Barnes: Stallings "was the standard" in the Pitt search
Pitt Athletic Director Scott Barnes wouldn’t say if Kevin Stallings was his first choice to be the Panthers’ new basketball coach. Nor would he reveal the names of the other candidates he interviewed over the course of the six-day search.
But at Monday’s press conference introducing Stallings to Pittsburgh, Barnes said that Stallings shaped the search for Jamie Dixon’s replacement.
“Kevin Stallings was one of the first to be interviewed, and it was then - it became very apparent to me after that interview, that he was the standard for the others to rise to,” Barnes said Monday. “At the end of that, nobody met the qualifications and connection that Coach Stallings had. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Barnes said that he interviewed five candidates, four of which were sitting head coaches (and three of those were at schools in Power Five conferences. But he settled on Stallings, a coach with 30-plus years of experience who spent the last 17 years as the head coach at Vanderbilt.
In those 17 years, Stallings put together a 332-220 (.601) overall record and a 138-142 (.493) mark in the SEC. He led the Commodores to the 2012 SEC Tournament championship, was twice named the SEC Coach of the Year and made seven NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the Sweet Sixteen twice.
Now Barnes will look for Stallings and Pitt to take the next step together.
“When I first met him and we talked, one of first questions he asked me was about the lay of the land, and I asked him, ‘Why Pitt?’” Barnes said. “He said, ‘Can you get to Final Four at Pitt?’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’ and he said ‘I’m in.’ That’s very, very important to him and it’s important to us.”
Barnes cited a few other elements that were important in hiring Stallings: integrity, character, his connection with student-athletes, his recruiting ability and approach and is reputation as an offensive coach.
“When you talk to those who know, the experts, Kevin is counted among the very best in the nation at formulating an offense around the talent he has; without question, he’s one of the best offensive minds in the country.”
Barnes added that Stallings’ experience coaching at Vanderbilt, where academic standards are higher than most schools, not only made him stronger as a recruiter and evaluator - since he was considering a smaller talent pool - but also worked well with Stallings’ goals for student-athlete achievement.
“He takes great pride and it’s very important to him for student-athletes to graduate; you see that in his record,” Barnes said. “He’s a winning coach, the winningest coach in Vanderbilt history. We can’t be more excited to have him leading our ship.”
“I’m humbled, I’m thankful, I’m appreciative and most of all I’m very excited to be the new basketball coach at the University of Pittsburgh,” Stallings said Monday. “My goal, as we enter this new era, is to have a program that this administration looks at with pride, on and off the court; teams that our fans find exciting and entertaining; and players whose experience will be rewarding and life-altering.”