On the Clock: Pitt's Brandin Knight

By Ray Mernagh

Former Pitt point guard Brandin Knight begins his fifth season as a member of head coach Jamie Dixon's staff this fall. Knight, whose No. 20 jersey was retired by the program two seasons ago, turned down a chance to become the Associate Head Coach at Rutgers this summer in order to remain on the bench for the Panthers. Knight sat down with PSR's Ray Mernagh to discuss that decision and his goals in the coaching arena.

Q: Are you looking forward to getting out on the road in July for the "live" period?

BK: Well, I always enjoy watching kids play but at the same time it's so crazy for those two live periods that I'm not sure anyone looks totally forward to it (laughs). You just try to be as many places as possible to see the best games and the best players. Sometimes the schedule works out the best way it can, and sometimes it doesn't you know? Sometimes you have to leave a little prematurely because you want to see a couple of other kids at another venue, and that always seems to be the time when you miss some of the best games, while you're trying to be everywhere at once.

Q: You've made a name for yourself as a quality assistant coach at the highest level. What exactly was it that made you decide to stay at Pitt instead of taking some of the offers that came your way this past spring?

BK: I think first, obviously, this is home. Pittsburgh 's been like my second home to me, and the one thing I can't deny is how much I enjoy Pittsburgh . I mean, my family enjoys being here. I have a lot of friends and a lot of special people to me that are here in this city. Another thing is I know all of the people, I know everything that's going on. There's nothing for me to sell when I'm recruiting a kid. I can just give them and their parents my actual experience as far as what it's like to play here and be a student here.

The other aspect is that I have a great relationship with Coach Dixon, the entire staff, the athletic department, faculty all the way down the line and, I also have to include people that work on campus. Those relationships are things that are very difficult to leave behind for me. I just love being here. I enjoyed it as a player, I still stayed here in Pittsburgh even when I wasn't coaching and once I was done playing here, so you know Pittsburgh is my second home without a doubt.

Q: How close were you to taking the offer at Rutgers?

BK: I think it's been the only job that I've somewhat entertained taking, and the reason for that is there were more than a few factors there… that again, were tied into Pittsburgh. Mike Rice obviously was an assistant with us and he changes the dynamic right away because he was one of us at one point, and I got to know Mike and he's part of our coaching tree. So it wasn't like just considering going anywhere else, because Mike being there changes the way I viewed the opportunity. Also it's home and that was hard to turn down, because my parents are getting older and moving closer to them and closer to my fiancé's  family, as well as being in the right situation in a place that I felt I could've been successful – all those factors made it a situation that I had to consider.

Q: Is there any part of you that gets frustrated because of your age? By that I mean while you're highly respected, but still looked at as a "young" assistant. Was part of the reason you gave such consideration to the Rutgers opportunity – because you saw it as a chance to prove yourself even more than you already have at the highest level in a position that maybe has more responsibility or is another rung up the coaching ladder? After all, you'd have been Mike's associate head coach.

BK: I think so. And again, the one thing you have to understand as an assistant, is there are only so many opportunities that will come along where you'll have a chance to advance and grow in the business. The ones that you think you can be successful at, I think you have to take a look at them seriously – but also at the same time there's one thing that I couldn't pass up here, and that's that Coach has done a good job of getting guys other jobs if that's what they want to do.

The other thing is that I've been where Rutgers is, as far as trying to rebuild a program, trying to come from the bottom up. I've been there. I was a part of that here at Pitt. For me, as far as the position that was offered, yeah it may have been a step up but at the same time you can't move if you don't win. I'm not saying Mike Rice doesn't have an opportunity to win or he's not going to win, but at the same time right now we've got a good thing going here. Winning solves a lot of issues that you may have as far as the job is related.

Q: You mentioned having been there in the past when you came here as a player and all the work that it takes to build something like you guys have built at Pitt. It's a top-tier Big East program and a national program today. When you first stepped on campus back in the day, did you ever envision it being this good here?

