Pitt Basketball: Passing the torch
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Just about every evening, when Jamie Dixon is wrapping up a 12- or 14-hour day at the men's basketball offices at the University of Pittsburgh, he picks up the phone and dials his best friend and mentor.
On the other end, 3,000 miles away in the Mecca of college basketball, is Ben Howland, Dixon's predecessor at Pitt and the new coach at UCLA.
They talk about their teams, their families, recruiting. Everything they used to discuss when they toiled together for the Panthers.
"I wish he was still with me," Howland said. "He's long overdue for this opportunity. The reason I'm at where I'm at is because of Jamie."
Some critics panned the hiring of Dixon in April, 11 days after Howland jetted for the left coast.
How could the administration hire someone without head coaching experience to take over a program that announced its arrival on the national scene with consecutive Sweet 16 appearances in the NCAA tournament?
How could Pitt hire someone who never had to answer the tough questions, balance delicate egos or call a crucial timeout and design a play with his team down by one with five seconds left in a game?
A predictable reaction, Howland said.. But he said he already knows the answers to the many questions Pitt fans have about this 38-year-old who takes over the program at its zenith.
"There's always questions," Howland said. "When I came to Pitt it was 'Ben Who?' I remember reading a quote that I was a coaching rube. That's natural. But believe me when I tell you this. There will be vindication. Hiring Jamie will be validated."
Howland, a virtual unknown until he revived Pitt's program, took over a team that had five losing seasons in six years under Ralph Willard. Howland purged some players from the roster he inherited and assimilated the rest into his system. By the end of his fourth and final season behind the bench, he guided the Panthers to the school's first Big East championship and deep into the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.
Dixon, his right-hand man through it all, is entrusted with maintaining that success. If he is nervous about stepping into the hot seat, the former child actor is doing a good job of hiding it.
"Nothing has changed," Dixon said. "No matter who was hired, there were going to be questions. I was fortunate to get this job. It's a good job. That's how I look at it. Whether it's a rookie coach or a 20-year veteran."
The coaches' network
Just a few assistant coaches with no head coaching experience have been given top bench jobs of established programs in major conterences. Dixon has sought out those who blazed the path before him.
He called Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, Indiana coach Mike Davis and Gonzaga coach Mark Few, all of whom made a swift transition from assistant to first-time head coach.
He received simple advice.
"Just be yourself was the biggest thing they said," Dixon said. "Don't change for the sake of change."
Pitt fans will be thrilled if Dixon can approach the success those coaches had after getting hired. Izzo won a national championship. Davis coached the Hoosiers to the Final Four. And Few has kept the Zags among the elite year after year.
Two coaches in the Big East had no prior head coaching experience before taking over, either. Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and Georgetown's Craig Esherick said Dixon should not worry because he is familiar with his players and the opponents in the conference.
"It can go kind of smoothly," said Boeheim, who is 653-226 since taking over for Roy Danforth in 1976. "I was very fortunate. I won 26 games my first year. You never know what's going to happen. I had a good team and good players and that helps.
"Jamie is well-prepared. He coached for a great coach, and he has very good players."
Esherick is on the other side of the equation. He has had trouble maintaining the program John Thompson built into a national power. Once the premier team in the Big East, Georgetown has been to the NCAA tournament once in his five seasons as head coach.
"The one advantage Jamie has over me is that he didn't take over in January," Esherick said. "I took over in January. He had an entire summer to plan for this year. Jamie, even though he was not the head coach -- and that is a big adjustment -- he still was in the league. He probably scouted every single team in the league. He understands and he knows the players. It won't be a problem adjusting to the league. Pittsburgh had a heck of a team last year and he was a big part of that. The only thing, and I'm sure Jamie will do a good job, the only adjustment is becoming the head coach."
Recruiting is key
Even though Pitt has the third-best winning percentage (57-11, .838) in the nation the past two seasons, the top coaches were not lining up at the front door of the Petersen Events Center when Howland left for UCLA.
