The Hire

As anticipated by many, Heather Lyke made her move today and cut ties with now former Pitt Men’s Basketball coach Kevin Stallings.  Now the pressure lays directly on her shoulders to find his replacement.  Hiring Kevin Stallings was a massive blow to the Pitt basketball program.  Firing him now was the right move but making the correct hire for his replacement is just as important if Pitt wants to get back to were they were 7 years ago, when they were the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Pitt is a good job.  Pitt is going to be one of the better jobs available this year (the NCAA/FBI thing won’t start bringing down programs for another 1-2 years, if ever).  Pitt, despite what many people say, can pay big bucks for the coach they want.  They showed that by paying big bucks to a coach they didn’t want, in buying out Stallings.  In my mind, Pitt is the 2^nd best job available this offseason, behind only Louisville.  Even with pending NCAA sanctions, Louisville has the history and the money to attract ANY coach they want.  After that, you have teams like Pitt and Mississippi and maybe Georgia (if they fire Mark Fox).  Other than that, there doesn’t look to be many major conference jobs coming open this year, which helps Pitt.

I have already given you my Coaches NOT to Hire.

Here are my Top 5 choices for the next basketball coach at Pitt.

1. DAN HURLEY – Head Coach at Rhode Island
If you haven’t read my previous RANT making a case for Hurley, here it is.  Hurley is in his 6^th year at Rhode Island and has the Rams entering the A-10 Tournament as the #1 seed and regular season champs.  Hurley will NOT be back at Rhode Island next year.  His team currently is loaded with seniors and he has basically maxed out his earning power at Rhode Island with his last contract extension.  Hurley is a proven winner, who has won at both Wagner and Rhode Island after taking them over as rebuild projects.  He is clearly the top mid-major coach this year, that is ready to take the step to the to the next level.  Louisville could also be an option for Hurley, but I think the Cardinals are going to try and make a big push for Xavier head coach Chris Mack.  If they strike out with Mack, Hurley may be their next target.

2. MICK CRONIN – Head Coach at Cincinnati
I’m going to set this at about a .5% chance of happening.  Cronin is the only name on this list that I think might choose to stay at his current job, rather than taking the Pitt job, if offered.  He is in a pretty good spot right now.  Cronin is born and raised in Cincinnati and a graduate of UC.  Cronin makes $2.2M coaching there, but I don’t think money would factor into Cronin’s decision much.  The biggest question is does he want to leave Cincinnati, his alma mater, and try his hand in the ACC?  Cronin has a great background, coaching under Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino before getting his 1^st head coaching job.   Cronin was at Murray State for 3 years before going to Cincinnati, he took Murray State to the NCAA Tournament in 2 of his 3 years there.  He is in his 12^th year at Cincinnati and has the Bearcats ready to return to the NCAA Tournament for the 8^th straight year.   Likely not going to happen, but if Lyke doesn’t give his agent a call, she isn’t doing her job.

3. MICAH SHREWSBERRY – Boston Celtics Assistant Coach
Here is your head-scratcher name, but trust me, he’s candidate and a darn good one at that.  Although Shrewsberry has never been a head coach, he has worked for some good ones.  He has spent 8 of the last 10 years working under Brad Stevens, who in my opinion is one of the best basketball minds in coaching.  He worked with Stevens for 3 years at Butler, including both years Butler made it to the National Championship Game.  Then he went to Purdue and worked with Matt Painter, where he was very instrumental in recruiting.  This year’s Purdue team, which has spent most of the year in the Top 10, is a senior laden team.  Shrewsberry is a big reason those seniors are at Purdue.  In fact, he was invited back to their Senior Night this year because of his ties to that senior class.  Shrewsberry returned to Stevens bench and is in his 5^th year with the Celtics.  He is a defensive minded coach and is credited for the development of two of the Celtics top young players, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, both lottery picks.  Shrewsberry would like to return to the college ranks and do so as a head coach.  I don’t always have inside information, but I can say with 100% certainty that Shrewsberry is interested in the Pitt job.

