Pitt Loss Becoming a Trend, on Dixon

Before we dive into all of the action from the weekend, I have to address the Pitt loss in some detail. Year after year now Pitt has continued to struggle in the NCAA Tournament. As one very adamant Pitt fan explained in detail to me yesterday, Jamie Dixon has now lost to a lower seeded team in the tournament all eight years since he has been in charge. He has never beaten a higher seeded team. Despite being 11-8 overall in the tournament, that is not a pretty fact. Jamie Dixon supporters, which I am one of, should stop calling him a “great” coach. He is good, not great at this point. Great are guys like Coach K, Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun and Roy Williams. Those guys have won championships, been to Final Fours and achieved great success with a number of teams.

As I mentioned, I am a Dixon supporter and think Pitt should give him a lifetime contract tomorrow if he wanted one. That being said, this loss falls squarely on his shoulders and he deserves all of the criticism being thrown his way this week. More alarming, however, is this trend that is developing with the type of games his Pitt teams have lost and their continued breakdown in close games. A different Pitt fan expressed his concern to me on Friday that he was worried about Shelvin Mack going off because he is the exact kind of player that has killed Pitt in the past. Well, what happened? Mack went off, the Panthers had to rally against an inferior team and then they eventually choked in the end. Dixon’s defensive strategy on great guards like Mack needs to change. Whether it was defensive breakdowns and missed assignments like Gilbert Brown alluded to in his press conference we will never know - only the guys in the room know that - but this has continually happened over Dixon’s career, and that was only part of the in-game strategy that was poor. There were countless other instances of poor coaching and/or preparation including the failure to even get a shot off before the shot clock violation leading by one late in the game.

Further, leaving the guys on the foul line for Gilbert Brown’s second free throw was inexcusable. I said it before the shot to those I was watching the game with, “why are they still on the foul line”. Sure, Nasir Robinson made a boneheaded play but he’s a college kid wanting desperately to be the hero. A “great” coach doesn’t put his player in the position to make that kind of mistake. No, a great coach puts his team in position to win everytime on floor, something Dixon has failed to do come tournament time. Dixon is a good coach and he’s learning on the job with no prior head-coaching experience but at some point he needs to get over his tournament troubles. I think that time will come. If you continually put yourself in position to succeed and he continues to bring in the kind of players he now is, eventually Jamie Dixon and Pitt will break through with a great tournament run. It would be nice though if that time came sooner rather than later.

I will be back a little later today with the rest of my thoughts on the action from this weekend.