Over 2 years ago, I made the following observation regarding a certain sports talk shock radio host:

…does anyone really believe Mark Madden has “reliable sources” anywhere in college sports? Really? The Pens, sure. Maybe even the Steelers. But at Pitt? In basketball? He barely acknowledges the existence of the sport.

This came after Madden cribbed a piece from The Big Lead over the open Oregon job, only he repackaged it to claim he had “sources” telling him that Dixon was heading to Oregon after the Final Four.

So you would think everyone would learn a lesson from this. Mark Madden, however, would hope you would forget it when he teased this on Twitter yesterday.

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After this past basketball season I was certain that we could go through the coaching carousel without even an unserious “Jamie Dixon being targeted by X” story. Not just because Pitt had an off year, but because there were no jobs coming open that had any fit. Illinois, South Carolina and K-State were all geographically poor, not going to make a Godfather offer with money and/or not even lateral moves from Pitt. In fact Dixon’s name never even made it on most initial lists of candidates.

Then Jim Christian abruptly left TCU to take the Ohio job. With TCU entering the Big 12 and Dixon being a Horned Frog alum, the inevitable stories began. Naturally they really didn’t amount to much. Yes, TCU reached out to Dixon but nothing happened — TCU fans like to believe it was simply that they couldn’t afford Dixon’s price — and TCU hired Trent Johnson from Louisiana State.  Dixon, of course, said nothing the whole time, as has been his policy with any coaching opening.

Then came an absurd report that on the first day of the late signing day — right after meeting with Trey Zeigler and getting him to transfer to Pitt — that Dixon was down in Atlanta meeting with the LSU AD. The school refuted the report, but Dixon himself would not comment on the job. Citing his policy of not commenting on open jobs anywhere.

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Pitt’s 2012 basketball signing class is probably complete — with all the requisite officialness of signed documents. Trey Zeigler sent in his official transfer paperwork, and Chris Jones sent in his Letter of Intent.

The University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball program signed Chris Jones (Teaneck, N.J./Teaneck H.S.) to a National Letter of Intent, head coach Jamie Dixon announced on Wednesday. In addition, Dixon also stated that Trey Zeigler (Mount Pleasant, Mich./Central Michigan) has submitted the necessary scholarship paperwork in order to enroll at Pitt. The NCAA Division I spring men’s basketball signing period began on Wednesday, April 11.

Jones and Zeigler join Steven Adams (Rotorua, New Zealand/Notre Dame Prep, Mass.) and James Robinson (Mitchellville, Md./DeMatha Catholic H.S.) as Pitt’s four-member 2012 class. Not including Jones and Zeigler, Pitt’s 2012 class is considered a consensus top-15 nationally ranked unit. Pitt is ranked No. 13 by ESPNU, No. 10 by Rivals.com, No. 15 by Scout.com and No. 13 by CBSSports.com. Adams (top-10) and Robinson are both consensus top-50 ranked recruits.

I haven’t checked how the rankings look, but the only reason Pitt might move in the rankings will be due to other late signees and how they affect the movement. Transfers do not count for recruiting rankings, so Zeigler will not have an impact on the rankings.

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I don’t know if Jamie Dixon ever forgave Keno Davis for the upset at Providence when the team was #1 in 2009. Dixon seems to have made it a mission to make Davis’ life miserable since. In 2010, Pitt beat Providence’s road upset shot with a half-court 3-pointer at the buzzer by Ashton Gibbs. In 2011, Providence gave Pitt its best shot yet again, but lost. 2012 saw Davis forced to call the 4 straight Pitt games in the CBI — downright cruel.

Then Davis lands the Central Michigan job, and the best player transfers to Pitt. Sure, everyone knew Zeigler was going to transfer, but to go to Pitt? That’s like an extra knife twist into Keno Davis’ gut.

Here’s a radio interview with Coach Dixon from last week — don’t buy the title use of “redemption.” Dixon refused to call the CBI that. It’s not particularly in depth. He talks positively about what the team got through. He talks about needing to play defense, stay healthy and cut down on turnovers for next year. He does admit to being disappointed in the season.

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You know, most of the time in a coach search there is a contingent of loud and delusional fans that overrate their school’s position/status/potential. They can envision a certain A-list coach coming to their program because of something. Usually it is ties to the school or location that convince them it could happen (Buzz Williams-SMU delusions). They set insane expectations for the hire, are shocked by the outcome — and then blame the athletic director/program for being idiotic and/or too cheap.

