Kevin Stallings and Pittsburgh did Vanderbilt a Favor

Ask your SEC football buddy if the name Kevin Stallings sounds familiar.

I bet he or she thinks it is a guy they went to high school with a few years ago. Maybe, he’s an ex of a friend that dated the girl from across the street and next to his cousin Greg.

Then, you should ask your pal if the name John Cali-

“KENTUCKY! John Calipari, head coach of Kentucky, got one baby!” they will reply.

John Calipari has been at Kentucky since 2009. John Calipari has reached 6 NCAA Tournaments in the 7 seasons that he has been at Kentucky. He has been to 3 Final Fours since arriving at Kentucky, and even won a National Championship.

Kevin Stallings had been at Vanderbilt since 1999. He had been to 7 NCAA Tournaments in his 17 years at the school. He once got his team ranked inside the top 10, at the 7 spot, and eventually won the SEC Tournament that year.

Best year of his Vanderbilt career.

He had 17 years.

*Golf Clap*

It may not be fair to compare Kevin Stallings to John Calipari. Calipari sports an amazing, but far from spotless, record in college basketball. Kevin Stallings can hang is hat on his righteousness if he’d like. Coach Stallings does seem like a decent man. But we don’t care about decent in the SEC. Hell, we don’t care about decent in America.

I mean.

We care about decent.

Well, we care about wins.

And, we care about being decent.

As long as you win.

Nobody remembers a decent loser, do they? That sounds harsh, but is it not true? When’s the last time you said, “Oh yeah, look at those winless-in-conference Boston College football and basketball teams! They lost great! Go Eagles!”.

I’m making Kevin Stallings sound like a JV bum, and he did sport a 60.1 winning percentage while with Vanderbilt. Shout out to winning percentage importance, but looking at that alone doesn’t really stress the point to those that don’t pay attention to SEC basketball. There’s no doubt that the nation did not even remotely notice Vanderbilt’s disappointments, but it felt that Vanderbilt always underachieved to those keeping score in SEC nation. Every year was supposed to be the year for Vanderbilt to take the next step. In 17 years, there wasn’t a single year in Kevin Stallings’ Vanderbilt career that the Commodores finished higher in the AP Top 25 than they started at the beginning of the year.

Then Vanderbilt decided making the tournament once every 2 or 3 years was acceptable and Kevin Stallings stayed.

So the cycle continued for 17 years.

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I’m not saying Kevin Stallings should of had a national title contending team every year, but I am saying that after coaching a team for 17 years, a sub .500 average on reaching the tournament seems a bit subpar for a major conference team.

But, hey, we can all agree that if you cannot win in the SEC with a talented duo of 7 footers, and you get beat by 20 in the NCAA Tournament “play-in” game, it is probably time for you to go look for work somewhere else.

Kevin Stallings had 17 years.

Apparently, Pittsburgh liked what they saw and hired him away from Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt wishes you both the best and thanks you both for all that you have done for them.