They had a coach that made the tourney 11 times in the last 13 years. This is a school that went to the tournament a *total* of 15 times before Dixon. They haven't been to the Sweet 16 since 2009, but they've only ever been there 7 times, 3 of which were under Dixon.

He's had a Top 25 offensive efficiency team in those 11 seasons, and he's had three Top 5 offensive efficiency teams. His system is slow-tempo (and slow-tempo teams are especially vulnerable in the tournament, imo), but it's kept Pitt tourney-bound, even in an ACC that has become increasingly challenging and will only continue to get more so.

Basically, one could argue that, at age 50, he's one of those Bo Ryan efficiency guys whose teams always play well but carry the stigma of "they've never been to the Final Four"... until, of course, they do. Most every strong coach has carried that stigma until he didn't.

Not that I think Jamie Dixon is a Bo Ryan caliber coach, necessarily. I just think he's being woefully underrated by Pitt, and a consistently winning atmosphere, even without a Sweet 16 in a while, is really hard to come by, especially in tough conferences like the Big East and the ACC.