My understanding is that BC does not prioritize wbb. There is next to nothing in terms of operating budget( compared to other D1 schools) and there is very little NIL. Everyone who left went to a "better" situation.
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Thoughts/Analysis on the ACC heading into 2025-26
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This is my understanding as well, though I am not sure the players who left were anyone to warrant any NIL money. Coach JBM was on the hot seat last year and my guess is she will be let go after this season simply because this is not a good roster and I think the school has been disappointed in the lack of improvement over her tenure. Is it a poor situation for her, yes it is but some of it is of her own making. We will get an early look at the Eagles as we play an exhibition on October.
I might give credit JBM for being a better recruiter than a scout because some of the players she had like Todd and Greene had more heralded schools on the final lists and they chose to go to BC. BC is pretty much a feeder school for other schools to get their players after a year or two at BC.
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Good write up.
I don’t pay too much attention to Syracuse in the off season but I am expecting this to be a so-so season at best. One of their biggest issues last year was inability to close out game and complete mental lapses. It’s both a coaching failure and lack of high basketball IQ. Often times it seemed like Cuse only showed up to play a single half.
Recruiting is a huge weakness. I’m not saying Syracuse is a resort destination for college students, but they should be able to bring in more talent than they do. I suspect they get little to no help from the school when it comes to $$$, which certainly plays a huge part nowadays.
Let’s see what the transfers can do. I wasn’t overly impressed with the transfer players last year. This team has definitely lost talent. Some players really have to take a significant step up from last year.
I think Coach Jack has a long leash with SU, but if they’re trying to get more butts in seats they need to show they can at least win the games they’re “supposed” to win. If they go .500 this year I’ll consider it an improvement over last. But don’t expect any casual fan up here to be impressed with anything less than a win over a “big” ACC opponent and a NCAA tourney spot.
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Clemson is due up next.......
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Clemson finished year one under new head coach Shawn Poppie with an overall record of 14 - 17 (.452) and a conference record of 6 - 12 (.333) so not great but considering it was pretty much a total rebuild not terrible. They obviously began and ended the season unranked. Poppie convinced the two freshmen he inherited to stay as well as getting two others back who had entered the portal. He did a decent job finding players in the portal as well but the one thing he did differently than most of the first year ACC coaches was to bring several players from his former team in with him. While it was a step up from Chattanooga for those players it probably helped stabilize things a bit in year one since those 3 players were familiar with his coaching structure. He also grabbed a player from Mercer who he was obviously already familiar with coming from the same conference as Chattanooga. Clemson ended their season in the ACC tourney with a surprising 17 pt defeat over Stanford followed by a 2 pt overtime loss to Louisville. Not a bad showing for Poppie's first ACC conference tournament.
What was lost: 9 players. Like a couple of the other first year coaches (VT, Miami) most of the players were lost to graduation and most of those were "one year rentals" picked up through the portal. Having said that all the starters but one are now gone including leading scorer L. McQueen (5'8" G 13.5ppg). Also gone are T. Miller ( 6'2" F 8.2ppg), S. Evans (6'0" F 5.7ppg), A. Poole (6'2" F 5.3ppg), M. Cluse (5'10" G 5.0ppg), A. Porter (5'4" G 2.2ppg), M. Ott (5'10" G 1.3ppg), and seldomly used bench players J. Griggs, B. Ranallo (transfer to Ohio), and K. Kellermann.
What remains : The lone starter M. Moore (Sr. 5'6" G 10.8ppg) and #2 scorer. Also back are 2 key reserves brought along from Chattanooga H. Kohn (Jr. 5'9" G 9.2ppg) and R. Thompson (Sr. 5'10" F 6.0ppg). Additionally bench player M. Miller is also back (So. 6'2" F). Four returning players is not much but is to be expected and will be a core from which to start building.
Incoming transfers : 6 players in total and here's where it starts to get interesting. T. Johnson-Matthews (Sr. 5'9" G 14.5ppg) from DePaul, M. Lee (Sr. 6'5" C 12.6ppg) from Marist, R. Rose (Sr. 5'7" G 12.5ppg) from Wofford, D. Hinds (Gr. 6'2" F 9.3ppg) from fellow ACC team WF, H. Perriman (Sr. 6'2" G/F 8.6ppg) from Tulsa, and R. Augustinaite (Jr. 6'0" G/F 5.2ppg) from fellow ACC GT. Only one of those will be returning after this season.
Incoming freshmen : 3 players. #64 H. Harris (6'1" G/F), #100 A. Jackson (5'8" G), and J. Butler (6'1" G/F).