In the case of TCU and Jamie Dixon, this is almost entirely a media creation. The first article was earlier in the week, then came the ESPNDallas homer piece insisting that TCU has to hire Jamie Dixon.

Before you roll your eyes and claim that TCU has no shot, know this: He’s at the top of their wish list. And I wonder if the timing isn’t right for him to leapfrog to Fort Worth.

There are some obstacles, obviously. He had a disappointing year in Pittsburgh (team didn’t make NCAA or NIT, but won the CBI title), but has a contract worth, according to reports, between $1.6 and $2 million through 2018. TCU was paying Christian around $600,000. That’s an awfully large gap.

But athletic director Chris Del Conte (with help from football coach Gary Patterson and others at TCU) helped get the financial backing for renovations to Amon G. Carter Stadium. Football, as it should, took priority. Now, the athletic department should focus on increasing resources for the basketball program. That has to start with renovations to Daniel-Meyer Coliseum and Del Conte has said that’s a major priority.

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That coach should be Dixon. But why would he do it? Because he was a star at TCU as a player and seems to have at least kept track of things in Horned Frog land since he left.

And sure there are TCU fans that can put this scenario together, but honestly this piece is almost like it peeled off of a message board.

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If you missed it over the weekend, four years of trying to fix TCU basketball was enough for Jim Christian. He is returning the MAC to take the Ohio University job. (Prior to taking the TCU job, Christian was head coach of Kent State.)

Just as TCU would be moving up to the Big 12 — and a higher profile — Christian would rather take a pay cut and step down in prestige. He wasn’t on the hot seat, by most accounts. The team finished 7-7 in the MWC, 18-15 overall.  And when you consider how bad TCU was, that Christian only went 38-58 in the first 3 seasons, he was making progress.

Well, this post from a Dallas paper details the reasons. Low pay scale for coaches and assistants, outdated facilities with no clear timeline for when they would be upgraded, no real commitment to improving facilities without improvement on the court (which is a chicken or egg situation), and simply not being committed to being a legit basketball program.

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Everyone is just a wee bit focused on the football side of things. There are some basketball things to get out there.

The Khem Birch situation just remains incredibly sad to me. This apparently was not thought through particularly well. There are even rumblings that Birch might actually want to come back to Pitt. Just one little problem so far:

That could be a hindrance.

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Obviously there has been plenty written, and by Friday much of it is stale. I’m just trying to catch-up. On many things. I’ve had about 7 hours of sleep over the last couple of days and I’m just trying to make it through today and tonight.

One other note, about my media day. I was stuck in the Philly airport for a good chunk of Wednesday evening waiting for a connecting flight to get me home. My WVU counterpart ended up seated next to Coach Dixon. The universe has quite a sense of humor.

Now one of the big side shows out of Big East Media Day was Rick Pitino — yet again — lashing out at Pitt and Syracuse by choosing the most uncomfortable analogy he could possibly think of using:

“My problem is not them leaving,” he said. “My problem is you did it in 48 hours. Don’t run away with a girl after one date when you’ve been dating someone else for three or four years. You’ve been dating this woman for 30 years, show a little respect.”

That quote didn’t get out the minute he said it — which would seem surprising. But once it was out there, man. My twitter feed exploded with it around 2 or 3 that afternoon. I remember seeing some comment from a media guy who was there when Pitino said it. He said, Pitino was on a roll at the time, and no one really batted an eye at it as being other than a good one-liner — at least until they went back to put things together for the story. Then, well, what else can you say.

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Okay, so Coach Jamie Dixon isn’t exactly a font of controversial statements and radical thoughts in college basketball and the coaching profession. Odds are that isn’t changing anytime soon. In fact, that sticking to the orthodoxy of what coaches say, probably was a factor in being named a director on the board of the National Association of Basketball Coaches along with Brad Stevens, Mark Gottfried and Jim Boeheim.

The directors list of the NABC is, um, varied. There’s Tom Izzo, Phil Martelli, Bo Ryan and other respected, very good coaches. Then there are guys like Ernie Kent (ex-Oregon coach), Paul Hewitt and Mike Brey.

Shaky-cam alert, as the increasingly receding-haired Coach Dixon (not helped by the camera angle) is asked about recruiting and Pitt and the team for next year.

As Zagoria says from the get-go, it is not like Coach Dixon can say much about recruiting. Not allowed to comment on specific players and Coach Dixon just says that Pitt is looking for the best players who will come to Pitt.

