Pitt basketball in rough patch
Friday, April 08, 2005
By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On Feb. 9, the day Pitt athletic director Jeff Long unveiled a fund-raising plan known as Quest For Excellence, good fortune was smiling on the Pitt basketball program.
The Panthers were 16-4, ranked as high as 15th in the nation, a definite contender to win the Big East tournament and a team that no one wanted to play in the NCAA tournament. The Pitt sports information office regularly and correctly boasted that the Panthers ranked among the upper elite teams over the past several years in terms of winning percentage.
The good times were rolling at Pitt.
And then, with no particular warning, the Quest For Excellence turned into Search For Disaster. The gods of misfortune have poured down adversity on the Panthers the past two months. It began almost to the day Pitt announced this new fund-raising plan, which was met with angry protests and charges of extortion from longtime season-ticket holders.
Consider:
The team that had won 47 of its previous 58 games, a winning percentage of .810, lost five of its next nine, a winning percentage of .444, after the plan was announced.
The team that had advanced to the final of the Big East tournament four consecutive years lost its first game in that event.
The team that had won two games and advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament three consecutive years lost its first game.
In the final poll, the Panthers were unranked.
Sophomore forward Chris Taft announced he was giving up his eligibility to enter the NBA draft.
Junior point guard Carl Krauser is expected to follow.
The Quest For Excellence, which calls for a reseating of most of the seats at the Petersen Events Center for men's basketball, is being challenged in court. The class-action suit is based on wording in a 2001 Pitt brochure that seemingly guaranteed the seats Pitt wants to take away if certain guidelines were maintained. The plaintiffs believe they have lived up to the letter of those guidelines.
It would be an exaggeration to say the Pitt program is collapsing. It would not be to say it is staggering.
When Pitt announced its Quest For Excellence program, it knew people would be upset. It also knew a waiting list of 3,000 was ready to pounce on the tickets of those walking away. Considering recent events, the length of that list is not in question, but the depth of its commitment is.
Suddenly, Pitt basketball is not such a hot property.
Some season-ticket holders, who feared they would lose their seats because they could not or would not make the contribution needed to keep them, took some measure of pleasure in Pitt's late-season decline. The losses, they reasoned, would make their seats less desirable and more affordable.
Taft, Krauser and senior Chevon Troutman were Pitt's three best players -- by far. The returning players have some promise, but none is likely to be Big East first team or even second or third. They are players who are fine when surrounded by all-league caliber teammates like Troutman, Krauser and Taft. On their own, they would struggle to win.
It's so hard to rise to the level Pitt achieved under Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon. It's considerably easier to tumble right back down that hill.
A case in point is the University of Michigan, not long ago an elite program but lately a Big Ten also-ran, despite having highly regarded coach Tommy Amaker in charge. Within the same league, the legendary Indiana University program has taken large steps backward.
Pitt looks to be a second-division program in the Big East next year, which expands by adding Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul and South Florida. Recruits will take a different look at Pitt in the immediate future, not that Pitt has been able to add elite players with its current run.
Among the players Pitt had on its A list for last season were Kyle Lowry, Sean Singletary, Josh Wright and Alex Galindo. Those players ended up at Villanova, Virginia, Syracuse and Kansas. Lowry and Singletary made major contributions. Pitt ended up with Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin and John DeGroat, who did not make major contributions.
Two years ago, Pitt brought in Taft, Aaron Gray, Antonio Graves and Dante Milligan. Taft made a major contribution. Graves started, but is a complementary player. Gray will start, but also looks to be a complementary player. Milligan has transferred.
Three years ago, the freshman class consisted of Levon Kendall and Ed Turner. Kendall started some this past season, but his playing time dwindled in the postseason where he was not a factor. Turner has transferred.
Those are not the kind of recruiting classes that can sustain an elite program, particularly when the best of the bunch leaves after two seasons.
By all accounts, the incoming class of Levance Fields, Tyrell Biggs, Sam Young, Doyle Hudson and Trevor Ferguson is the best in the past four years. Fields and Biggs could offer immediate help.
In truth, they must if Pitt is to even approach its recent winning tradition.