The back court could be very interesting this season. Moore will obviously return as starter and Kohn will likely be the first guard off the bench along with Thompson. Clearly Johnson-Matthews from DePaul and Rose from Wofford will be the other 2 starting in the back court. Johnson-Matthews was a bit of a Jekyl-and-Hyde player last season playing lights out at home and just awful on the road so we'll see how that works out. Rose is a special player and I believe could really be a difference maker for Clemson. She does it all - points, rebounds, assists. She may play the 1 or the 2 or some of both. Against P4 opponents she played her absolute best and even Duke's defense couldn't shut her down. People who don't know who she is will find out soon enough. The front court will consist of Hinds or Periman (or both) and Lee as needed. I also expect freshman Harris to get a very long look and expect returner Miller and the other 2 freshmen to see limited action from the bench.
I feel like Clemson could take a step forward this year and when Shawn Poppie was hired after 2 years of winning over 70% each year he coached at Chattanooga perhaps the administration was looking at the possibility that he could become another Wes Moore. That would certainly be a great hire if it turns out anywhere close to that. Obviously it's too early to know but I do know Moore had many, many more years at Chattanooga and still had a better win rate than Poppie.
Clemson had a couple of obvious problems last year. One was that they were 2 - 7 on the road in conference play and those wins were WF and SMU so that's not saying much. Granted nobody expected them to win at Duke, NC State, Louisville, FSU, or GT but losing by 13 at Pitt and 29 at BC is not good. The biggest problem Clemson had last year was a lack of size in the front court. They had no player taller than 6'2" on the roster. In today's game in general you have to be able to match up in the post with other teams (especially within your conference) unless you have an extraordinary back court. Although that was somewhat addressed with the addition of Lee she has never played at this level before. Worse than that, both Hinds and Lee have serious shortcomings. Hinds commits way too many fouls and if she hasn't corrected that by her senior year I doubt things are going to change. Lee is both a terrible shot and prone to massive numbers of turnovers. Hinds has her share as well......as does Periman. I'm not talking 3 or 4 to's here but 6, 7, 8, 9 even more - in a single game! That's a disaster in the making! The lack of a solid front court was their Achille's Heel last year and I'm afraid until that's taken care of - especially this season - they will be destroyed in the paint. Every decent opposing post player they went up against last year had a dbl-dbl against them and nearly all of those were losses. I don't see that changing.
Although Poppie has shown he can recruit and is doing so again (but even better) for 2026, it's a slow building process with 7 of 13 players not returning after the season. So that leaves the portal once again and while he's done a pretty good job in navigating it so far without being able to land any big fish it's hard to see any major leaps in winning overall. And they still don't have any good post players on the horizon. I doubt we'll see a huge improvement this year but with the GT and SMU coaching changes/re-boots as well as significant drop offs to BC and Cal and probably no improvement at WF it's likely to be about the same. Look for them to finish 14th once again and no post season play.
What was lost: 9 players. Like a couple of the other first year coaches (VT, Miami) most of the players were lost to graduation and most of those were "one year rentals" picked up through the portal. Having said that all the starters but one are now gone including leading scorer L. McQueen (5'8" G 13.5ppg). Also gone are T. Miller ( 6'2" F 8.2ppg), S. Evans (6'0" F 5.7ppg), A. Poole (6'2" F 5.3ppg), M. Cluse (5'10" G 5.0ppg), A. Porter (5'4" G 2.2ppg), M. Ott (5'10" G 1.3ppg), and seldomly used bench players J. Griggs, B. Ranallo (transfer to Ohio), and K. Kellermann.
What remains : The lone starter M. Moore (Sr. 5'6" G 10.8ppg) and #2 scorer. Also back are 2 key reserves brought along from Chattanooga H. Kohn (Jr. 5'9" G 9.2ppg) and R. Thompson (Sr. 5'10" F 6.0ppg). Additionally bench player M. Miller is also back (So. 6'2" F). Four returning players is not much but is to be expected and will be a core from which to start building.
Incoming transfers : 6 players in total and here's where it starts to get interesting. T. Johnson-Matthews (Sr. 5'9" G 14.5ppg) from DePaul, M. Lee (Sr. 6'5" C 12.6ppg) from Marist, R. Rose (Sr. 5'7" G 12.5ppg) from Wofford, D. Hinds (Gr. 6'2" F 9.3ppg) from fellow ACC team WF, H. Perriman (Sr. 6'2" G/F 8.6ppg) from Tulsa, and R. Augustinaite (Jr. 6'0" G/F 5.2ppg) from fellow ACC GT. Only one of those will be returning after this season.
