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Pitt basketball program facing uncertainty
All is calm at the moment, as the undefeated and 10th-ranked Panthers sail toward another highly successful season. But the winds will pick up soon, when everybody starts asking whether junior guard Carl Krauser, sophomore center Chris Taft, and, perhaps, coach Jamie Dixon will return next season.
Imagine the damage if all three were to follow senior forward Chevon Troutman out the door.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Dixon is "considered a candidate" for the coaching vacancy at USC. It's a long shot, to be sure, but the more success Dixon achieves, the more we'll hear his name bandied about for all kinds of jobs.
That's just reality.
Big-time college sport is nothing if not a perpetual game of chicken that always starts with the same question: Who's leaving first, the star players or the coach?
Players often flee before their senior years. Coaches leave -- or are fired -- before their contracts expire.
The game is played out most frequently in basketball, where teenagers sometimes bypass college altogether.
If you're Dixon, you have to wonder what your team would look like next season if Taft and Krauser were to leave. Losing them, plus Troutman, might push Pitt into a rebuilding mode going into the new and improved Big East.
Meanwhile, at USC, Rick Majerus resigned only five days after he replaced the fired Henry Bibby. The Trojans will go with interim coach Jim Saia for the rest of the season.
USC will have a new on-campus arena in 2006 and would love to reel in a "big name" to lead the program. With another deep NCAA Tournament run, Dixon would no doubt be dropped into the category titled "Hottest Young Coaches in America." He was raised in North Hollywood, too, so he has west-coast roots.
Stop me if you've heard this story before.
Dixon addressed the USC situation Tuesday at his weekly news conference, when somebody asked, "Anything new on USC?"
"Just wishing the best of luck for Coach Saia," Dixon said. "Jimmy's a good friend of (the Pitt coaching staff). That's really how we're looking at it. I hope he does well. It's a great opportunity for him."
I'd bet that Dixon will stay put, but you just don't know. It was his mentor, Ben Howland, who signed a seven-year contract extension with Pitt on March 25, 2002, and said, "I will be here for the next seven years, without question."
Howland was gone a year later, to his "dream job" at UCLA.
It was former Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson who said, on the day Howland signed that extension, "I think it's about time for us to stop talking about coaches leaving here. Let's put that to rest."
Pederson didn't say anything about athletic directors. He was gone eight months later, to his dream job at Nebraska.
Is Pitt anybody's dream job?
Maybe the storm will pass. Taft is not NBA-ready, but so many players in that league could be described as such. If he hears he'll go high, he'd almost have to take the money.
Krauser loves leading this team and might very well choose to stay, but he'll be 24 in May.
It all makes for a fascinating storyline -- the kind they love in Hollywood.
