Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon is making a change to his coaching staff for the 2013-14 season and bringing back a familiar name in the process.
Barry Rohrssen will rejoin Dixon’s staff as an assistant coach, replacing Pat Sandle.
Sandle was an original member of Dixon’s staff and spent the past decade with the program.
Rohrssen was a member of Pitt’s staff from 2001-06, serving under both Dixon and Ben Howland. He was Dixon’s associate head coach from 2004-06 before accepting the head coaching job at Manhattan.
He returns to Pitt after being with the Portland Trailblazers last season.
Rohrssen is known as a great recruiter who has ties to the high school and AAU scene in New York. During his first stint in Pittsburgh, the Panthers did very well in terms of getting New York players who were tough and could fit into Dixon’s system.
However while Rohrssen is known to be a great recruiter, the level of recruit has gotten much better since he’s been gone. The results haven’t always been great, but the Panthers landed highly though of recruits such as Dante Taylor, Khem Birch and Steven Adams while he was gone. That’s something that didn’t necessarily happen while Rohrssen was at Pitt the first time around.
He did land Chris Taft, who was highly thought of, but for the most part Rohrssen didn’t bring athletic and highly ranked recruits to Pitt.
But with that being said, the guys he did recruit turned out to be pretty good players.
It will be interesting to see exactly what role Rohrssen will have this time around as Dixon’s top two assistants- Bill Barton and Brandin Knight- are both still on the staff and NCAA rules permit only two assistants to be allowed on the road to recruit high school players.
Photo Credit: New York Daily News