Incoming freshmen : 3 players. #64 H. Harris (6'1" G/F), #100 A. Jackson (5'8" G), and J. Butler (6'1" G/F).
The back court could be very interesting this season. Moore will obviously return as starter and Kohn will likely be the first guard off the bench along with Thompson. Clearly Johnson-Matthews from DePaul and Rose from Wofford will be the other 2 starting in the back court. Johnson-Matthews was a bit of a Jekyl-and-Hyde player last season playing lights out at home and just awful on the road so we'll see how that works out. Rose is a special player and I believe could really be a difference maker for Clemson. She does it all - points, rebounds, assists. She may play the 1 or the 2 or some of both. Against P4 opponents she played her absolute best and even Duke's defense couldn't shut her down. People who don't know who she is will find out soon enough. The front court will consist of Hinds or Periman (or both) and Lee as needed. I also expect freshman Harris to get a very long look and expect returner Miller and the other 2 freshmen to see limited action from the bench.
I feel like Clemson could take a step forward this year and when Shawn Poppie was hired after 2 years of winning over 70% each year he coached at Chattanooga perhaps the administration was looking at the possibility that he could become another Wes Moore. That would certainly be a great hire if it turns out anywhere close to that. Obviously it's too early to know but I do know Moore had many, many more years at Chattanooga and still had a better win rate than Poppie.
Clemson had a couple of obvious problems last year. One was that they were 2 - 7 on the road in conference play and those wins were WF and SMU so that's not saying much. Granted nobody expected them to win at Duke, NC State, Louisville, FSU, or GT but losing by 13 at Pitt and 29 at BC is not good. The biggest problem Clemson had last year was a lack of size in the front court. They had no player taller than 6'2" on the roster. In today's game in general you have to be able to match up in the post with other teams (especially within your conference) unless you have an extraordinary back court. Although that was somewhat addressed with the addition of Lee she has never played at this level before. Worse than that, both Hinds and Lee have serious shortcomings. Hinds commits way too many fouls and if she hasn't corrected that by her senior year I doubt things are going to change. Lee is both a terrible shot and prone to massive numbers of turnovers. Hinds has her share as well......as does Periman. I'm not talking 3 or 4 to's here but 6, 7, 8, 9 even more - in a single game! That's a disaster in the making! The lack of a solid front court was their Achille's Heel last year and I'm afraid until that's taken care of - especially this season - they will be destroyed in the paint. Every decent opposing post player they went up against last year had a dbl-dbl against them and nearly all of those were losses. I don't see that changing.
Although Poppie has shown he can recruit and is doing so again (but even better) for 2026, it's a slow building process with 7 of 13 players not returning after the season. So that leaves the portal once again and while he's done a pretty good job in navigating it so far without being able to land any big fish it's hard to see any major leaps in winning overall. And they still don't have any good post players on the horizon. I doubt we'll see a huge improvement this year but with the GT and SMU coaching changes/re-boots as well as significant drop offs to BC and Cal and probably no improvement at WF it's likely to be about the same. Look for them to finish 14th once again and no post season play.
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Pitt is next......but in the meantime I was researching some things and came across these interesting (to me) little stats that I thought I would share.....
N.Y. high school girls basketball : a selection of some players you may have heard of who are on the all time leading scorers list ( cumulative total points over a career).
Points HG rank year Pro or not Name Basic Hisory/Info
1) 2552 pts #97 2023 TBD Mary Ashley Stevenson(Groot) Had a g ood first year at Purdue then transferred to Stanford where she is a solid player.
2) 2456 pts #16 2017 UNK Andra Espinoza-Hunter Brief stint at UCONN before moving on to Miss. St. where she struggled somewhat and then on to Seton Hall where she had two very productive seasons. No info on her post college.
3) 2367 pts #1 2012 WNBA Breanna Stewart Star player for UCONN for four seasons. Doubt I needed to put anything other than her name really.
4) 2320 pts #? 2006 WNBA Epiphanny Prince Official HG rankings didn't begin until 2008 but undoubtedly a Top 10 and notorious for a couple of key moments in her career including leaving college early to play professionally (overseas). Star for Rutgers for three seasons.
5) 2244 pts #16 2008 WNBA Shenise Johnson Pretty much put Miami on the map as a wbb program. One of only two D1 players to score 2000 pts, 1000 rebs, 500 assists, and 400 steals in a career (Nancy Lieberman of ODU 1976-80 being the other.
