Pitt reportedly finalizing buyout to hire Kevin Stallings as next coach

Well, that went quickly.

A short time ago, I mentioned Pitt's intentions to seriously consider Kevin Stallings as a candidate for the basketball team's head coaching job. Seems we're well beyond the 'consideration' stage, boys and girls:

Apparently last hurdle -- not much of one -- is buyout and they are negotiating with Vandy. It is not considered an obstacle

— Paul Zeise (@PaulZeise) March 27, 2016

Well, okay.

Okay then.

...

Okay.

To be fair, Zeise has tweeted several things about it not being a done deal, etc., since then. But this sounds like it could be Stallings here.

As I wrote earlier, Stallings has had a somewhat up and down career at Vanderbilt, his employer since 1999. He's made the NCAA Tournament seven of the seasons he's coached there and outside of a couple of Sweet 16s back in 2004 and 2007, his teams haven't gone deep in the Big Dance.

The move to grab Stallings also is confusing after all of the other names that have been bandied about. None of them had the resume of Dixon but for Stallings' name to surface after all of those guys being in consideration (all arguably hotter names out there) is an odd situation.

At this point, you have to wonder about Pitt's ability to land any of those guys. Bryce Drew is a guy that's been at Valpo practically his entire life. Andy Enfield has somewhat of a comparable job at USC. The move would be a step up for Mike Lonergan, but maybe he (or Pitt) wasn't sold, either. Who knows at this point.

We'll see where this goes and it's not a done deal yet. But by the sound of things, Pitt could be heading towards a deal with him.

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