in your job, would you have ever hired someone into a major, high-visibility position that reported directly to you and reflected directly on you, just because one of you buddies told you to hire him or her?

I didn’t. And I have people who I once considered friends who won’t talk to me now because I selected better qualified people for positions the friends wanted. Whether others like it or not, if you’re doing your job, you have to make the hire that you see at the best for your organization.

Go Pitt.

Comment by MajorMajors 04.05.16 @ 2:39 pm

OPG, I’m not saying I like it, but it’s the way every school operates. If a coach thinks just MAYBE another coach is trying to poach one of his players, that one school gets blocked.

Stallings should have given a waver though knowing it was Jeter’s home, but that’s the way they all roll.

***************************************

– Amazingly UNC and Duke have never played each other in a title game – they never seem to peak at the same time.

– The old Big East has now won 4 of the last 6 national championships.

Comment by Iron Duke 04.05.16 @ 9:13 am

That’s because the NCAA selection committee almost never has high ranking schools in the same bracket….for just that reason. The last thing they want is another 1985 type game. Of course when the BE puts 3 teams in the Final Four there’s nothing they can do about it.

Comment by Jackagain 04.05.16 @ 3:04 pm

Jackagain, of course Stallings should have waived blocking Jeter’s transfer. Didn’t Dixon allow Richards to play for Houston because that was his home?

Stallings must have felt a lot of pressure to agree to bail out to PITT knowing he screwed us just recently. The man wanted out fast

As far as Barnes is concerned? I’m still scratching my head. Remember he has only been with PITT 8-9 months! He’s got guts!

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 04.05.16 @ 4:46 pm

Reed, I doubt you are looking in on the back end but I enjoy your well researched and written articles I agree wholeheartedly you. I have long suspected the Fan Committeee was a joke. I am sure that Danielle Dietrich was appointed because of her dad, the late Bill Dietrich. I attended grad school in political science with Bill and shared many a cocktail. Bill was at the time building his billion dollar industry using recycled steel to sell to manufacturers to put on backs of stoves and the like. He always insisted he would give back like Carnegie and others and we young grad fellow grad students laughed at the idea. He wrote a book on the subject and did what he said. Bill was a great guy. Who donated at least 700K to several universities as he said he would. That Barnes or Gallagher put his daughter on the Fan Committee to me disgraces themselves and Bill’s memory and intent. Shame on them. Just a little background, keep up the good work.

Comment by rkb 04.06.16 @ 6:16 pm

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