How two iconic programs, Pitt and UConn, have reached the bottom of the college basketball world
As the college basketball season turns for the stretch run in the month of March, the focus of the sports world turns to the Big Dance. But off the court, the coaching carousel begins to take passengers as several coaches and schools will go their separate ways after their season concludes. Two of the schools to have taken the first ride on the coaching carousel are Pitt and UConn, who both fired their head coaches this past week.
On Thursday, the Pitt Panthers fired head coach Kevin Stallings after two seasons. In his two years at Pitt, Stallings failed to both bring the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament and produce a winning record. After going 16–17 in his first season, Stallings’ Pitt squad was an abysmal 8–24 overall and 0–19 in ACC play this year.
On Saturday, the UConn Huskies parted ways with head coach Kevin Ollie after failing to get the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four years. Despite winning a national championship in his second of six seasons as head coach and emerging as one of the best young coaches in the country, Ollie returned the Huskies to March Madness only once after the 2014 title.
So what has happened to cause two former Big East rivals and iconic college basketball programs to fall to the bottom of the college basketball world? Let’s take a deep dive to see what has caused both of these great schools to fail.
From the early 1990s until the early 2010s, two of the most dominant programs in the Big East and in college basketball were the Pitt Panthers and UConn Huskies. Under the tutelage of Jim Calhoun at UConn and Ben Howland/Jamie Dixon at Pitt, the Huskies and Panthers were two of the most consistent teams in the nation. UConn and Pitt were annual conference and national championship contenders. As a result, these two powers established a great rivalry in the old Big East.
Until Calhoun arrived at Storrs in the late 1980s, the Huskies were not a vaunted college basketball power. UConn had neither won a national title nor played in a Final Four. The Huskies had only played in one Elite Eight in school history, and had appeared in only 13 NCAA Tournaments before 1990. Needless to say, UConn was a doormat in the Big East.
But after 1990, it all changed for UConn. Here’s a breakdown of what they accomplished from 1990 until Calhoun’s retirement in 2012:
- 10 Big East regular season championships
- 7 Big East Tournament championships
- 18 NCAA Tournament appearances
- 4 NCAA Final Four appearances
- 3 NCAA National Championships
There’s a reason that Calhoun is a Hall of Fame head coach. Under his leadership, the Huskies were one of the best teams in the country. After Calhoun retired, the Huskies turned to a current assistant coach and a former UConn player to lead the program: Kevin Ollie.
In his first season at the helm, Ollie led the Huskies to a 20–10 record. Then, in 2014, UConn captured their fourth national championship in school history by finishing 32–8 in Ollie’s first NCAA Tournament appearance as a head coach. After winning the title, Ollie became one of the hottest coaches in college basketball. Many, if not most, considered him one of the next great coaches in the game. NBA teams began clamoring for his services. However, as time would tell, credit for the 2014 national championship would shift from its young coach to the great players that he inherited from his mentor.
In 2015, the Huskies took a step back and failed to return to the Big Dance after their magical run the previous season. UConn went 20–15 on the season and was sent to the NIT. Going to the NIT was something that happened several times under Calhoun, but what was to come in the next couple years would ultimately serve as the breaking point.
After making the NCAA Tournament and losing in the Round of 32 in 2016, the Huskies would not return to March Madness under Ollie again. UConn’s second round loss to Kansas would be the last game Ollie would coach his alma mater in the tournament.
In 2017, the Huskies went 16–17 and failed to qualify for a postseason tournament. For the first time in 30 years, UConn finished the season with a losing record. Then, in 2018, the Huskies followed it up with a 14–18 record. It was the first time since 1986 and 1987 that UConn had consecutive losing seasons in school history. Even worse, it was the first time since 1988 and 1989 that the Huskies missed the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years.
With the direction of where the program was going, it was time for a change at Connecticut.
Like UConn, Pitt was not a dominant college basketball program before Ben Howland came to campus in 1999. Yes, the Panthers had been a more relevant and consistent team in the Big East than the Huskies before Calhoun’s arrival, but they had only made it to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight twice in school history. Like many other schools, Pitt was a football-first institution.
Like Calhoun, it took Howland a few years to flip the switch at Pitt. But similar to what the 1990 season did for Calhoun’s coaching career and legacy at UConn, 2002 was the launchpad Howland needed with the Panthers. In his final two seasons at Pitt, here is what Howland and the Panthers did in 2002 and 2003:
- 2 Big East regular season championships, the first since 1987 and 1988
- 1 Big East Tournament championship, the first in school history
- 2 NCAA Tournament appearances, the first since 1993
- 2 Sweet 16 appearances, the first since 1974
After the 2003 campaign, Howland left to become the head coach at UCLA. But he had built the program’s foundation for the next Pitt head coach: Jamie Dixon. Like in a perfect relay race, Dixon took the baton from Howland and ran with it. From 2004–2016, here is what the Panthers accomplished under Dixon:
- 2 Big East regular season championships
- 1 Big East Tournament championship
- 11 NCAA Tournament appearances
- 3 Sweet 16 appearances
- 1 Elite Eight appearance, the first since 1974
From 2002–2016, the Pitt Panthers reached the Big Dance 13 times. That total matched the number of tournament appearances in program history before Howland and Dixon arrived. Like what Calhoun did at UConn, Howland and Dixon turned Pitt around.
Despite the success of the basketball program, Pitt fans were not satisfied enough with the job that Dixon was doing. The school had not been to a Final Four since 1941 and had never won a national title in program history. The Panthers missed the Big Dance only twice under Dixon, but it just was not good enough to appease supporters of the team.