Friday, April 08, 2005
By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On Feb. 9, the day Pitt athletic director Jeff Long unveiled a fund-raising plan known as Quest For Excellence, good fortune was smiling on the Pitt basketball program.
The Panthers were 16-4, ranked as high as 15th in the nation, a definite contender to win the Big East tournament and a team that no one wanted to play in the NCAA tournament. The Pitt sports information office regularly and correctly boasted that the Panthers ranked among the upper elite teams over the past several years in terms of winning percentage.
The good times were rolling at Pitt.
And then, with no particular warning, the Quest For Excellence turned into Search For Disaster. The gods of misfortune have poured down adversity on the Panthers the past two months. It began almost to the day Pitt announced this new fund-raising plan, which was met with angry protests and charges of extortion from longtime season-ticket holders.
Consider:
The team that had won 47 of its previous 58 games, a winning percentage of .810, lost five of its next nine, a winning percentage of .444, after the plan was announced.
The team that had advanced to the final of the Big East tournament four consecutive years lost its first game in that event.
The team that had won two games and advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament three consecutive years lost its first game.
In the final poll, the Panthers were unranked.
Sophomore forward Chris Taft announced he was giving up his eligibility to enter the NBA draft.
Junior point guard Carl Krauser is expected to follow.
The Quest For Excellence, which calls for a reseating of most of the seats at the Petersen Events Center for men's basketball, is being challenged in court. The class-action suit is based on wording in a 2001 Pitt brochure that seemingly guaranteed the seats Pitt wants to take away if certain guidelines were maintained. The plaintiffs believe they have lived up to the letter of those guidelines.
It would be an exaggeration to say the Pitt program is collapsing. It would not be to say it is staggering.
When Pitt announced its Quest For Excellence program, it knew people would be upset. It also knew a waiting list of 3,000 was ready to pounce on the tickets of those walking away. Considering recent events, the length of that list is not in question, but the depth of its commitment is.
Suddenly, Pitt basketball is not such a hot property.
Some season-ticket holders, who feared they would lose their seats because they could not or would not make the contribution needed to keep them, took some measure of pleasure in Pitt's late-season decline. The losses, they reasoned, would make their seats less desirable and more affordable.
Taft, Krauser and senior Chevon Troutman were Pitt's three best players -- by far. The returning players have some promise, but none is likely to be Big East first team or even second or third. They are players who are fine when surrounded by all-league caliber teammates like Troutman, Krauser and Taft. On their own, they would struggle to win.
It's so hard to rise to the level Pitt achieved under Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon. It's considerably easier to tumble right back down that hill.
A case in point is the University of Michigan, not long ago an elite program but lately a Big Ten also-ran, despite having highly regarded coach Tommy Amaker in charge. Within the same league, the legendary Indiana University program has taken large steps backward.
Pitt looks to be a second-division program in the Big East next year, which expands by adding Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul and South Florida. Recruits will take a different look at Pitt in the immediate future, not that Pitt has been able to add elite players with its current run.
Among the players Pitt had on its A list for last season were Kyle Lowry, Sean Singletary, Josh Wright and Alex Galindo. Those players ended up at Villanova, Virginia, Syracuse and Kansas. Lowry and Singletary made major contributions. Pitt ended up with Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin and John DeGroat, who did not make major contributions.
Two years ago, Pitt brought in Taft, Aaron Gray, Antonio Graves and Dante Milligan. Taft made a major contribution. Graves started, but is a complementary player. Gray will start, but also looks to be a complementary player. Milligan has transferred.
Three years ago, the freshman class consisted of Levon Kendall and Ed Turner. Kendall started some this past season, but his playing time dwindled in the postseason where he was not a factor. Turner has transferred.
Those are not the kind of recruiting classes that can sustain an elite program, particularly when the best of the bunch leaves after two seasons.
By all accounts, the incoming class of Levance Fields, Tyrell Biggs, Sam Young, Doyle Hudson and Trevor Ferguson is the best in the past four years. Fields and Biggs could offer immediate help.
In truth, they must if Pitt is to even approach its recent winning tradition.
