Kevin Stallings' two-year tenure as Pitt head basketball coach somehow keeps getting worse.
After taking over for Jamie Dixon in 2016-17, Stallings went 16-17, including a 4-14 mark in conference play, making it to the second round of the ACC tournament.
Then the wheels fell off, rolled into a ravine and exploded.
In Year 2, Stallings' Panthers went 8-24 and 0-18 in ACC play, prompting the program to fire him and to hire his successor, Jeff Capel. While that cliff dive left many Pitt fans seething, the NCAA added fuel to the fire on Thursday, announcing that Stallings' missteps extended beyond game day.
Per a resolution released Thursday morning, Stallings and head football coach Pat Narduzzi committed coaching infractions and will now pay penalties for their actions.
Specifically, Stallings "instructed and allowed three noncoaching staff members to perform coaching duties, resulting in the program exceeding the number of permissible coaches."
Making matters worse, Stallings clearly knew what he was doing, as the NCAA's report declared he "developed an alert system to ensure noncoaching staff would not be caught on the practice floor coaching student-athletes." He also reportedly ordered practice videos to be deleted so administration could not review the footage to determine if violations did occur.
As a final cherry on top, the NCAA also found that the men's basketball program "impermissibly produced personalized recruiting videos for 12 prospects to watch during their official or unofficial visits to campus."
Recently, after Pitt's blowout loss to Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., Capel said "There was a dumpster fire that I took over," referencing Stallings' time at the head of the program. Today's news only further confirms that notion.
Narduzzi, meanwhile, committed similar violations, with the report stating he "instructed or was present at the practice facility when three former quality control staff members performed coaching duties." This, as was the case with Stallings, caused the program to exceed the number of permissible coaches. Also like Stallings and the basketball program, Narduzzi and his staff developed an alert system, playing music to indicate when outside parties were present. This allowed the violation to continue undetected.
From the report, here's the detailed list of punishments:
- Three years of probation
- A $5,000 fine plus 0.5 percent of each of the men’s basketball and football budgets
- A show-cause order for the head football coach withholding him from two days of team practices in August 2020. He also did not participate in one week of off-campus recruiting during the Dec. 1, 2019, through Feb. 1, 2020, contact period.
- A three-year show-cause order for the former men’s basketball coach. If he is employed by a member school during that time, he must be suspended from 30 percent of the first season of his employment.
- A three-year show-cause order for the former director of basketball operations. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
- A reduction in men’s basketball recruiting person days by 17 during the 2017-18 academic year.
- A reduction in the number of men’s basketball countable coaches by one at regular practice for 16 hours during the 2019-20 academic year.
- A reduction in men’s basketball countable athletically-related activities hours in the spring of 2020 from 20 to 18 (in-season) and eight to seven (out-of-season).
- A reduction of countable athletically related activities for the football program by eight hours and the number of countable coaches by one for two days of practice during the 2018 football season.
- A reduction in the number of football countable coaches by one for four days of practice in the 2019-20 academic year.
- Two football quality control staff members must be removed from practice for three days during the 2019-20 academic year.
A full copy of the resolution can be accessed here.
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