Kevin Stallings has been officially named the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball program. It was announced by Pitt Athletic Director Scott Barnes Sunday afternoon.
“Coach Stallings and I share the same vision for Pitt — playing in the Final Four,” said Barnes in a released statement. “Kevin has a successful track record recruiting the ACC footprint and beyond, and is one of the best coaches in the country at building an offense around his talent. He plays a fun up-tempo style that players love and fans will enjoy. Kevin runs his program with impeccable character and has a high care factor and connection with his student-athletes. He is a Power Five conference coach whose experience and success will be immediate assets for our program.”
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Stallings has compiled a 455-283 record with nine NCAA Tournament appearances over a 23-year head coaching career. He began his head coaching career at Illinois State in 1993 before taking control of the Vanderbilt program prior to the start of the 1999-00 season. Stallings posted eight 20+ winning seasons at Vanderbilt, making the NCAA Tournament seven times in 17 seasons.
“I am extremely excited to join the University of Pittsburgh family,” said Stallings. “Pitt has a tremendous basketball tradition and I am looking forward to building on the excellent foundation that is in place on the court and in the classroom. The city of Pittsburgh is outstanding and I have a great deal of respect for the people that make it such a special place. I look forward to seeing their support along with that of the Oakland Zoo next season at the Petersen Events Center.”
“The University of Pittsburgh’s tremendous reputation as an elite academic institution added to the appeal of this position,” Stallings added. “I believe we can achieve a great deal of success on the court and in the classroom, while developing complete student-athletes.”
Stallings received a six year worth over $2 million per season. [/hide]
I guess it came down to the fact that other coaches knew Jamie Dixon was very successful here and administration and fans still bltched. Not a lot of coaches want to take a job where matching 11 of 13 tourneys is considered stale – unless that coach is about to get fired, like Stallings was.
I hate the hire today, but who knows, maybe a change of scenery for Stallings will energize him too. i do know that Pitt has some capable offensive players who could be unleashed in his system.
Completely agree. If there wasn’t so much heat on Dixon maybe we could’ve got somebody better or had more potential than this. Doesn’t mean dixons criticism was unwarranted though. Don’t really like the hire and would’ve picked others, but maybe those were the same people who supposedly turned us down. The players do for him better though. Maybe his style will be better in the ACC than SEC. Just don’t think the results will be that much different
Weak coach, bad hire; better off with a sharp young assistant on a winning team, not an over the Hill never was.
Could/should cost the Ad his job, if he can’t recruit and win..quickly.
I like Pitt hoops but don’t follow college basketball closely. I have a couple friends who do though and they hate the hire. Like you guys said, I almost just get the impression it will be more of the same.
There’s actually a couple character questions about the guy. Not letting Jeter transfer home after his freshman year, saying “i will kill you” to a player after a game, and just being an outright asshole according to people who follow the game closer than i do. If’s really a head scratcher and getting a LOT of negative coverage across the country.
Personally I would have preferred and up & comer like Joe Dooley(Florida Gulf Coast) or Brad Underwood(Stephen F Austin) but honestly this won’t be any worse than what Dixon has done since joining the ACC.
His on the court results will be on par with Dixon. They should have tried to move the bar, but fell into the search firm game the same way Peterson fell into it for football. Barnes looks bad in this in the fact that he came up and had a press conference saying he was looking for certain characteristics in a coach, then went and hired a 57 year old with a low ceiling. It’s pretty funny to hear of all the Pitt fans that are dropping their financial support of the team. The next 2 years will be interesting….Stallings… Read more »
If that’s the case then shame on them for not understanding the landscape of college basketball and setting unrealistic expectations. If they wanted an established coach this was about the ball park of what they should have expected.
lol what a joke
Curious to hear your opinion of the article talking about Dixon getting permission to speak to TCU.
Did you go back and see my response? Dixon asked for permission because he is a classy person. The Todd Graham saga shows that you do NOT have to ask, there’s direct quotes from The Steve about how he denied Graham permission to talk to ASU…but that really doesn’t mean shit in the college game.
Here’s an article about how the etiquite has changed. There’s nothing legal about how they have to ask for permission since they have a “contract”. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/11/04/college-basketball-coaching-etiquette/17659685/
http://pittnews.com/article/15339/archives/former-pitt-football-coach-todd-grahams-move-to-arizona-state-took-pitt-by-surprise/