As public pressure mounted to make a change, the athletic department caved in to outside demands. They lowered Dixon’s buyout, thus swinging the door wide open and making it much easier for their head coach to leave the school if he chose to. Seeing the writing on the wall, Dixon departed Pitt to coach his alma mater TCU. The Pitt fans and supporters got what they wanted.
With its goal of bringing in a fresh face and leader to run the program, the Panthers did the exact opposite: they hired former Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings. A Pitt alumnus himself, Stallings had a decent amount of success coaching the Commodores from 1999–2016. In his 18 seasons on the job in Nashville, Stallings led Vanderbilt to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, five Sweet 16 appearances, one Elite Eight appearance, and one SEC Tournament title.
Stallings was anything but the solution. As mentioned in the intro here, Stallings went 16–17 in his first season with Pitt and failed to qualify for a postseason tournament. It was Pitt’s first losing season since 2000, Howland’s second year on the job. Yes, Jamie Dixon never had a losing season coaching the Panthers.
It only got worse in 2018, as Pitt went 8–24 and failed to register a single conference win all season (0–19). It was the first time since 1999 and 2000 that Pitt had consecutive losing seasons, and the first time since 2000 and 2001 that the Panthers missed out on back-to-back NCAA Tournaments.
Like Ollie at UConn, it was time for Stallings to go at Pitt.
While both schools are now looking for new leaders of their basketball programs, there are other issues and factors at work here that have contributed to the deterioration of both programs and that go beyond just trying to find a new face to coach the team.
The problems with both schools start and end with the dissolution of the original Big East. While Pitt bolted to the ACC, UConn was the only original member of the Big East to join up with the newly-formed American Athletic Conference (AAC).
For Pitt, being in a new conference has meant different teams and different recruitment strategies. The geographic locations of the schools that the Panthers compete against now is very different from those of the Big East schools. It also means that the type of players the team is recruiting is very different too. Going up against new schools such as Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia, it has been a challenge for Pitt to compete against these traditional ACC basketball powers on the recruiting trail. However, the good thing for Pitt is that it is the lone ACC school in its state, and the Panthers play in a great basketball conference. The competition is stiff, but Pitt can still market playing in the ACC to a potential recruit.
But Pitt’s biggest issues with its basketball program come from within, as the judgment and decision-making of its athletics department and administration have been very poor. From all but pushing Dixon out the door to hiring Stallings, Pitt has no one else to blame but itself for the spot it is in now by giving into the will and opinion of the public. Stallings was not a good hire, and it appears as if the Panthers have finally realized that they made some serious mistakes. Pitt made the right move by hitting the reset button.
But for whatever it is worth, Jamie Dixon is now building a perennial NCAA Tournament program at TCU. Just saying.
When it comes to UConn, the source of their issues primarily resides outside of the program. The initial decision to hire Ollie was a good one and he was successful with the Huskies, but he turned out not to be the best coach for the program going forward.
However, there is unequivocally no school that has been hurt more by the dissolution of the old Big East than UConn. The Huskies are now in a conference that, with all due respect, is still looking for its identity. Unlike the Big East, the American Conference has yet to establish the same conference rivalries and similarities between schools. Similar to Pitt, the geographic footprint of the schools and recruits for UConn has changed too. But unlike the Panthers, the Huskies do not have the brandname conference to market to recruits.
Since joining the American Conference, UConn’s recruiting strategy has changed greatly. When it was a member of the Big East, UConn used to be able to pitch to recruits several attractive features: playing some of the best teams/coaches/players in college basketball on a nightly basis, the history of the Big East and arguably the best conference in the nation, playing a conference tournament at Madison Square Garden, a national platform in some of the biggest markets of the country, competing in iconic rivalries, etc. Now, the Huskies do not have the same number of attractive amenities to pitch recruits on as a member of the American Conference. Not to mention, it has also shown how great of a recruiter Calhoun was as head coach.
Simply put, the same rivalries, markets, and platforms are just not there yet in the American Conference. There just isn’t the same number of common interests and similarities among the member schools. Rather, it’s a hodgepodge and mixed bag of schools with varying interests in very different geographic locations. As a result, recruiting is more difficult because there is no identity.
While UConn is the lone school from the American in New England, it has the same challenge that Pitt faces in going into new areas of the country and recruiting different types of players than it once did in the Big East. In addition, recruiting in its own area has become more challenging too for UConn, as schools from the new Big East, ACC, and Big Ten continue to make inroads deeper into the Northeast.
Going forward, the Huskies must be able to control recruiting in their geographic location first and then expand outward to new frontiers. As long as it is in the American Conference, UConn will need to recruit players in new locations if it wants to compete with Cincinnati, Wichita State, and the other member schools.
The American Conference is improving each year with good teams, great players, and outstanding coaches. The better that the American gets, the better things will get for UConn. If UConn was not completely committed to its football program first and foremost, then returning to the Big East would be the best fit. But as long as the Huskies continue to focus on football over basketball, a reunion will not be in the cards.
March Madness is beginning this week, and we should be getting ready to watch Pitt and UConn compete to cut down the nets. Instead, for the second straight year, we will not be seeing these two programs in the Big Dance. There are many great coaching candidates that will be considered for these positions. Names such as Dan Hurley, Tom Crean, Thad Matta, and maybe even Rick Pitino will come up in the process. But whoever becomes the next head coaches at Pitt and UConn, hopefully they will be able to bring these schools back to basketball glory soon.
