MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Paul Zeise, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports columnist and evening host on 93.7 The Fan, was a guest Thursday on our popular weekly Mountaineer Insider Podcast.
 
Zeise's son Elijah is a redshirt player on the Panther football team so he has a unique view of Pitt sports. He said Pitt basketball has basically had to reinvent itself since Kevin Stallings took over two years ago.
 
For years, Pitt's hoop identity was Ben Howland and then Jamie Dixon, who led the Panthers to unprecedented success in the 2000s in the Big East.
 
Dixon's 2009 Pitt team was one possession away from reaching the Final Four, and his Panther teams made the NCAA Tournament 11 out of his 13 seasons in Oakland.
 
But his last two years following Pitt's move to the ACC in 2012 saw his teams win 40, lose 27 and fail to reach the NCAA Tournament in 2015.
 
"When people think of Jamie Dixon, they think of the first six years when they went to the Elite Eight, they won the Big East, won the Big East tournament and were the No. 1 seed a couple of times," Zeise said. "His last four years, they were 45-45 in conference play. They were slipping every year."
 
Zeise labeled Pitt's move to the ACC as the primary culprit for Pitt's basketball decline.
 
"Jamie had a really good formula for recruiting in the Big East," Zeise explained. "He was able to go to New York, (Washington) D.C. and places like that and sell kids on the idea, 'Listen, we've got an urban campus and we're still going to play a bunch of games where your family can see in you the Northeast. We get to play in Madison Square garden for the Big East tournament so they can see you there.' And it really worked.
 
"They were able to sell kids on the idea Pitt was basically New York City light. The problem is when they went to the ACC they lost a lot of that appeal and Jamie was never able to reestablish another recruiting area. He was never able to establish a reason to come to Pitt once it became an ACC program and his last four years, the program really started to decline," Zeise added.
 
That's where things were when Dixon left for TCU and Pitt turned to Kevin Stallings, who spent 17 years at Vanderbilt where he led the Commodores to a 332-220 record and seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including Sweet 16 berths in 2004 and 2007.
 
Zeise said the Stallings hiring has not really been embraced by many in the Pitt fan base who were not entirely satisfied with the way Dixon left, many believing more could have been done to keep him in town.
 
"He still was a very popular coach and when a carpetbagger like (former Pitt athletic director) Scott Barnes comes through and pushes a very popular coach out the door, you know there are going to be consequences, and so for Kevin Stallings, he has basically never been embraced."
 
Stallings' first year in 2017 saw Pitt post a losing record for the first time since Howland's first year in Pittsburgh (in 2000), which was coming of a pair of losing seasons under another unpopular coach, Ralph Willard.
 
"Of course, because he's Kevin Stallings and he's got a 17-year resume at Vanderbilt, which is very mediocre, people were doubly angry," Zeise recalled. "Not only did (Barnes) push Jamie Dixon out, he pushed Jamie Dixon out to bring in a guy who is not even close to being as good as Jamie is and now they are in a league that nobody really wants to be in because everybody remembers the days of Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's and West Virginia.
 
"You've basically got a program that doesn't have an identity, with the most unpopular coach maybe in Pitt history, and the guy that made it all happen is at Oregon State now."
 
So far this year, Pitt is 5-4 and has won its last four after beginning the season with some embarrassing losses to Navy, Montana and Penn State.
 
But Pitt played better in a 73-67 loss to Oklahoma State, and has since won games against Lehigh, High Point, Duquesne and Mount St. Mary's.
 
Stallings has 13 new players on his team this year with senior forward Ryan Luther being the most experienced. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, resident is averaging 12.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.
 
Zeise labeled freshman point guard Marcus Carr, freshman wing Shamiel Stevenson and junior wing Jared Wilson-Frame "ACC caliber" players.
 
Carr, a 6-foot-1, 185-pounder from Toronto by way of Montverde Academy in Florida, has a chance to be a special player. He scored 19 in the High Point win and had 23 in Pitt's most recent victory against Mount St. Mary's.
 
"He's a guy that can play at any level, and he's getting better and better," Zeise said.
 
Wilson-Frame (12.9 ppg.) and Stevenson (10.7 ppg.) are also averaging double figures.
 
Pitt's young backcourt struggled with the pressure it faced against Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday night, turning the ball over 17 times in an 82-78 overtime victory.
 
"They ended up surviving but barely," Zeise said. "Mount St. Mary's is coached by one of these Shaka Smart disciples so they've got a pretty good idea how they are going to handle pressure because Mount St. Mary's pressed them the entire game.
 
"Maybe playing Tuesday night was the best thing that happened to them because they got a little bit of a taste of what they're going to see from the Mountaineers on Saturday."
 
Tipoff is 8:05 p.m. and the contest will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Jason Benetti and Cory Alexander).
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG will go on the air at 7 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
 


Pregame Notes: For the first time, the Backyard Brawl has a game sponsorship - EQT Corporation … West Virginia's last visit to Pittsburgh on Feb. 16, 2012 resulted in a 66-48 victory, but trips to the Petersen Events Center have not been too kind to the Mountaineers, West Virginia winning only twice in nine games … West Virginia coach Bob Huggins is just 1-4 in the Pete …The Mountaineers are coming off a 68-61 victory over 15^th-ranked Virginia on Tuesday night and have won eight in a row after beginning the season with a 23-point loss to Texas A&M in Germany … Senior guards Jevon Carter (19.4 ppg.) and Daxter Miles Jr. (14.6 ppg.) are the team's top two scorers … Carter and Miles Jr. have played a combined 225 college games heading into Saturday night's game, while Pitt's starting backcourt, Jonathan Milligan and Marcus Carr, have played 49 combined college games … Getting the players from both teams to understand the history of the Backyard Brawl is going to be a challenge … The Mountaineers have three players on their roster from West Virginia, Moundsville's Chase Harler, South Charleston's Brandon Knapper and Cameron's Logan Routt, but Routt spent the majority of his childhood living in Florida … WVU sophomore forward Sagaba Konate prepped at Kennedy Catholic High in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, but is a native of Bamako, Mali … Pitt only has four local players on its roster – the aforementioned Luther, Pittsburgh's Joe Mascaro and Anthony Starzynski and Zach Smith from Smethport, which is northeast of Pittsburgh close to the Pennsylvania-New York state line … Saturday's game will be the 185^th meeting between the local area's two Power 5 hoop programs … There is no other team that West Virginia has faced more than Pitt, even though the current five-year break is the longest since 1908-14 when WVU deemphasized its basketball program … After Pitt, West Virginia has 11 days until its next game that counts in the record book against Coppin State … In between, the Mountaineers will play an exhibition game against Wheeling Jesuit next Saturday afternoon to remain sharp.