4. RON SANCHEZ – Assistant Coach at Virginia
Just like any assistant coach, you always look at who they have coached under to try to determine how what type of coach he might be.  Sanchez has spent the last 12 years on the bench of Tony Bennett, arguably the best defensive head coach in college basketball.  Sanchez has established some solid recruiting ties in the ACC as well, which could certainly help Pitt as they look to improve their roster.  Sanchez is one of the hot assistant coaches that will certainly have opportunities this offseason to become a head coach if he wants to make the jump.  One worry that some might have is that he has worked under just 1 coach for his professional coaching career (he did work under Mike Davis at Indiana as a Grad Assistant). 

5. THAD MATTA – Former Head Coach at Ohio State
Matta was actually on my original DO NOT HIRE list, before it was known that he is healthy and wants to get back into coaching.  He is #5 on this list simply because nobody really knows how healthy he really is.  Pitt can’t afford to hire a coach right now that only lasts 2 years before being forced back into retirement from a pre-existing condition.  Matta left Ohio State last June due to lingering foot and back issues that made it difficult for him to do his job.  In his final year at Ohio State the Buckeyes went just 17-15, it was the only time in his 17-year career as a head coach that he did not win 20 or more games.  Matta made 2 Final Fours, including 1 National Championship Game while at Ohio State.  He also won the Big Ten regular season title 5 times and won the Big Ten Tournament 4 times.  If Matta is healthy and wants to give coaching another try, Pitt should 100% call him and gauge his interest.  He has ties to Pitt AD Heather Lyke, from her time at Ohio State.  Pitt also has some similar recruiting areas to what Matta would have been used to at Ohio State. 

Who Is Next At Pitt?

Kevin Stallings has now completed the perfect season, 0-18.  Pitt is just the 2^nd ACC school to ever accomplish this feat.  By the time we wake up tomorrow Stallings could and should be fired.  There is no sense in Athletic Director Heather Lyke delaying the inevitable any longer.  Fire Stallings now and hire the next Pitt Men’s Basketball Coach ASAP (even if it is not announced for another few weeks because the new head coach still has his team playing.)  The key however, is this hire.  After the disastrous Kevin Stallings Experiment, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and Lyke cannot afford to miss on this hire.

Let me say once again, that I am 100% hitched to the Dan Hurley wagon.  If you missed my Rant a few weeks back making a case for him to be the replacement, here it is.

Obviously, I am not making the hire, so I am sure that others will be considered by the decision makers at Pitt as well.  If they don’t get Hurley from Rhode Island, I don’t really have anyone in particular that I would really pull for to be hired.  I like the idea of a guy like Ron Sanchez, the Associate Head Coach at Virginia under Tony Bennett.  I think Mick Cronin, at Cincinnati, might be someone to talk to and maybe gauge his interest.  Steve Forbes at ETSU was going to be a hot name, but he reportedly just agreed to an extension recently.  Who knows if that holds up.  I’m intrigued by some other names that I have heard mentioned as well, but I am going to keep those names to myself for the time being.

One thing I can say is that I know who I DON’T want Pitt to hire as their next basketball coach.  Being that this has been a hot topic between Pitt fans since roughly mid-January, I have heard tons of suggestions for the next coach.  I have seen them on Twitter, on Pitt message boards, in text conversations with friends.  Some have been good suggestions.  Others have been awful.  Those are the ones that I am going to address here.

(NOTE: I wrote this in Early-February in anticipation of Stallings being fired.  This was BEFORE the Sean Miller information came out late last week.  He was however on my original list of coaches I DID NOT want at Pitt, so I left the original comments and thoughts as to why.  What happened to him last Friday night doesn’t change anything in my mind.  Anyone that was paying close attention to the situation knew that there was another show to drop.  He was a HARD PASS for me before the news came out and he still is today.)

SEAN MILLER: This is the same Sean Miller that just 2 years was running away from this job, and the rumors of being tied to the job, as fast as humanly possible.  It ended with his dad bad mouthing Pitt and basically saying that his son would never coach at Pitt.  If that same Sean Miller, now suddenly wants the Pitt job, then his situation at Arizona with the FBI investigation is WAY worse than any of us think.  As I said before, this is a VERY important hire.  The last thing that Pitt needs is to hire a guy whose top assistant for the last 11 years was in court last week on bribery and fraud charges in connection with the ongoing FBI investigation into the NCAA.  NO THANKS!

