In one of the more head scratching moves so far in college basketball, former Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings now calls the Oakland Zoo his home, taking over for Jamie Dixon as head coach of the Pitt Panthers.
Over the course of his 17 seasons in Nashville, Stallings led the Commodores to just two Sweet 16 appearances, though he did make the NCAA Tournament seven times overall at a program not exactly known as a powerhouse in the SEC.
While we could certainly talk about Stallings’ capability as an offensive tactician–he’s quite imaginative and, for my money, was well ahead of the ‘small ball’ curve–it’s impossible to look at this hire as anything but a complete and utter failure for Pitt.
When Dixon left Pitt after 13 seasons for a chance to lead TCU, his alma mater, many thought the Panthers would either look towards a trending name in the mid-major ranks or at least a coach who’s shown the ability to win at similarly difficult jobs. Stallings doesn’t fit the bill for either.
Pitt is a borderline top eight job in the ACC while Vanderbilt is pretty solidly a top six or seven job in a much less competitive SEC. How is Stallings expected to do with the Panthers?
No, Pitt isn’t generally a powerhouse either but the job that Dixon did more than anything was turn them into a program that could be a powerhouse from time to time. Kevin Stallings looks like a huge letdown coming off of that.
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