Originally, Pitt officials wanted to hire Wake Forest coach and Carnegie native Skip Prosser, but not even the lure of coming home to his native city was enough to seal the deal.
After being shunned by Prosser, the administration, operating with an interim athletic director, hired Dixon.
"I still don't know how great a job this is considered in the coaching profession," Dixon said. "No one wants to follow someone who sets records at a school."
Asked how he plans on handling that role , Dixon said: "I should have thought of that five years ago when I came here and started building this thing."
Dixon was responsible for a lot of the things that made Pitt successful during the Howland era. Chief among them was recruiting. He found Julius Page in Buffalo and Ontario Lett at a junior college in Florida.
When Pitt was still languishing from the Willard era, he went out and helped sign a top-25 recruiting class that included Page and Chevon Troutman.
Now, in his first six months as head coach, he has secured one of the top recruiting classes in the Big East and got his first junior verbal commitment last week when Michael Davis from Xavierian High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., considered one of the top juniors in New York City, agreed to become a Panther.
"I bring continuity, familiarity of the program," Dixon said. "I also bring a knowledge of four years of how to do things as far as recruiting players. It didn't happen by accident. We didn't just walk down the street and get these guys. You have to be creative here. There's a reason we won 13 games our first year here and then 28 and 29 the last two years. What was the difference?
"Better players. We're quite aware of that. Recruiting is the key ingredient. We don't get guys locally. If you look at all the great programs, they get guys locally. Right in their area. You have to be able to evaluate guys and find guys to fit into your system. When you talk to college coaches, they all say the No. 1 priority is proximity to players. That's what you want to have. We just have to continue to work."
Great expectations
Pitt was picked by the Big East coaches to finish fourth in a league that has the preseason consensus No. 1 team in Connecticut, the defending national champion in Syracuse, and another Sweet 16 team from last season in Notre Dame.
The Panthers are expected to challenge the top teams even though point guard Brandin Knight and forwards Ontario Lett and Donatas Zavackas are gone.
The 2003-04 Panthers return three seniors -- guards Julius Page (12.2 points per game, 3.4 rebounds per game) and Jaron Brown (10.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and center Toree Morris (3.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg). Dixon also has at his disposal junior forward Chevy Troutman (11.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and talented sophomore point guard Carl Krauser (6.0 ppg, 2.9 apg).
The challenge for Dixon will be adding depth to those five with inexperienced underclassmen. He will be counting on several players who have never played important minutes, including a couple of freshmen -- highly touted forward Chris Taft and center Aaron Gray and possibly backup point guard Antonio Graves.
"The expectation level probably is unrealistic," Howland said. "What we did the last two seasons. Back-to-back Sweet 16s, the best records in school history. The expectation level is so high that if you win 20-some games, it's 'Oh, is that it?' When in reality, that's a great year."
Howland said Dixon is stepping into a good situation with many positives, among them a talented and veteran core that can see this team through the early portion of the schedule and teach them how to win.
"The bottom line is he has a great team," Howland said. "With Jaron Brown, Julius Page, Chevy Troutman and Carl Krauser you have four proven veterans. If they stay healthy and the rest of the guys come on, they'll have a very good year. Those guys are used to winning. They know how to win. Carl will have a great year. Jaron and Julius I love to death. They're like my kids. They're all warriors, tough, hard-nosed winners.
"And the freshmen ... Taft and Aaron Gray will be very good players. Those guys are going to be two aircraft carrier beasts in the Big East. I would kill to have those two guys with me at UCLA."
So much for not putting the pressure on Dixon?
Dixon said his expectations are unchanged. They were the same as they were five years ago when he came to Pitt with Howland.
"When I came to Pitt five years ago, people said I had unrealistic expectations because I wanted to win a Big East championship," Dixon said. "No one's going to have higher expectations that me, my staff and our players. My expectations are to win the Big East."
First Published November 14, 2003 12:00 am
