Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. My son and I went to the Spring Game on Saturday — I’ll get to that subject a bit later this week.
On late Friday evening it leaked out that Pitt was no longer the destination of guard Troy Simons. Simons was the leading scorer in all of junior college and a native of Pittsburgh. He had committed to Pitt back in March.
Simons is now looking hard at New Mexico.
The reasons aren’t entirely clear. It would seem that they had to do with his ability to get academically eligible at Pitt, but his junior college coach has denied that grades were the issue. Instead putting it on Pitt not bothering to communicate with him.
[Matt] Furjanic coached Simons at Polk (Fla.) Junior College. He said Simons didn’t receive a visit or a letter of intent because he was told by Pitt director of basketball operations Dan Cage that it’s not the program’s policy to do so with junior college transfers until they graduate.
Furjanic, a Rankin native who formerly coached at Robert Morris and Pitt-Greensburg, said Simons is on track to graduate by June 20.
“Because Pitt didn’t offer him a visit or a letter of intent, I felt it was in his best interests to look at other options because Pitt is making no attempt to sign him,” Furjanic said.
The late signing period for high schoolers started on April 12. It does not apply to JUCOs, but it isn’t an uncommon thing to have them sign and announce now as part of the class. I have no idea whether that policy regarding JUCO players signing until after they graduate is true or not for Pitt — or whether it was a recently implemented rule.
I can see the logic behind it, but it also means very little to let a kid sign now and release him later if there’s an academic problem. Seems like a strange time to implement a rigid rule unless it was a way to force the kid to move on without Pitt having to directly reject him.
His primary recruiter at Pitt was assistant Jeremy Ballard. Ballard, though, left Pitt for the same position at VCU last month. Which does lend some credence to the idea that Pitt’s interest in Simons diminished a bit without the coach who pursued him on staff to champion him.
The counter-point being the absolute lack of warm bodies in the program. With Simons, Pitt had 3 open scholarships (with at least three more opening up for the 2018 class). Hard to imagine Pitt wouldn’t want Simons simply to take up some space at this late time.
I have no idea what is going on with Pitt basketball at this point. I don’t know if the dysfunction that seems to be the public face of it right now is accurate. There is definitely a negative energy about the program that isn’t helping.
I hear there was a KS sighting at the Harrisburg Area Community College pick up game over the weekend. However I’m not sure that any of those kids were interested in playing for him.
If we ONLY give Kevin enough time Pitt may be able to move to the PA State Athletic Conference where he could compete for a title. That all depends on how well Shippensburg recruits over the next couple of years because they don’t have the same academic standards as Pitt does obliviously…
I’ll bet Lombardi at IUP would give KS and Pitt a challenge next season.
Not much of a plan if it unraveled in less than six weeks. If Simons was going to have grade problems that should have been clear before it was announced and therefore remained under wraps until the outcome was clear. It’s at least another PR problem that makes the program appear inept.
Not sure what Furjanic has to gain by inventing a story about lack of interest or commitment from Stallings. After what we witnessed last season it makes perfect sense.
H2P!!!
The most disturbing thing to me is that there are only two logical options…fire KS now, which seems entirely unlikely, or wait 2 more years. I mean, does anyone expect Pitt to be anything but a basement dweller next year? So when it happens, he won’t get fired….it was expected. Instead he will get another year.
I am sorry but I still do not understand the logic of your arguments, Tomas. We want Pitt to be great…well OK, to be perenially in the top quarter of the ACC would be great-enough. Right? I mean anything less should be completely unacceptable to any blue and gold Pitt fan. What exactly in the KS resume suggests that could ever happen? On top of that, there is a lot of smoke suggesting he does not mentor his kids and represent the program all that well…isn’t that purportedly the #1 concern of the Pitt BOT? I just don’t get it. Nothing about KS suggests the kind of success on and off the court we expect Pitt to achieve. Nothing. .600 in the SEC with NBA talent? That seems an argument against, not for. You are right…KS is not a total zero. And God forbid if we Pitt fans are just aiming for someone who is not a zero. Pitt does not need a 10 out of 10 but anything less than an 7-8 and we are settling for mediocrity. Anyone here willing to argue KS is higher than a 6, at best? So far considering what he did with a tourney team last year, and the mutiny we have seen this post-season, I give him a 2.
H2P!!!
If he were a winner perhaps we could look the other way but he has oversaw the worse loss in almost a 100 years and we lost to the Dukes.
