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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeZeus, post: 2056450, member: 4174"] As a Pitt student, but die-hard Syracuse basketball fan, I can say that a lot of the students/fans were calling for Jamie Dixon's head midway through the season last year. I kept telling all my friends that letting Jamie Dixon go would be a big mistake for the program, but not many of them listened. Once Dixon went to TCU (his alma mater), a lot of Pitt fans wanted Brandin Knight to get promoted to Head Coach. Jamie Dixon even told the AD, Scott Barnes, that he thought Knight should replace him. He was Dixon's top assistant, he is one of four Pitt players with their number retired, and he has good recruiting connections in PA, NJ, and NY as far as I can tell. But Barnes brought in Kevin Stallings instead, while Knight took an assistant position at Rutgers. It was a pretty bizarre move for Pitt, especially considering the fact that Stallings blocked Sheldon Jeter's initial attempt to transfer out of Vanderbilt so he could play closer to home at Pittsburgh. Suffice to say, the fans didn't like the hire and I can't imagine Jeter liked the hire regardless of what he said to the media afterwards. Now Pitt is at the bottom of the standings and fell to Clemson last Saturday in what the local news station dubbed, "The Battle of the Basement." To make matters worse, Scott Barnes is leaving Pitt for Oregon St. on February 12, and leaving the basketball program in worse shape than he found it mainly due to Stalling's six year contract. Michael Young and Jamel Artis combine for 42 points per game, but Young is just 21-65 from the field in his last five games. He's been playing with a face mask on for these last five or six games or so and I think that may be part of the reason why he's shooting 32.3% from the field in this stretch of the season. Artis is playing out of position at point guard and only getting 3.2 apg (the most on the team). It's literally a two-man team and once they graduate, it's only going to get worse. It's shaping up to be a two-man team again next year, only next year the two-man duo will be Cam Johnson and Ryan Luther instead of Michael Young and Jamel Artis. Pitt does have a five man class coming in, but all five players are three star recruits. The way things are shaping up, I don't see Stallings getting any four or five stars during his time in Pittsburgh. That's something Pitt at least had the chance to do with Jamie Dixon as the head coach. [/QUOTE]

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