6) 2243 pts #16 2021 WNBA Sonia Citron Under utilized player at ND but her star power beginning to show itself in her rookie season of the WNBA
7) 2225 pts UR 2024 TBD ** This mystery player broke nearly every high school record of another well known player on this list who attended the same school and had the same hs coach. She also did her one better by taking her team to and winning a hs championship. She was red-shirted due to an injury her college freshman season - exactly the same thing that happened to her predecessor.
8) 2138 pts #56 2022 TBD Shay Ciezki She had two solid years at PSU before transferring to Indiana where she so far has continued her productivity.
9) 2135 pts #35 2014 WNBA Bianca Cuevas A decent player for SC who came in with A'ja Wilson as part of that amazing recruiting class and was an important contributor on the team that went on to win the NCAA championship in 2017
10) 2118 pts 1995 WNBA Chamique Holdsclaw TN star player. Included her on this list of more recent players purely for context and because she was an awesome player
11) 2018 pts #13 2024 TBD Kayleigh Heckel Had a decent freshman season at USC before transferring to UCONN where I suspect she'll develop in to yet another WNBA caliber player. Time will tell.
12) 1818 pts UR 2018 WNBA Madison Siegrist This is the only player on this list with less than 2000 pts in her hs career although her hs did retire her jersey recently. Villanova saw something in her that all the P5 programs missed and she went on to set the all time scoring record for the Big East conference and that includes A LOT of great UCONN players. Took her team to the Sweet 16 as a senior where they lost to a Miami team having a ridiculous tournament run. Drafted #3 overall by the WNBA a year ago and starting to show her skills playing alongside Paige Bueckers. I included her on here mostly because nearly everyone knows who she is at this point and because she's the most often cited example for why the Top 100 rankings are "meaningless". I completely disagree with that argument and I think there are many reasons why a player like her could have been overlooked by the P5 schools and not included in the rankings. There are of course other exceptions to this but very few and probably some day we'll see a Top 125 or 150 and she certainly would have been included. The short list above helps to demonstrate that. If you're not a dominant player at the hs level who can really score (2000 pts or more barring injury and not a true PG) I doubt any P5 coach is thinking you're going to be great at the next level. Villanova was a perfect fit for her and she was able to start and show her abilities from her freshman year (after recovering from an injury). I'm sure there was some schools trying to entice her to transfer after she led the country in ppg but she chose to stay at Villanova and I think that was a good decision for her even though it meant no realistic chance at a championship and not getting the exposure she would have received elsewhere. Have those who do the rankings and the many P5 coaches learned anything from this ? No, not really. Well, maybe one or two coaches did even if the polls didn't. Our Mystery Girl sitting at #7
N.Y. high school girls basketball : a selection of some players you may have heard of who are on the all time leading scorers list ( cumulative total points over a career).
Points HG rank year Pro or not Name Basic Hisory/Info
1) 2552 pts #97 2023 TBD Mary Ashley Stevenson(Groot) Had a g ood first year at Purdue then transferred to Stanford where she is a solid player.
2) 2456 pts #16 2017 UNK Andra Espinoza-Hunter Brief stint at UCONN before moving on to Miss. St. where she struggled somewhat and then on to Seton Hall where she had two very productive seasons. No info on her post college.
3) 2367 pts #1 2012 WNBA Breanna Stewart Star player for UCONN for four seasons. Doubt I needed to put anything other than her name really.
4) 2320 pts #? 2006 WNBA Epiphanny Prince Official HG rankings didn't begin until 2008 but undoubtedly a Top 10 and notorious for a couple of key moments in her career including leaving college early to play professionally (overseas). Star for Rutgers for three seasons.
5) 2244 pts #16 2008 WNBA Shenise Johnson Pretty much put Miami on the map as a wbb program. One of only two D1 players to score 2000 pts, 1000 rebs, 500 assists, and 400 steals in a career (Nancy Lieberman of ODU 1976-80 being the other.
6) 2243 pts #16 2021 WNBA Sonia Citron Under utilized player at ND but her star power beginning to show itself in her rookie season of the WNBA
7) 2225 pts UR 2024 TBD ** This mystery player broke nearly every high school record of another well known player on this list who attended the same school and had the same hs coach. She also did her one better by taking her team to and winning a hs championship. She was red-shirted due to an injury her college freshman season - exactly the same thing that happened to her predecessor.
8) 2138 pts #56 2022 TBD Shay Ciezki She had two solid years at PSU before transferring to Indiana where she so far has continued her productivity.
