It has been a difficult week for Pitt fans. The basketball team appears on the verge of collapse after a 55-point loss to Louisville and, without any actual games taking place, there’s only so much football recruiting news to keep you enthralled.
The solution, at least based on this week’s questions, is to turn attention away from those teams and talk about more lighthearted matters. Either that, or you all really don’t care about my Pitt-related opinions.
But, in these instances, the weirder is sometimes the better.
@AllanSchlosser: Allowing for Dixon leaving a half-empty cupboard, was Stallings the right choice to succeed him?
It’s a difficult question, both because we’re only 20 games into his tenure and, as someone who covers the team as a reporter, it’s not necessarily my place to make that kind of a call.
I will say, at the time it was made, I thought it was a unusual and surprising hire. It wasn’t as if I thought they had a legitimate chance at Sean or even Archie Miller, but his name emerged late in the process and from that point, a deal got done relatively quickly. Uninspired as it may have seemed, it was a safe hire. Based on his resume, Stallings may not ever make this a nationally elite program in the way it was for much of the 2000s, but, current results and next season notwithstanding, he’s not going to be objectively bad once he gets his own players. That’s the risk you take when you hire the kind of up-and-comer who very well could have been a fit at Pitt. There’s a chance you stumble upon the next big thing in the sport, but there’s also a chance they flame out once they get to a higher level, especially in a league as rigorous as the ACC.
In short, it was a strange hire, but it’s still TBD on whether it was the right one.
@MDonovan4000: Ryan Luther’s injury weighs heavy on recent events. How do you KS comment on his absence? Is Luther the glue?
He was Pitt’s glue in the respect that he is an ACC-caliber player on a team with just six of them. Based on that logic, though, any of the other five guys in that group — Jamel Artis, Michael Young, Sheldon Jeter, Cameron Johnson and Chris Jones — also fit that bill and their losses, particularly the first three, would be even more debilitating.
If anyone liked to rag on Luther prior to his injury, though, these past few days have been a great example of how important he was to the team based on its current construction.
@HendriRich: Was the golden age of Pitt hoops 2000-2011. Do you see the program ever being able to get back on track?
That was absolutely the program’s golden age. An argument could be made for the late 1980s, but that was a short-lived run. From 2001-11, you’re talking about a stretch in which the Panthers averaged 27.3 wins per season and made the NCAA tournament every year. The zenith of that came in 2008-09 with what was likely the best team in the program’s modern history.
It’s possible they get back to that point at some time, but I’m not sure it’s going to be any time incredibly soon, if only because that’s such a high bar to try to reach. The beauty of basketball, with far fewer participants and less attrition than football, is that with the right conference affiliation and institutional commitment, a school is theoretically one coach or recruiting class away from accomplishing something of note.
@chansen991: What angle do the hoops coaches take for the kids visiting now / the ones they offered this week. ACC minutes?
If there’s a silver lining to be had for fans and coaches in this current mess, it’s that the team’s ghastly present makes for a hell of a pitch about the future. The opportunity for not only immediate playing time, but a feasible chance of making an early statistical impact on an ACC team is awfully enticing. I’m sure it’s something Pitt’s coaches are stressing on the recruiting trail right now — ‘Hey, look at what we have coming back. You could really become something here’ while undoubtedly and understandably saying they only have so much of a hand in the current shortcomings.
That’s an important pitch for high school juniors and seniors right now, but it’s best use will come once the graduate transfer market opens up.
@SaxMan4L: if Pat Narduzzi were to go to State College for lunch, where do you think he would stop?
I’m admittedly not familiar with State College’s culinary scene, having only been there once in my life. Being a small town, though, doesn’t mean a place lacks good restaurants, even if the sheer number of options isn’t as great as it is in a larger city; college towns, in particular, typically have some really cool and eclectic spots.
Since James Franklin walked by an iconic Oakland restaurant like The O, I’ll say Narduzzi would hit up the one place I went to while on Penn State’s campus — the famous Berkey Creamery (which is really good). If nothing else, and for symbolic purposes, he could order a scoop of the Peachy Paterno and throw it in the trash on his way out before even taking a bite.
@BrunoPittsburgh: I'm 40 and 5'3. Is my growth spurt that my mom always told me would happen just not going to be a thing?
Anything can happen if you put your mind to it ... except for your genes. There’s only so much you can do with that, which I guess puts you in a tricky spot with the height question. I can kind of relate. When I was eight, I was projected to be 6-8. I ended up topping out at 6-2 and instead of becoming a basketball star, I did what a lot of semi-athletic kids did in the late 1990s and early aughts and played soccer.
@CoreyECohen: Do you #TrustTheProcess?
I trusted the process, and I always did.
People can make fun of Sam Hinkie and his self-aggrandizing, 13-page resignation letter all they want, but he was on to something. It makes no sense to be a middling team in the NBA, which is exactly where the Sixers were when he took over. In a sport where a few players can make such a huge difference, and if you don’t feel like you’re a top-tier free agent destination, it makes sense to sort of resign yourself to being horrible for a few years with the hope of drafting a young superstar.
For the longest time, that was Philly’s problem with its plan. The 2013 draft was historically weak, though it could have theoretically nabbed Giannis Antetokounmpo, which, given what we know now, would be terrifying for the rest of the league. Joel Embiid wasn’t able to play for his first two seasons. Jahlil Okafor’s most notable NBA accomplishment may, at this point, be trying to fight some fans near a Boston supermarket. With Embiid healthy and looking like a mutant wreaking havoc on the rest of the league, with Ben Simmons reportedly close to returning, and with T.J. McConnell playing like Yinzer John Stockton, there’s a lot of hope for that franchise. And, given that, I’ll say this: I think Hinkie will end up like a front-office equivalent of Mike D’Antoni, someone who dared to be different and was ridiculed, but who folks ultimately realized was kind of right.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG
First Published: January 27, 2017, 5:08 p.m.
