There was near-panic on the Pitt campus last week when assistant basketball coach Barry Rohrssen interviewed for a similar position at St. John's.

It was a tribute to the status of Pitt's program that a prestigious -- although down on its luck -- program would come after one of its assistants.

It was a greater tribute to Rohrssen, who has built a reputation as one of the top East Coast recruiters in the country. The offer was especially tempting because Rohrssen is a New York City native. There's always something special about going home.

But the lure had to be somewhat balanced by Pitt's recent history of hiring from within. If head coach Jamie Dixon would leave, Rohrssen at least would be a candidate to succeed him. The fact St. John's is down and possibly looking at NCAA sanctions also had to enter into Rohrssen's thinking.

In the end, Pitt made an offer Rohrssen couldn't refuse. He gets more money and a new title -- associate head coach -- which makes the path to succeed Dixon slightly less cluttered.

It's to Pitt's credit it was willing to increase Rohrssen's pay significantly. It could have let him go and plugged Orlando Antigua, the director of basketball operations and also with important ties to New York City basketball, into the job

What's puzzling was why his possible departure was viewed by Pitt officials and fans as a staggering blow to the program.

If that's truly the case, Pitt should take a closer look at Dixon. If all it takes is the departure of one assistant to rock a program so much -- let alone threaten to crumble it -- Pitt has the wrong man in charge.

That, however, is not the case. As talented as Rohrssen is, as connected to New York's recruiting scene as he is, he's not irreplaceable. If Pitt handled the departure of Ben Howland without a misstep -- this year -- why shouldn't it be expected to handle the departure of a man who little more than a year ago was an obscure second assistant?

When Howland was touting Dixon as his successor, he made a point of giving Dixon almost all the credit for the team's recruiting success. That wasn't true then, and it's not true now in Rohrssen's case.

No question, Rohrssen has the kind of people skills that make him excellent in connecting with young people. Without question, he's a premier recruiter and extremely valuable to Pitt and Dixon.

But, in discussing himself, Rohrssen said, "No man is irreplaceable."

Rohrssen won't be at Pitt the rest of his life. What happens, say, next year when, instead of being offered an assistant's job, he is offered a head coaching job. Suppose, say, Bobby Gonzalez of Manhattan finally lands one of the jobs to which he's invariably linked? Rohrssen might be an attractive candidate to replace him, and there's no way Pitt could keep him.

It wouldn't be the end of Pitt's successful run. Antigua, an outstanding player at Pitt from 1991-95, would be a natural replacement. He, too, is a New York native and had an outstanding high school career at St. Raymond's High School in the Bronx. His brother, Oliver, another Pitt grad, is the head coach at St. Raymond's.

Rohrssen is one of the best, but assistant coaches don't hold programs together. Head coaches do.

In 1978, a highly regarded but relatively obscure assistant from the Pitt football staff left to become head coach at Oklahoma State. His name was Jimmy Johnson, and long before he became famous as the charismatic coach of championship teams with the Miami Hurricanes and Dallas Cowboys he was one of college football's reigning defensive geniuses.

In losing Johnson, Jackie Sherrill lost a great assistant. More than that, Johnson took with him Dave Wannstedt, who later would go on to coach two NFL teams, and Pat Jones, who would succeed Johnson at Oklahoma State and have a good run of his own.

Pitt had been 17-6-1 the previous two seasons and, understandably, there was concern if that level of play could continue.

Turns out, it was the head coach, not the assistant, who was the linchpin of Pitt's program. The three years after Johnson's departure, Pitt was 33-3.