BK: Well, for me, and I know some people think I'm crazy when I say this but no matter who I was competing against I always felt like I could win, you know what I mean? That's been my mentality since I was a kid, going through high school and all the way up to now. In my mind, if you walk into a situation and you're thinking it's 50/50 then to me your odds are a lot lower than if you walk into a situation really genuinely believing that you can turn something around. I use this year's team as an example, and liken it to the big turnaround we had going from my sophomore year to my junior year. Nobody expected that to happen, man, the only people that expected to win all those games and be that good was us – the 15 guys in that locker room. No disrespect, but writers aren't playing, the coaches that vote on the preseason picks aren't playing the games, all the commentators… everybody can say what they want but at the end of the day, I've always been a firm believer that you're a big part of your success and your destiny. If you feel like you can do it and you believe it, then sometimes you can will your way to some things that a lot of other people could never conceive.

Q: Piggybacking on that, how does that "culture" of knowing you're going to have success in the program get translated to the players? I hear it and I see it when I speak to Travon Woodall, for example, or Ashton Gibbs, or Brad Wanamaker – they're not surprised that they've had success when others. quite frankly, bet against it happening?

BK: I think you used the correct word when you said culture. It's just become the culture of all the kids that have been here. I think it comes with them in a lot of instances, because for the most part our guys feel like they've been underrated and they've come in with a chip on their shoulder. But also, at the same time, we have a lot of confidence in them and we tell them that constantly. Coach is always extremely adamant about letting them know that we expect them to be successful and that failure isn't an option. It's not OK to lose regardless of who's playing, or if we have two of our best guys out – that's not an excuse. I think that's been one of the thing that we've hung our hats on, is that nobody makes excuses. We just make the most out of what we have and we do it as a unit together no matter what.

Q: You've talked about Jamie Dixon's track record of guys getting head jobs that have worked under him. Obviously you want to be a head coach; is that a process that just works itself out, or is that something that you see happening for yourself in the next few years?

BK: Again, it's something where you have to look at all the factors in that it's got to be the right opportunity and be the right place for my family. But there's so many factors… If there was a great job open, and coach and I sat down to talk about it, and he  thought it was a good situation and Mr. Pederson thought it was a good situation for me… then I think both of those guys would wholeheartedly push me in that direction.

Now, if something awesome came up in the next year or two and both coach and Mr. Pederson thought it made sense, then yeah I'd love to be a head coach. And when that time comes and the opportunity is right, I think I'll be ready because of the way that coach prepares all of us.

Q: It seems like every year the cry rings out about the recruits Pitt gets. Can you just reiterate how you guys go about identifying the kind of player you want; a "Pitt" player that you know will bring you success in the form of wins?

BK: I would start with this the most important thing with us when it comes to recruiting – we find guys that we like. Guys that fit into the scheme of things here at Pitt, and can do the things that we do inside of our program. Another thing we're big on is guys that win. All three guys coming in this season—JJ Moore, Cameron Wright and Isaiah Epps—played on teams that were successful, and all three were good team-guys. The other thing is from our first guy to our last guy, there is a camaraderie that they share and any new guys are going to need to fit into that. I think that matters...A LOT.

People ask me all the time, "You know Brandin, no disrespect, but just looking at what y'all have on your team how do y'all get the most out of them every year?" And I always say, "To be honest, it's a combination of good players, the culture, and not wanting to let their teammates down."

These guys truly do everything together in our program -- they lift together, they eat together, they bowl together, they spend a lot of time at each others' places. I mean it's pretty rare to have 14 or 15 personalities that for the most part like each other, but we seem to have that. That's critical to me, but when we're recruiting we try to find guys that, 1) can play, and guys that, 2) fit in. I also think we do a good job of not following the flock. We see who we like and we go after them, regardless of what the rankings might say or what the services are writing. If the services are writing great things, great. But if they're writing bad things, who cares? At the end of the day none of that is going to win us any games because when the kids get here they have to perform.

For example, and I really hate to say this, but who among all those experts thought West Virginia could beat Kentucky with all those first-round draft picks? They would never imagine that those kids could win the games they did, but at the end of the day rankings don't win games for you, players do... and we're recruiting basketball players that we think can win for us.