Stallings might not be a solution, but Pitt players are a problem

By: Joe Smeltzer 

How most of Pittsburgh sees Kevin Stallings at the moment. (Photo creds to Sporting News)

Pitt has quit

That's the only logical explanation for Tuesday night's 106-51 debacle (at home, mind you) at the hands of a good but not great Louisville team. I cannot fathom the thought of this Pitt team, which is just three weeks removed from upsetting an excellent Virginia team, and two weeks removed from an 85-80 loss to this same Louisville club on the road, getting embarrassed this badly while giving any effort.

Now, I wouldn't call myself a fan of Pitt's head coach, Kevin Stallings. I felt that his teams underachieved while he was at Vanderbilt, and was highly critical when Pitt's former AD Scott Barnes decided to hire the Kevin Malone look alike to replace Jaime Dixon. Plenty of the criticisms for Stallings are valid, as his team is too talented to be 1-6 in the ACC.

However, the idea that Stallings is the first person to blame for Tuesday night, or, better yet; solely to blame, is ridiculous. Wednesday morning, I read a column written by a very prominent Pittsburgh journalist. Whether it intended to or not, the piece painted a picture of innocent, talented basketball players being sabotaged by an evil clowns. In fact, the writer seemed to be more bothered by his Stallings getting himself ejected from the game than his players removing themselves before tip-off. If Pitt lost by 15, 20, or even thirty points to Louisville, then it could be a case of a coach not getting the most of what he has, and for much of this season, Stallings has fit into that category. But as far as Tuesday night goes, Pitt's players deserve no sympathy.

A lot has been made over Stallings comments the day before Bloody Tuesday. In an interview with 93.7 The Fan, Stallings questioned the leadership of his upperclassmen, among other things. You can read the whole critique here.
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2017/01/23/pitt-panthers-kevin-stallings-frustrated-jamel-artis-michael-young-sheldon-jeter-chris-jones/stories/201701230149

If Stallings comments on Monday helped lead to the events on Tuesday, then his players look even worse. Was it smart for Stallings to go after his team's effort in public? Maybe not. But when you break things down did he say anything that wasn't true?

Pitt had been stinking before the Louisville game. They were 1-5 in the ACC, on a four game losing streak, and three of those four games included a drubbing at the hands of lowly Syracuse, a 72-46 squaker against Miami, and a pathetic defensive showing at NC State. So, who could blame Stallings for being frustrated? Who are we to say that he was wrong about his players, and, perhaps more importantly, why didn't the players respond?

If anything, Stallings comments should have pissed his players off enough so that they would have played harder. Take the Knight family, for example. Watch this Bob Knight clip from 1987. Keep in mind, this took place soon after a WIN at Northwestern.

And how did Knight's Indiana team respond? By winning the national championship less than two months after Knight proclaimed them to be "not a very good basketball team."

Bob's son, Pat, was not nearly as good of a basketball coach as his father.  But he had a flash of brilliance in February of 2012, when, after a loss, the Lamar coach ripped into his seniors way worse than Kevin Stallings ever has. How did Knight's players respond? By qualifying for the school's first NCAA tournament just a few weeks later.

Stallings criticisms of his players were far tamer than that of the Knights, and apparently, his players responded by giving up. I understand that not every coach is popular with the players. But Stallings lasted seventeen years at Vanderbilt. Sure, his teams underachieved. But did they ever disgrace their program the way this Pitt team did last night? No. If Stallings' criticisms issued out on Monday had anything to do with the effort on Tuesday, then all Pitt's players did was prove their coach right.

As of right now, it looks like Pitt screwed up by hiring Kevin Stallings as their basketball coach. But there is plenty of blame to go around, and nobody deserves it more than the players who quit. By the way, I hear Ralph Willard is available.