Believe it or not, I'm not here to bury Kevin Stallings.
I don't know Stallings. I don't care about Stallings. I'm not remotely invested in his history at Vanderbilt, where he coached 17 seasons, had a losing record inside the SEC, never finished first and hadn't won but a single NCAA Tournament game since 2007. I don't care about this man or his borderline miserable/mediocre career in college basketball:
I do care that our city's preeminent program is trending toward systematic suicide.
Let's not pull punches here: Pitt's hiring of Stallings, made official by the university early Sunday afternoon, is one of the most mind-numbing in any walk of local sporting life. And given that it's happening at the same institution that brought you those halcyon pre-mugshot days of Mike Haywood, that, my friends, is no faint praise.
This has the potential to crush basketball at the university.
It's exactly that big.
And exactly that boneheaded.
So, no, I'm not here to bury Stallings, who by all accounts was about to be fired at Vanderbilt but somehow winds up at Pitt with a six-year contract, a raise and a fresh lease on life. He'd be nuts not to take it. And for all I know, he spent his every afternoon in Nashville helping little old ladies carrying guitars into their favorite honky-tonks.
Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt this past season. -- GETTY
— Sheldon Jeter (@JonBlaze_21) March 27, 2016
