Interesting perspective on Pitt, circa 2003Written by: Marquette 84Here's an interesting summary of Pitt's situation in 2003. (http://www.pittblather.com/2007/03/20/dealing-with-ben-howland/) Â The Panthers, coming of a successful season, lost Ben Howland to UCLA--one of the five or six "elite" programs in the country.
First, interesting to note the lack of class that Ben Howland showed in leaving. For all the complaints about Crean, at least he actually met with our players.
QuoteIt turned out Howland didn’t even want to tell his old players he was leaving. That fell to Jamie Dixon. [/color]
Second, there was widespread perception that the administration was guilty of rank ineptitude in running the athletic department and conducting the search.
QuotePitt was acting at the time with only an interim AD â€" no excuse for that since it had been 4 months since the former had left (and he gave notice). So you had the[/color] school chancellor and an interim AD doing the search (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_archive.html#200108943%23200108943). They only interviewed two candidates: Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser and Jamie Dixon.
Prosser was the guy (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_archive.html#200114128%23200114128) they wanted (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_archive.html#200119821%23200119821). It was to the point where they were down in New Orleans for the Final Four (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_archive.html#200126201%23200126201) and didn’t even contact any other possibilities to at least informally talk about the job. Prosser ultimately turned down the job (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_archive.html#200131896%23200131896) and chose to stay at Wake Forest (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_archive.html#200137505%23200137505). A good deal of which had to do with still not finding a full time AD (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_05_04_archive.html#200248698%23200248698). After very publicly flubbing the pursuit of Prosser, the school hired Dixon (http://sardonicviews.blogspot.com/2003_04_13_archive.html#200149548%23200149548).
Thankfully our AD is on the job full time, and I'm willing to bet that we'll interview more than one candidate.
Still, the decision to give the job to Dixon--largely to appease the incoming top 20 recruiting class and current players--was the right one in retrospect. Pitt may have botched the process, but worked out well for them in the end.
That would bode well for the candidacy of Buzz Williams.
Read (http://www.pittblather.com/2007/03/20/dealing-with-ben-howland/) the whole thing.
http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2008/04/interesting-perspective-on-pitt-circa.html