Right Fit For Pitt: College Basketball Expert Weighs In On Panthers' Coaching Search
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Who is the right fit for Pitt? That is one of the big questions right now.
Do the Panthers need to a hire a big name? Do they need to make a splash hire?
KDKA's Rich Walsh had a chance to talk to The Sporting News' College Basketball Columnist Mike DeCourcy, who's in town covering the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at PPG Paints Arena.
DeCourcy says it's all about "finding the right coach;" adding, "winning will bring the fans back."
KDKA's Lynne Hayes-Freeland has more on the local impact of the NCAA Tournament:
Danny Hurley, Tim Crean and possibly Sean Miller are candidates to take over a team that went 0-19 in ACC play this season.
DeCourcy likes all of those names.
"The names that have come up at the top of their list are all terrific," he said. "I don't have any doubt, if they are able to hit the top of their list, they are going to do great."
DeCourcy, who grew up in Elizabeth and attended Point Park University, thinks Tom Crean is an "excellent coach."
We know Pitt wants Hurley, but does Hurley have his eye on Pitt?
DeCourcy says yes.
"He understands where his strength is. So he knows where his strongest ties are. So I think he would like to be somewhere in the east, and that runs from Pittsburgh to UCONN, or maybe Rhode Island for another year or two," he said.
Pitt failed miserably with the Kevin Stallings experiment.
KDKA's Rich Walsh wasn't a big fan of the hiring from the start, and neither was DeCourcy.
"They have an opportunity now to fix what went wrong, and in some ways, the bar now has been lowered to the point where the job is, in some ways, more attractive. People don't have to match Jamie, they just have to exceed Kevin," DeCourcy said.
Pitt's next head coach has very small shoes to fill.
UPDATE: Following the writing of this story, Tom Crean was hired by Georgia.
Georgia has officially hired Tom Crean as its head coach. I think that's great news!
— Rich Walsh KDKA (@RichieWalsh) March 16, 2018