Stallings says lack of depth was critical

Situation worsened when injuries hit, making discipline tough to administer

When Kevin Stallings is asked about the most difficult aspect of an often-difficult 2016-17 men’s basketball season, his first at Pitt, he takes a moment to think, pausing for 35 seconds before beginning to answer.

There’s a lot to process with the question, from a handful of lopsided and sometimes embarrassing losses to the challenge of ingratiating oneself to a veteran team suddenly handed a new coach. And in a season in which he was accused at times of throwing his players under the bus with public critiques, he wants to be delicate, finding a balance between his forthcoming nature and the proper tact.

His answer was one inherent to the group he inherited — due to a lack of depth, an issue compounded by injuries to Ryan Luther and Crisshawn Clark, he wasn’t able to institute the kind of accountability his team needed to excel.

“I think that prevented certain guys from being who they needed to be and who they could have been for the betterment of the team,” Stallings said. “I think it’s human nature for some people to do, I don’t want to say the minimum, but do what they perceive has to be done in order for them not to lose their position. We have a thing we talk about — it’s about mission, not position. I think there was too much of a mindset here it was about position, not mission. My inability to change that mindset was my biggest disappointment.”

The weeks after Pitt’s season ended with a 75-63 loss to Virginia in the ACC tournament, guaranteeing the Panthers their first losing season since 2000, have given Stallings an opportunity to reflect on what unfolded, of what went right and, more pressingly, what didn’t.

He has had time to dwell on the six losses that came by a combined 20 points, games that, had they gone the other way, could have drastically altered the course of an otherwise disappointing and frustrating season. Those results, though, were not an accident to Stallings; rather, they were an accurate reflection of a team that simply wasn’t what it could have been.

“We were capable of being a good team when everything aligned, but you’re not a good team if you need everything to align in order to play well or play hard or play together or play defense,” Stallings said when asked if his team was better than its 16-17 record. “If everything has to align to make you excited about something . . . our flaws were more significant than our strengths. When that’s the case, you’re not going to have a great team.”

Many of those flaws could be tied back to the team’s roster, one that had experience and talent at the top, but little of those two qualities beyond it. In all, the Panthers’ five starters accounted for 78.7 percent of its minutes and 89.3 percent of its points.

While he had two of the ACC’s top five scorers in Michael Young and Jamel Artis, Stallings often saw his team come unglued if one or both of them weren’t on the court. Taking them out of a game to send a message or for disciplinary reasons, as was the case in losses to Duquesne and at Virginia, might have come with lessons learned, but it also came with a hefty (negative) on-court toll.

“As I’ve always heard, the fastest way to a basketball player’s head is through his behind,” Stallings said. “You stick his behind on the bench and you get to his head faster. The bench just wasn’t my friend this year because I couldn’t create that accountability that way.”

A solution to that lingering problem could have potentially come from the team’s trio of newcomers in Clark, Justice Kithcart and Corey Manigault. None added any meaningful contributions. A sophomore, Clark suffered a season-ending knee injury four days before Pitt’s opener while Kithcart and Manigault, both freshmen, largely failed to progress and combined to average 2.1 points per game. Kithcart was dismissed from the team March 3, and Manigault and Clark announced they were transferring fewer than two weeks later.

All three players committed to Pitt while former coach Jamie Dixon was there, giving Stallings the option of constructing his own freshmen class when he took over the program late in March 2016, fewer than two months before the final date on which national letters of intent can be signed. It’s a situation that, if given a second chance, Stallings would have handled in the same way.

“I tried to do the ethically right thing, despite the fact maybe I could have made some changes,” he said. “I didn’t think it was the right thing to do. I try not to make short-term decisions. I try to make long-term decisions for what’s in the best interest in the long term and for the good of the program. Maybe it would have allowed me to have a better season or better start, but the institution awarded those scholarships and I believe they should be honored.”

With any underwhelming season, though, come regrets. He thinks back to the non-conference portion of the schedule, when they would regularly cough up large leads and hold on for a win. In ACC play, that tendency didn’t vanish and against stiffer, more able competition, those lapses resulted in losses, the same ones that derailed their season and put Stallings in the position he was, thinking of the most trying facet of a trying season.

“Had I known we really weren’t going to learn the lesson, I would have coached differently in those games, even at the expense of winning some of them in hopes of those lessons being learned,” he said. “Maybe it’s another way of saying I would have tried to create more accountability. I didn’t really know at the time what I was dealing with. I’m still getting to know personalities of guys. I would have done that differently. There are some other things I wouldn’t put into print I would have done differently.”

Archie Miller wants the Hoosiers to be aggressive on offense, nasty on defense and, of course, win the instate recruiting battles. In his first public appearance as the Hoosiers new coach, Miller hit all the right notes for Indiana fans who had become disillusioned with the direction of the program. “I don’t think you come to Indiana if you don’t want to live in the neighborhood,” Miller said when asked about high expectations. Miller signed a seven-year deal worth roughly $3.5 million per year.

Florida

Florida hired Belmont coach Cameron Newbauer to revitalize its women’s program. The Gators also spoke with trailblazing NBA assistant Becky Hammon about the open job, but it became clear Hammon wanted to remain in the NBA. So the Gators turned to Newbauer, 38, to replace Amanda Butler, who was fired earlier this month after 10 years at her alma mater.

Youngstown State

The Penguins hired Jerrod Calhoun as their new coach after his successful run at the Division II level. Calhoun took Fairmont State to the Division II title game this season. He went 124-38 in his five seasons at the school. He previously served as an assistant to Bob Huggins at West Virginia

Drake