Kevin Stallings needs to go.
There, I said it.
Pitt AD Heather Lyke needs to rid herself of the awful hire
made by her predecessor Scott Barnes.
That being said, I can think of roughly 6 million reasons
why Lyke will not fire Stallings at the end of the season, giving him a 3rd
year to further disgrace a once highly regarded basketball program. Pitt athletics have never been one to spend
extra money. They have always been known
to be rather cheap when compared to their competition, both back in the Big
East and still now in the ACC. So, the
roughly $6M difference in the Stallings buyout between March of 2018 and March
of 2019 seems like a pretty tall ask for the athletic department and Lyke to
take on.
However, you have to wonder how much money keeping Stallings
will cost the basketball program. Ticket
sales have been awful this season at the Pete as it seems like every game sets
a new all-time low attendance figure for the building. Wednesday night, the announced attendance was
2,566, which was the lowest attended conference game in the buildings 16
seasons. On the year, Pitt is averaging 3,885
per game. If you factor in that 2 of the
games were dominated by fans of the visiting teams (WVU and Duke) and remove
those two games from the equation, Pitt is averaging 3,053 per game. Capacity at the Petersen Event Center is
12,508, meaning that this year, on average Pitt is getting less than a quarter
(24.4%) of the buildings capacity for their games. This is the same building that as recently as
5 years ago was one of the toughest tickets to get into for a Pitt Men’s
basketball game.
How much money does the athletic department have to lose
from ticket sales and from donations into the program before enough is enough?
As for the product on the court, it is bad. REALLY BAD!
When Stallings was hired, all anyone could talk about was
what a great offensive mind he is and how effective and efficient his offenses
are. It seemed like coaches were going
out of their way to praise him and his genius.
So, about that offense…
Pitt is now 8 games into conference play with 21 games on
the season and they average 64.4 pointe per game, which ranks 336th
out of 351 in all D1. The 68 points they
scored on Wednesday against NC State was the most they had scored all season in
ACC play and the most points in any game since scoring 74 vs Delaware State
December 19th. They haven’t
reached the 70-point mark in ACC play in their last 14 games. They scored 80 against Florida State on Feb
18th last season. (12 of the
15 ACC teams AVERAGE more than 70 ppg this season.)
Looking at more than points per game, shines even a brighter
light on just how bad the Panthers have been on offense this season. Pitt ranks dead last in the ACC, shooting
just 42.7% from the field. They aren’t
much better from the foul line or from 3-point range, ranking 12th
in the conference in both categories.
They also average 15 turnovers a game, which is the worst in the
league. Their 315 turnovers on the
season is 40 more than the next closest team.
Pitt has more turnovers than assists this year, something you never saw
when Jamie Dixon was coaching. Pitt
ranks last in the ACC in Assist/Turnover Ratio and ranks 299th in
the nation (out of 351 teams).
And if you want to get even more analytical, let’s look at
KenPom’s Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ratings (points scored per 100 possessions, adjusted for opponents). Pitt scores 98.3 points per 100 possessions,
which ranks 277th in the nation and once again dead last in the
ACC. The next closest ACC team is
Georgia Tech, which averages 103 pts/100 possessions, ranking 186th
in the nation. To put those numbers in
perspective, Villanova leads the nation scoring at a rate of 128.2 pts/100
possessions. Coppin State is last,
scoring just 84.6 pts/ 100 possessions.
And remember, those stats are from a team being coached by
an offensive savant. We won’t get into
the details defensively, just use your imagination for how bad they are on that
side of the ball, and it is worse.
Wednesday’s game may have really pushed things over the edge
for me. Pitt, who is in danger of being
only the 7th team in the ACC 65-year history to go winless in
conference play, had a chance to win their 1st ACC game of the
season. Pitt had a 9-point lead at 66-57
with 5:54 left in the game. The Panthers
proceeded to score TWO points the rest of the game, getting outscored by NC State
15-3 in that span. This is how the game
played out for Pitt over the last 5:54…
Kene Chukwuka missed Three Point Jumper.
Kene Chukwuka Offensive foul - Turnover.
Jared Wilson-Frame missed Three Point Jumper.
Jared Wilson-Frame missed Three Point Jumper.
Jared Wilson-Frame Turnover.
Kene Chukwuka missed Jumper.
Pittsburgh Turnover.
Marcus Carr missed Three Point Jumper.
Kene Chukwuka missed Three Point Jumper.
Marcus Carr made Layup.
Marcus Carr missed Three Point Jumper.
Pitt had 11 possessions after going up by 9 with under 6
minutes to play. They proceeded to go
0-6 from 3-point range, with ZERO offensive rebounds. They had 3 turnovers. They missed a 2-point jump shot and made 1
layup.
Overall in the 2nd half, while playing with a
lead, Pitt went 0-14 from 3-point range.
PITT SHOT 14 THREE POINTERS IN THE 2ND HALF.
PITT WAS LEADING FOR THE FIRST 17:11 OF THE SECOND HALF AND
SHOT 14 3-POINTERS IN THE HALF!
A team that ranks 12th in the conference,
shooting just 32% from 3-point range, shot 14 of them in the 2nd
half of a game they were winning!
In the postgame Stallings made no comment about the bad shot
selection down the stretch, instead leaves us with this, “In a stretch of
disappointing games, that one was disappointing.”
YA THINK?!?!
To top things off in his postgame presser, Stallings was
asked about removing Jared Wilson-Frame from the game with Pitt down 2 with
2:15 remaining, his response “I don’t really recall. I don’t recall. I don’t remember even taking him out
then.”
Wilson-Frame led Pitt with 22 points in the game. He removed the team’s leading scorer and by
far their best player on the offensive end all night, after blowing a 9-point
lead and didn’t even realize he did it????
The writing is on the wall.
This cannot continue. The team is
still making fundamental errors. The
team may be improving, but it is by such a small margin that it really doesn’t
matter. There are maybe 2 legit
ACC-caliber players on the Pitt roster right now. That doesn’t speak well about the
future. That doesn’t tell me that this
team will be drastically better if Stallings sticks around for Year 3.