We have no choice but to give him time but those of us with eyes in our head can see this is a sinking ship.
If crash means plateau, sure, I’ll give you that. It’s also why this 2017 class was so important. It was going to be Dixon’s first true rebuild and would have been a new foundation he needed to compete in the ACC. Who knows who he would have brought in with the better recruiting budget and salaries he could offer his assistants. I’m guessing Dixon would have had Pitt back.
Pitt hired Kevin Stallings who was allegedly on his way out at Vanderbilt. Stallings had made 7 NCAA tournaments in 17 seasons including a play-in game most recently that Vanderbilt lost by 20 points. It was his first NCAA tourney in four seasons. That’s hardly fits any definition of successful. 55 year old Kevin Stallings reportedly signed a contract at Pitt paying him in excess of $2M per season for six years. He was about to coach a team coming off a 4 point tournament loss to a higher seeded sweet sixteen team and that would be returning 6-7 top scorers. That hardly fits any definition of uncertainty and would make me willing to “accept” that coaching job.
I believe there may be some other reasonable recognition required.
Vanderbilt’s record in the SEC under Stallings was below .500 BTW.
At the end of the day, KS recruited NBA talent at Vandy…and essentially did nothing with that talent. Becuase he has no track record/ability of maximizing talent through excellent coaching.
IF any of the kids that have or are going to transfer or those close to them believed in KS or that the program would have even moderate success under him they wouldn’t all be looking for a way out. They are closer to him than any of us so them ALL walking away speaks volumes.
Pitt let/encouraged Jamie Dixon to walk and we got a second rate bum who was about to be fired from of all places Vanderbilt.
Vandy meanwhile upgraded with Brice Drew.
The only thing I look forward to next year is Kevin Stallings being booed at the Pete by the Zoo who he has yet to try to reach out to for any kind of support (I know this because my kid is a Junior with honors 🙂 and she received only 1 email from HCKS this past year while Dixon sent something out every home game & bought the kids waiting in line pizza or doughnuts all the time) and for his firing which will happen 1 or 2 years from now.
He is simply a place holder collecting a check and doing very little to earn it. Kevin Stallings is a name that will down as one of the worst coaches in Pitt basketball history.
i mean c’mon, Jeffrey Taylor, Dan Langhi (prob recruited prior to KS), Matt Frieje, John Jenkins, Derrick Byars, Demarre Carrol (who left and went to Missouri), Wade Baldwin IV, Festus Ezeli and Damion Jones.
Other than Carroll Ezeli and maybe Baldwin and Jones .. the rest may have been drafted but basically were fringe guys that didn’t stick around long.
Stallings lost me when he threw his players under the bus – more than once. You’re the leader. Be a man. Take some responsibility. As far as I know, losing is not yet a capital crime in PA. Being a jerk should be.
H2P!!!
I couldn’t name any Vandy players from the Kevin Stallings era as I and most actual Pitt fans paid no attention to that program.
Are you a Pitt fan or just a fan of Kevin Stallings?
Had Dixon stayed, he would have had his first real recruiting budget in a decade plus money to go after top assistants. Neither of which he had under SP.
To my point, and what Barvo alluded to, the program didn’t crash until Stallings came on board. It had plateaued and stalled under Dixon but the 2017 class was the opportunity to start fresh.
I agree with 1618MT. Stalling was a bad hire. I wouldn’t label him a bad coach. He has done himself no favors though. The room was very easy to read when he was hired … yet he never endeared himself to the fans.
@DD Dixon also won two Big East regular season titles and one BE tourney title. Pitt also played in a string of BE tournament finals. Dixon finished with a total conference record of 143-81 (.638). His BE record was 115-55 (.676).
Stallings won one SEC tourney title and his conference record was 138-142 (.493).
Still contend that the reason Dixon and Pitt plateaued was the disastrous 2010 and 2011 classes. Pitt paid for those two classes for years. Pitt probably could have successfully returned if Adams, from 2012, had stayed for 2-3 years. For example can you imagine the 2013-2014 team (first season in ACC) with Robinson at point, Patterson at SG, Young at SF, Zanna at PF and Adams at C with Artis and Wright coming off the bench?
Not that it should come as a surprise but Lyke is supporting Stallings:
I find it interesting that she is supporting him in his efforts to “build” the program. Didn’t a fairly successful program exist before he arrived?