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This week my boss is off from work, so I am covering her stuff. Logged a 15 hour day, but the promise of sleeping in a bit today was a good carrot. This morning the wife gets me up because her car had a flat. If anyone needs me I’ll be under the table clutching some Scotch.

I’ll get to some second-hand Greentree summer league stuff a bit later. From what I’m reading, the kids look good. But at the same time, this is far different from what they’ll be doing come the fall, and the talent level is much more varied. Encouraging, but it has to be treated a lot like spring practices in football.

Not that it is that relevant, but the USA Basketball U-19 team is off to a poor start. In exhibition games against the Lithuanians U-20 and U-19 teams, the team has lost by 29 and 33 points, and allowed more than 100 points in both games. Exhibition games, yes. Disturbing nonetheless. Some might argue it’s the talent disparity. That this squad lacks the good U-19 talent, because those players didn’t play. At the same time they said similar things about the 2009 squad. Remember the head scratching over Ashton Gibbs being on the squad?

The biggest difference seems to be the coaching.

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Since taking the Towson job, Pat Skerry has actually gotten Towson more attention than it has in prior years. He’s grabbed some decent recruits for the CAA, and they have this new funky court action shamelessly ripped from what Oregon did.

In interviews has praised his single year working under Coach Dixon. The track record for coaches who have been assistants under Coach Dixon finding success in their own coaching gigs has been mostly successful. Only Barry Rohrssen has not been able to sustain any success.

The one thing that hasn’t been answered is what it is about coaches hired under Dixon finding success once they get their own program.

NHR: There have been a lot of coaches that have worked for Jamie Dixon that have moved onto head coaching positions after being an assistant for him. What is it about him that allows for that kind of career change for assistant coaches?

PS: “Obviously his track record speaks for itself. He’s incredibly driven. His focus for his system works. He’s had more success than anyone in terms of record in the Big East over the last decade. I think there’s a lot that you can take from him to give yourself a chance to win night in and night out. I kind of feel like I’ve been fortunate to work for him, who’s been the National Coach of the Year.”

I think it goes without saying that Dixon has hired ambitious, good coaches in their own right. Rice, Herrion, Skerry and now Barton. All of them were good/great recruiters who were climbing the coaching ladder (or in the case of Herrion, re-establishing his name).

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Yesterday, SI.com had a big feature on Todd Graham taking over at Pitt (hat tip to the many, many who e-mailed and linked it in the comments).

“We’ve gotta take the good and make them great, and the great and make them outstanding,” Graham said. “We’re striving for perfection. We’ll tolerate excellence.”

After a year flush with misfortune, a spring full of such unbridled optimism may be just what the Panthers need. In 2011, it might also serve as a harbinger of things to come.

The Big East appears weak and wide open once again, with South Florida juggling quarterbacks B.J. Daniels and Bobby Eveld, West Virginia testing a partnership between incumbent coach Bill Stewart and coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen and TCU still a year removed from its conference debut. While early nonconference tests at Iowa and against Notre Dame will be challenging, Graham’s rebuilt, under-the-radar squad could make a run at the Big East’s guaranteed BCS bid.

We’ll see. But it is nice to be optimistic.

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This year, didn’t even rise to a level of “will he at least listen?” status. NC State, Mizzou, and now Maryland didn’t even make it past the wish list stage. There never was a moment this entire spring when it even seemed plausible that Coach Dixon was going anywhere. This despite being on all of those fanbases wishlists.

Part of what made filling the Maryland job so much harder was the timing of Gary Williams’ retirement. Convincing any coach like Sean Miller (who now swears he’s not going anywhere), Jamie Dixon, Jay Wright, et cetera to up and leave in May does not happen without being a top-5 job and big, big money in play.

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Last week when Pat Skerry became the guy for Towson and Khem Birch was having his Twitter moment (and panicking the easily panicked), there was some questioning why Assistant Coach Brandin Knight was planning a meeting later that week with Birch to reassure him, but not Coach Jamie Dixon.

As usual, there is a decent reason. Coach Dixon made advanced plans to be elsewhere — and was. In this case New Zealand.

Instead, University of Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon is in Wellington barking out instructions to young Kiwi hopefuls at a two-day camp at Newtown’s Southwest Stadium.

Judging by the picture at the top of the article, that includes a future Panther that Coach Dixon obviously wanted to pay a visit.

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