9pm, ESPNU.
As disappointing as ending up in the NIT is, there is one thing more embarrassing. Not even being able to qualify for it. To make the NIT, a team has to finish with a record at .500 or better. Pitt is poised not to make it, if they can’t win at least 2 games. With only 2 regular season games left and the ACC Tourney, the odds are getting longer.
Pitt is still looking for that second ACC road win (Boston College still counts). Georgia Tech is trying to clinch a first round bye in the ACC Tournament and possibly get into the ACC Tourney.
Like Pitt, GT is changed coaches last year. Like Pitt, they plucked a coach who had his job status in question — but for contract issues that might have helped keep him in place. Unlike Pitt, Josh Pastner has proven that he learned something from leaving his old job. Recognizing something that has escaped Pitt all season.
The Yellow Jackets have not been as bad as Pastner envisioned. They are fourth in the ACC in scoring defense (66.6 points per game) and center Ben Lammers leads the conference with 100 blocks, nearly double the total of the player in second place, Louisville’s Anas Mahmoud.
“We hung our hat all season on defense,” Pastner said, “because for us, that doesn’t take a lot of skill. Offense is very skill-oriented, and that’s where we struggle.”
But is it fun?
GT was picked to be second-worst in the ACC — BC keeps the basement dry for everyone else. They’ve managed to overachieve. Some surprising upsets — UNC, ND and FSU — as they have been very strong at home. 6-2 at home, 1-7 on the road.
Josh Pastner still has the hyperbole of his mentor, John Calipari.
The fact his team is in the conversation for an NCAA tournament berth fewer than two weeks from Selection Sunday and in position to finish with a non-losing record in one of the deepest conferences in recent memory never ceases to amaze Josh Pastner.
Actually, if you ask him, the Georgia Tech coach will take the rhetoric a step further.
“I literally think it’s a modern miracle and the eighth wonder of the world,” he said Monday. “Because if you would have told me that back in April at our first workout and through the summer, you would have to be checked out because you’d be like ‘Wait, what is this guy talking about?’ ”
He does make it easy to be disliked, doesn’t he?
Ryan Luther probably won’t play, but really, he’s getting closer. It would be nice for Luther to finally get back on the court. But, really, he isn’t the reason Pitt has been such a struggle. And he won’t be much of a difference in his return.
so it is men against boys, but our men aren’t very good.
These are like talking points u see on the newscasts…no more no less.
NC State and Pitt will likely finish 4-14. Pitt loses tiebreaker due to loss at NC State and finishes in 15th place.
Pitt’s previous lowest showing in conference play was 2011-2012 (CBI year) when they finished 13th in the Big East. However they were only 1 game out of 11th.
It’s not Stallings’ fault. I’ve heard James Robinson’s jersey will be raised at The Pete next season.
Watching Vandy/Kentucky game. Vandy down 2. The announcers are drooling over Drew and talking about how he had Vandy headed in the right direction and on an upswing. Nice.
Any new coaches getting canned this year? I’d hire NC States Guy or Thad.
If they did it would be (although they never say this since Stallings is a long tenured coaching fraternity member)….into the cellar.
Even though like I said it looked like Pitt’s men against GT boys in maturity.
Nobody likes seeing what they helped create….come tumbling totally down.
He got out, while the getting was good.
Start with 15 fresh new bodies.
Else the cancer developed could spread to the noobs
Yeah, that’s how unrealistic pitt fans are
So you buying drinks in our Charlotte meetup ?
Swinging off his sack and tell everyone how lucky we are. It’s ok but you can’t fool me, Emel, Jack or Gasman. Hell
Even Dan 72 knows better. Stallings sucks.
Id love if Barnes sat on the bench of these games so pitt fans could spew their venum where it actually belongs
I am not a StAllings supporter, that’s probably the 10th time I’ve said that!!
Than Grandpa Stallings.
You act like it. Trying to be voice of reason about him. Fire his asss and make a stand.
Sometimes in the past we thought we had a good one and it didn’t turn out that way.
I have serious doubts as well about the so-called ‘offensive genius’.
As I do btw about the ‘defensive genius’. But at least that guy has energy, passion, etc.
And who exactly was lining up for the job???
Pitt became undesirable in a blink of an eye!
And even more so after Stallings was hired, no one liked the bire, I sure didn’t
But pitt became a slow burning golden brown marshmallow of a program for the last few years
Can we recover? Did Barnes set us back even longer?
Stallings is younger than me, but looks like he could be my father.
it’s just not a good look for us.
Are you seriously telling me, Pitt’s job is thought less of…. than VT’s ?
That nobody wanted to come to Pitt. I find that hard to believe.
I don’t think it was offered to many at all(maybe none), herman was going to use his pac 12 bud’s search firm and there was no search at all. Stallings was already a client of that search firm.
this was all pre-determined in my mind.
Herman got his cut, the Search Firm got their couple Hundred K, their client got Guaranteed Millions and got to save face by not being Fired.
Which probably would have either killed his career totally or he would have wound up in C-USA or the Sunbelt.
It’s all explained here … link to post-gazette.com
There was no search. It was pure cronyism.
And the Search Firm owner was former AD at U of Washington who had hired Stallings into his first bigtime job as Associate AD.
Reeks of cronyism.
But again Pitt let it happen. When they are the ones who invested upwards of $200 mil into the bball program. Of course it wasn’t really their money. Someone else’s.
And that is why I say, Herman was brought into town (like a hired gun) to relieve Pitt of Dixon’s 10 year contract.
Pitt knew Dixon was well liked in the community and had had great success obviously, so they needed a ‘hired gun’ to do their dirty work.
then like all ‘hired guns’…they leave town after their work has been accomplished.
He knew his time at Pitt would be short. And didn’t care. Again like all ‘hired guns’ are.
That’s his only genius.
Team…..”lacks coachability”…….
This just in for those who think this guy will win once he gets his own recruits:
The only way to guarantee failure is to blame somebody else for your lack of success.
I actually feel sorry for those willing to invest in the future with this feckless loser…..you are setting yourself up for a long trip down misery lane. Even if you can somehow recriut elite talent, what difference does that make if he can’t coach (um, lead) them?
And for those who want to believe otherwise, a perfect example can be found if you Google the last coach at Vanderbilt, a university in Nashville, Tennessee. He recruited some bad ass prospects, but couldn’t get them to play as a team and, ya know, win.
What was his name again? WAIT A MINUTE#$$#@// $@$^
Lack of leadership skills + a mediocre track record + lack of a second chance to make a first impression
+ absence of a winner for a boss = bet the house on lack of success.
Stallings “pipeline” to the NBA is a joke. There are 3 players remaining in the NBA from his greatness. Festus Ezeli has never been much of a contributor and may never play again. Wade Baldwin has only logged 13 minutes of playing time since the start of the year. Damian Jones has only logged 12 minutes of playing time since the start of the year. DeMarre Carroll doesn’t count for KS. He transferred to Missouri for his last two seasons before entering the NBA.
I’d say that Dixon has placed more lasting talent in the NBA than KS. They just weren’t first rounders.
Like those in the news media, and pols, they believe if you repeat this tripe often enough, ppl will begin to believe it.
Marginal NBA player is an apt description of anyone that came out of Vandy during Stallings tenure there.