BRANDIN KNIGHT:  Remove the name “PITT” from Brandin’s coaching resume and replace it with schools like Seton Hall, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Michigan, or Ohio State.  Would you still want Brandin Knight as the next head coach at Pitt?  I didn’t think so.  I’ll never understand why so much importance is put on whether or not someone is from Pitt (or Pittsburgh).  Being a Pitt guy really isn’t all that important.  Being able to coach and recruit is.  Nobody knew who Ben Howland was before he got to Oakland and he is the guy that turned the whole program around.  Heck, I bet most people reading this now, couldn’t tell me where Howland coached before coming to Pitt.  I know people wanted Knight to get the job when Dixon left and looking back, he probably couldn’t have done much worse than Stallings.  But if he were that good of a coach, don’t you think someone else would have scooped him up and given him a head coaching job?  Don’t you think Dixon would have at least offered him a spot on his staff at TCU?  Knight is currently at Rutgers.  And he isn’t even the top assistant there.  BY THE WAY… Ben Howland coached at Gonzaga, UC Santa Barbara and his only head coaching experience before Pitt hired him was at Northern Arizona.

KEVIN WILLARD:  If Pitt had to hire a “Pitt Guy” I’d rather have Willard over Knight, at least he has head coaching experience.  Still, hiring a Pitt guy is not important and there are much better candidates than Kevin Willard out there, even if he is a Pitt Alum.

ARCHIE MILLER:  See “SEAN MILLER” and re-read the first two sentences.

RICK PITINO:  See “SEAN MILLER” and re-read the last four sentences.

TOM CREAN:  He was a winner at Marquette, as Pitt fans know all too well.  He also took a dumpster fire at Indiana and turned it around.  In 9 years at Indiana he went to 3 Sweet 16’s and won 2 Big Ten Titles, but he also missed the NCAA Tournament completely 5 times.  Maybe most importantly though, the reason I don’t want Tom Crean is because he is an ass.  He had issues with discipling his players and keeping guys on the roster.  There is a reason that Indiana canned him last year at the first hint of a struggle.  He had the Hoosiers at #3 in the country before they fell apart, eventually losing in the 1^st Round of the NIT.

ANDY TOOLE:  I think Toole is a very good basketball coach, but he just doesn’t have the experience needed for the ACC.  He is also another guy that is only getting mentioned because he is in Pittsburgh.  He just finished 7^th in the NEC this year.  If he coached at Mount St. Mary’s or a different school in the NEC other than Robert Morris, nobody would know who he is.  I think Toole could eventually do some nice things at a bigger school, but Pitt can’t afford to take that risk right now.

THAD MATTA:  This name gets brought up a lot because of his connection to Pitt AD Heather Lyke.  He was at Ohio State when she was an assistant AD there.  Matta was very successful at Ohio State, taking them to the postseason in 11 of 13 years there, including two Final Four’s.  He retired after last season at just the age of 49 due to back injuries that made the job too difficult.  I have no idea how he is recovering or if he even wants to get back into coaching.  Due to the questions about his health, and the long-term rebuild that the Pitt program has ahead of itself, Matta doesn’t make any sense right now for the Panthers.

BEN HOWLAND:  After getting fired from UCLA, Howland has found himself rebuilding the Mississippi State program, and has them on the cusp of an NCAA Tournament appearance in just Year 3 in Starkville.  There is no doubt that he can coach, and he would certainly be embraced at Pitt if he were to return, however I have two big draw backs on bringing Howland back to Pitt.  1) He is 60 years old.  I would prefer a younger coach to take over a rebuild, because it will take time.  This isn’t just a 1 or 2 year fix sadly, it will likely take 3 or 4 years.  That’s why Pitt will probably have to offer a 6-year deal with lots of guarantees to whoever they get for the job. That would put Howland at 66.  I don’t think Pitt wants to go through this hiring process again in 5 or 6 years.  Ideally, they get someone younger, like Dixon was, who will be there for a long time, again, like Dixon was.  2) This is pure speculation, but I think Howland is dirty.  His long-standing connection with Adidas and his sudden ability to get top tier talent to play at Mississippi State scares me.  With the recent reports stemming from the FBI investigation talking about there being many, many other schools involved in the corruption case, I just don’t trust him.

Bottom line is that any coach at this point would be an upgrade over Stallings.  However, the guys listed above are not guys that could get Pitt back to prominence, like they were within the last 10 years.