Stallings out after two years with Pitt

PITTSBURGH — The worst men’s basketball season in University of Pittsburgh history cost coach Kevin Stallings his job.

Stallings was let go by the university Thursday, two days after the Panthers completed an 8-24 season that included an 0-19 mark against ACC teams.

“I want to express my appreciation to Coach Stallings for his commitment to our program,” athletic director Heather Lyke said in a release. “In moving forward, we have tremendous expectations for our men’s basketball program at Pitt and I believe we can achieve great things within the Atlantic Coast Conference and nationally. A national search for the next Pitt head coach will begin immediately.”

Stallings went just 24-41 in two years at Pitt after replacing Jamie Dixon in March 2016. Stallings took charge of the Panthers after a modestly successful 17 years at Vanderbilt, where he made the Commodores respectable and became the program’s wins leader. Yet the Commodores didn’t ask for a dime when Stallings left, a sign both sides were ready to move on.

The Panthers had been a perennial NCAA tournament team under Dixon, and Stallings was brought on board with hopes of reaching the Final Four. Instead, he struggled from the outset as Pitt finished 16-17 in his first season despite having senior stars Jamel Artis and Michael Young.

The coach restocked his roster heading into this season, bringing in 11 new players. Stallings expected a difficult transition, and whatever thin margin for error the Panthers had vanished when senior forward Ryan Luther was lost for the year with a foot injury in December.

Without its most experienced player, Pitt simply couldn’t keep up in arguably the nation’s toughest conference. Only four of the Panthers’ 19 games against ACC foes were decided by fewer than 10 points, including a 67-64 loss to Notre Dame in the opening round of the ACC tournament that marked their narrowest defeat of the season.

It also assured Pitt of the second 0-19 mark in conference history. Out of the 351 Division I men’s basketball programs, the Panthers were the only one that did not win a conference game this season.