PITTSBURGH (AP) – Kevin Stallings and Scott Barnes took turns standing at the dais plopped down near center court inside the Petersen Events Center last March ticking off the reasons – well, reason, mainly – Stallings left Vanderbilt after 17 years to become the head coach at Pittsburgh.
The deciding factor, said Stallings and Barnes, the Panthers’ athletic director at the time, was the legitimate chance to reach the Final Four .
Ten months later, it has never seemed farther away.
Barnes sprinted west for the same job at Oregon State earlier this month and the most significant hire of his brief tenure is off to a bumpy start.
Stallings’ already difficult first season reached an ugly and historic nadir on Tuesday night, when the Panthers were blown out 106-51 by No. 13 Louisville. In the program’s 112-year history, only once has Pitt been beaten by more: a 106-13 loss to Westminster College in 1906 back when play had to be stopped after every made basket to fetch the ball out of the hoop.