Pitt ranks firmly in the middle of the pack of ACC jobs

At least one ACC basketball program will have a new head coach in the 2016-17 season, as Pittsburgh athletic director Scott Barnes continues his search to fill the vacant position left by Jamie Dixon on Monday.

Three days into the search, there’s no clear choice for who will succeed Dixon, who served as head coach of the Panthers for 13 years, but there is an idea of how the Pitt job compares to the rest of the conference.

Any suspicions that the ultimate slam dunk was a possibility were dismissed on Tuesday when Sean Miller declared a lack of interest in the job. Less than an hour after a report surfaced that Miller had been offered the position, the Arizona coach released a statement on Twitter essentially saying, “thanks, but no thanks.”

But while it was never realistic that Miller would make a celebrated return to his alma mater, at least not right now, there are still plenty of potential candidates who would make for solid hires. Given what Pittsburgh has to offer, there’s no reason why Barnes shouldn’t be able to land the right fit.