Search changes direction
For weeks, Hurley was the focus of Pitt’s coaching search process, the candidate at the top of the list. With his name now crossed out, what direction does Pitt’s search turn?
It has been two weeks since athletic director Heather Lyke fired Kevin Stallings after two seasons. Since then, nine players who account for 97.7 percent of the team’s returning scoring have asked for their release to seek a transfer. Such a move doesn’t mean the players will leave, but their decision to potentially stay will depend on who is hired and how quickly that happens.
Over the past two offseasons, not including the current one, only one major conference search that did not involve an in-season firing — Georgia Tech in 2016 — has lasted as long as Pitt’s, but duration doesn’t guarantee success or failure. For every John Calipari, who was hired by Kentucky four days after it fired Billy Gillispie, there’s a Stallings, who was brought on by Pitt six days after Jamie Dixon left for TCU. Conversely, a search that goes on more than 30 days is just as likely to produce a Dana Altman at Oregon as it is a Keno Davis at Providence.
A process that seemingly drags on can be viewed either as aimless or meticulous, but as long as it ends with a quality coach who can return some measure of luster back to the program, the craziness and doubt that occasionally arose this March will be long forgotten.
That brings us back to whom Pitt might pursue.
The school is reportedly in contact with Buffalo coach Nate Oats, who is fresh off a 27-9 season that included a Mid-American Conference championship and a resounding 21-point upset of Arizona in the NCAA tournament. His teams play a fast, exciting style, ranking 17th in tempo among 351 Division I teams, and that style has bred success.
The 43-year-old signed a five-year extension with the school earlier this month, but his buyout is $1 million if he leaves between March 1 and the last game of the 201819 season, according to a copy of the contract obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. It’s a figure Pitt could afford, and given what it was offering Hurley, it could pay Oats significantly more than his current salary of $600,000.
The quandary for Oats or any prospective coach goes beyond money and opportunity.
After going 0-19 in ACC play last season, Pitt was always going to present something of a rebuild. Depending upon how many players leave, Lyke’s hire will be tasked with piecing together a roster under less-thanideal circumstances. The Panthers have just two official visits left to use until Aug. 1, according to a source, after Stallings and his staff used 22 the past two seasons. NCAA rules allow only 24 such visits over a two-year stretch, though if there is a coaching change, a school may provide additional visits (up to 25 percent of the limitation, meaning as many as six).
“They need a basketball coach that fits the University of Pittsburgh and the city of Pittsburgh,” said Sonny Vaccaro, a former sports marketing executive and Pittsburgh native. “I think they can be very successful, but that’s what they need. They don’t need a name.”
As long as a new coach wins, it doesn’t matter what their stature was or how they got here.
Uncertainty breeds risk, but from that can come massive reward. As has been the case from the moment the search started, it’s up to Pitt to find that.