The ACC Tournament will conclude exactly one month from tomorrow
(March 10th). Pitt will
likely be back in Pittsburgh by the 2nd day of the 5-day tournament,
possibly putting a cap on an embarrassing 0-19 record vs. the ACC. Hopefully by this time next month they will
have already begun the search process for their next men’s basketball head
coach. The 1st call they
should make in that process is to Dan Hurley.
To be honest, I had hoped that Hurley was a candidate for
the opening at Pitt two years ago when Jaime Dixon left Pitt for TCU, but his name
was never mentioned during the search.
At that point Hurley, son of one of the most successful high school
basketball coaches in history, Bob, Sr. and brother to former Duke star and
current Arizona State head coach Bobby, had already made a name for himself in
coaching.
Hurley got into coaching immediately after graduating from
Seton Hall, where he was the Pirates starting point guard. His 1st job was an assistant to
his father at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, NJ. After one season at St. Anthony’s he joined
the staff at Rutgers for 4 years as an assistant. Hurley then went back to high school and
became the head coach at St. Benedict’s in Newark, NJ. In 9 years at St. Benedict’s Hurley recorded
223 wins to just 21 losses. St.
Benedict’s finished ranked in the Top 5 nationally 4 times in those 9 years,
clearly proving he was more than just Bob Hurley’s son when it came to coaching
basketball.
After St. Benedict’s, Hurley took his 1st college
head coaching job at Wagner College in Staten Island. He inherited a team at Wagner that went 5-26
the year before he arrived. In his 2nd
year Hurley led the Seahawks to a 25-6 record, good enough for a 2nd
place finish in the NEC. Pitt fans might
remember that team, as they came to the Petersen Event Center and beat the 15th
ranked Panthers, handing Pitt their 1st ever loss to an NEC opponent. Hurley then found himself in charge of
another rebuild the following year, after taking a step up in competition and
leaving Wagner for the Atlantic-10 and Rhode Island.
The Rams were 7-24 the season prior to Hurley arriving. After taking 2-years to rebuild the URI
program, Hurley had a 23-win team playing in the NIT after a 2nd
place A-10 finish in year #3. He is now
in Year 6 at Rhode Island, where he has compiled a record of 105-77 going into
tonight’s game between the two top teams in the Atlantic-10. Over the past 4 seasons he is 83-38 leading
the Rams, including a 19-3 record this year, which includes an undefeated 11-0
conference record.
Hurley clearly has a resume that qualifies him for a
promotion into a major conference. Now
the question most ask would be, “Why would he want to walk into the mess at Pitt
right now?”
That is a fair question.
Here are my 4 reasons why the Pitt job makes sense for Hurley:
1) MONEY!!! It is
plain and simple.
Before we get into the money conversation, let me put an end
to the myth that Pitt doesn’t have any money.
There is a big difference between being smart or even cheap with how you
spend money and not having money at all.
The ACC has paid Pitt $55M over the past 2 years and another $30M or so
will be coming at the end of this current school year. Pitt has the money to attract a big coach and
to buy out their current one.
Now, back to Hurley.
Hurley signed a contract extension with Rhode Island last
March. Under the new deal he is getting
just about $1.1M a year, a figure that is considered to be very near the limit
to the basketball budget at Rhode Island.
The details to Kevin Stallings current contract at Pitt aren’t public
knowledge, but we do know that he made $2.1M at Vanderbilt in his final season
and reports are that his buyout after this season, with 4 years remaining on
his deal, would be around $10M. Without
knowing the exact numbers, it is pretty safe to bet that Stallings is currently
making at least double the amount that Hurley is.
2) As good as Hurley has been at Rhode Island, how long does
he plan on staying there? 6 years is a
long time at a mid-major when you have been as successful as he has. Is he waiting for a bigger job to open? Maybe, but Pitt isn’t a terrible job. It is an ACC school, which you’d think would
be a draw for a guy born and raised in the NJ/NY area. It is a program that has had a ton of success
as recently as just a few years ago.
Pitt was ranked in the Top 10 for 11 straight years from 2002 to 2012. They were in the NCAA Tournament just 3 years
ago. This isn’t Rutgers we are talking
about. You could do a lot worse than
Pitt if you were a coach looking to jump into a major conference.
3) Just looking at the coaching landscape this season, there
doesn’t seem to be many jobs opening up this year in the major
conferences. As crazy as this seems,
Pitt may be one of, if not the best job that becomes available. Sure, you might have Arizona or Michigan
State open depending on what comes out about the 2 different scandals that
could possibly be tied to their current coaches, but I don’t think Hurley would
get either of those jobs even if they became available. UCONN might come available if they show Kevin
Ollie the door. Louisville has a
decision to make regarding their interim head coach David Padgett. St. John’s was looking like a team that might
come open and would be a great fit for Hurley, but Chris Mullin has just led
his team to wins over both #4 Duke and #1 Villanova in back to back games. I think he is safe too. After that, Pitt is the best job of the
group.
4) Something that has
been somewhat over looked by the many that have argued that Hurley wouldn’t
come to Pitt is the fact that his team at Rhode Island this year is very senior
heavy. This would be his chance to
strike while the iron is hot. As mentioned
before, URI is 19-3, with all 3 of those losses coming in the non-conference to
teams that will be in the field of 68 next month. 4 of the 5 Rams starters this year are
seniors, as is their top player off the bench.
Rhode Island is set to lose 64.5% of their minutes played this
season. They currently only have 1 underclassman
that averages over 17 minutes a game.
They also lose 74.9% of their scoring including their top 4
scorers. They are also set to lose over
half (57.9%) of their rebounding from this season. Their best on ball defender, Stanford
Robinson, is also a senior. He currently
ranks 7th in the nation in steals.
Hurley will be going through a mini rebuild next year one way or the
other, why not do it at a more established program, while getting paid a LOT
more money?
Dan Hurley is the guy for Pitt. After Heather Lyke fires Kevin Stallings at
roughly 4:30p (15-seed is scheduled to play at 2pm) Tuesday March 6th,
her 1st call should be to Dan Hurley and she shouldn’t take no for
an answer.
