Kovacevic: The cupboard's bare, all right ... of contrived excuses for Stallings taken at PPG Paints Arena (DK'S GRIND)

Michael Young. – MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

The University of Pittsburgh's not-so-long-ago proud basketball program is about to plunge off Cardiac Hill and into the ACC's abyss if something isn't done soon.

Not by the athletic director, of course.

The man who presided over Jamie Dixon's departure for his alma mater, TCU, also was the same man who lazily dialed up a national search firm to turn up Kevin Stallings on the Retread Rolodex, and also was the same man who bolted last month for the same job at Oregon State.

Yeah, thanks for this, Scott Barnes:



Thanks for the greatest "embarrassment" — Stallings' own term Tuesday night — in the history of the program, 106-51, to No. 14 Louisville at the Petersen Events Center. The worst loss since one to Westminster way back in 1906. The worst loss ever in conference play. And the worst loss in the Pete's history that, to fully appreciate the 55-point margin of defeat, one would need to add the margin of every single one of Pitt's home losses from 2002, when the building opened, to 2008 to reach a total of 55.

Wow.



Everyone has a bummer of a night. Happens to the best. But these Panthers under Stallings are now 12-8 overall, 1-6 in the ACC, and even that doesn't begin to describe the scope of the mess that's unfolding.

Not when the coach, a day earlier, publicly called out his senior leadership, saying, "I just don’t think their buy-in has been complete," among other strikingly critical sentiments.

Not when one of those seniors, Sheldon Jeter, bit right back in a separate session minutes later in the same media room, had this reaction when our beat writer, Lance Lysowski, relayed Stallings' call-out:



"I don't see it," were Jeter's four most relevant words.

All of this, naturally, was going to end well.

Here's Lysowski's comprehensive coverage of all that went awry. I'm not here this morning to focus on the game. It was awful, and more unfortunate, it was representative of most of what's happened. But it was just one game, and we just as easily could spotlight that one ACC win the Panthers have had, the stirring upset of No. 11 Virginia earlier this month, and that wouldn't be any fairer.

No, I'm here to talk about this cupboard everyone keeps discussing.

You know, the one that Dixon supposedly "left bare," if I'm following my social-media and talk-show memes to the letter.

I learned a long time ago you can't fight misperception, no matter how demonstrably false, so I'll accept in advance that this horse is miles removed from the barn. When we hear something repeated often enough — I'm guilty of this constantly myself — we assume it to be true, especially after we start repeating it ourselves.

But hey, let's try that stubborn approach that focuses entirely on indisputable facts regarding that cupboard being left bare:

• The 2015-16 Panthers, the last under Dixon, went 21-12 overall, 9-9 in ACC and reached the NCAA Tournament before losing by four to Wisconsin in the opening round. From that roster, only one starter was lost, point guard James Robinson. Otherwise, six of the top seven scorers returned: Michael Young, Jamel Artis, Cam Johnson, Chris Jones, Ryan Luther and Jeter.

• Currently, Young and Artis have combined to score more points than any duo at the NCAA Division I level, 818, a healthy margin over two players from Davidson, who have 792. To repeat: No duo anywhere has been more prolific than Young and Artis.

• Young, a native of Duquesne who has started since his freshman year, on this night became the 13th player in school history to top 1,600 points. For the season, he is averaging 21.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, the highest such figures of his career. He's the only player anywhere in the NCAA averaging at least 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game.

• Artis, asked by Stallings to move to point guard because Robinson was never replaced, is the No. 1 scorer in the ACC with an average of 22.1 points per game. He also leads the conference with .522 shooting on 3-pointers, as well as his four 3-pointers per game. Two weeks ago, against this same Louisville team down in Kentucky, he dropped 43 on the Cardinals, prompting Rick Pitino to call that "a Steph Curry performance."

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• Johnson, a sophomore, is averaging 11.8 points per game and, when added to Young and Artis, completes the third-highest scoring trio anywhere in the NCAA.

• Luther, a junior, was averaging 6.6 points and 4.2 rebounds before missing the past three games to injury. He was huge in the upset of Virginia.

• Jeter, a senior, is averaging 8.5 rebounds per game, sixth-most in the ACC.

I could keep going, but if these facts haven't sold you yet, nothing more could. It's not a perfect team. It doesn't defend well. It fares far better in half-court than on the run. It caves too easily at critical points in a game.

But calling that cupboard "bare" is an insult not just to Dixon but to common rational application of thought.

Whatever Pitt's problems are now, and whatever they might be if this plunge continues, blaming Dixon and the talent at hand is the laziest conceivable analysis, in addition to being demonstrably dead wrong.

Better to ask why Stallings didn't find some juco point guard after his hiring to maintain some sense of stability. He had time. He found no one.

Better to ask why Stallings had a Vanderbilt team last season that had not one but two players selected in the NBA's first round, but still somehow was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the play-in portion, before Dixon was with this same group of Panthers.

Better to ask why Stallings felt comfortable rolling his players under the bus this weekend, just as he had so many times at Vanderbilt, rather than accepting even a sliver of culpability.

Better to ask why Stallings feels he'd be the first coach in the annals of sports to not be responsible for players choosing to tune him out.

Better to ask why Stallings, when asked after this game if this miserable showing was the players' response to his criticism, curiously snapped back, "Come on, man. That was an embarrassment. That was an embarrassment for me. That was an embarrassment. That’s a product of my work. It’s an embarrassment to me and it should be embarrassing to them. They’ll tell you the same thing. No, I don’t think that was a response to anything.”

They'll tell us the same thing?

Better to ask why Stallings found it necessary to hide all his players from the media after this loss, something I can't recall Dixon ever having done.

And yeah, maybe it's better to ask why Stallings willfully got himself ejected with 14:27 left in this game, with the Panthers down by 41 points ...

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... rather than hanging around and sending a message to his players that they couldn't quit.

Maybe it's because he beat them to it.

“PittHeader"MORE PITT

BOXSCORE  •  STATISTICS  •  SCHEDULE

Lysowski: Stallings ejected in blowout
Lysowski: A critical approach
DK Sports Radio: Tim Benz on Pitt

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