9) 2135 pts #35 2014 WNBA Bianca Cuevas A decent player for SC who came in with A'ja Wilson as part of that amazing recruiting class and was an important contributor on the team that went on to win the NCAA championship in 2017
10) 2118 pts 1995 WNBA Chamique Holdsclaw TN star player. Included her on this list of more recent players purely for context and because she was an awesome player
11) 2018 pts #13 2024 TBD Kayleigh Heckel Had a decent freshman season at USC before transferring to UCONN where I suspect she'll develop in to yet another WNBA caliber player. Time will tell.
12) 1818 pts UR 2018 WNBA Madison Siegrist This is the only player on this list with less than 2000 pts in her hs career although her hs did retire her jersey recently. Villanova saw something in her that all the P5 programs missed and she went on to set the all time scoring record for the Big East conference and that includes A LOT of great UCONN players. Took her team to the Sweet 16 as a senior where they lost to a Miami team having a ridiculous tournament run. Drafted #3 overall by the WNBA a year ago and starting to show her skills playing alongside Paige Bueckers. I included her on here mostly because nearly everyone knows who she is at this point and because she's the most often cited example for why the Top 100 rankings are "meaningless". I completely disagree with that argument and I think there are many reasons why a player like her could have been overlooked by the P5 schools and not included in the rankings. There are of course other exceptions to this but very few and probably some day we'll see a Top 125 or 150 and she certainly would have been included. The short list above helps to demonstrate that. If you're not a dominant player at the hs level who can really score (2000 pts or more barring injury and not a true PG) I doubt any P5 coach is thinking you're going to be great at the next level. Villanova was a perfect fit for her and she was able to start and show her abilities from her freshman year (after recovering from an injury). I'm sure there was some schools trying to entice her to transfer after she led the country in ppg but she chose to stay at Villanova and I think that was a good decision for her even though it meant no realistic chance at a championship and not getting the exposure she would have received elsewhere. Have those who do the rankings and the many P5 coaches learned anything from this ? No, not really. Well, maybe one or two coaches did even if the polls didn't. Our Mystery Girl sitting at #7
YKCornelius
Yukon to my friends
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Rooster, what is the criteria for making your list? Didn't Saniya Chong set the record for most points (2,998) at the same NY high school Andrea Espinosa-Hunter (and Aubrey Griffin) went to (Ossining)?
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Good question. I was going to add the comment at the end of the list to let me know if I missed anyone but forgot lol. My initial research was limited to Maddie Siegrist and another two players for context. Once I saw all the recognizable names on the NY list I went down the rabbit hole. I eventually checked out every player from 2008 forward as that's when HG rankings came in to play and only added E. Prince and C. Holdsclaw for reference/overall name recognition. Clearly Saniya Chong should have been on the list. The names I had never heard of was not surprising once I checked in to them - many had solid careers at smaller schools and some bounced around trying to find success but none of them were ranked in the Top 100 for a reason. Chong was #79 who played four years at UCONN and went on to play briefly in the WNBA and so should have been included. Not all 2000 point plus scorers are equal as many played for much smaller divisions in hs and /or were pure 3-point shooters. I really didn't have a criteria per se but was merely reacting to the sheer number of recognizable players names on that list (chong among them) which I found interesting.
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To triaddukefan : at this point NC has lost out on #3,#35 but they're still alive with the rest (12)
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Well Abigor just "disappeared" from the Cal roster so small ball is very likely for many games as I expect Walker will get in to foul trouble regularly. A challenging season just became more difficult. Things not looking good for CAL this year.
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Pitt it's your turn:
Pitt finished their 2nd season under HC Tory Verdi with a 14 point loss to Virginia in their first game of the ACC tourney. They began and ended the season unranked with a record of 13 - 19 overall and 5 - 13 in the ACC. Verdi's win pctg over two seasons is .328 overall/ .194 in conference. Last year's W/L record looks bad but consider his 1st year was 8 - 24/ 2 - 16 so that's an improvement of 5 wins overall and +3 in conference. Having said that it may be difficult to improve further this year.
What was lost: Quite a bit. Let's begin with starter 6'4" K. Faye who will be impossible to replace She averaged 19ppg and 10.2 rebs/gm and not surprisingly had 16 dbl-dbls. Other starters moving on are graduate M.Elmore(6'3" F 7.2ppg/7.2 rebs/gm) and M.Washenitz (Sr. 5'7" G 9.3ppg) who transferred to ASU. Also gone are important reserves/sometime starters B.Miles(4.9ppg) to graduation and A.Battle(Jr. 5'10" G 3.3ppg) to the portal and Hampton. Also departing are A.Malcolm(Sr. 5'10" G 4.6ppg) to Robert Morris and B.Perkins(Sr. 5'9" G 7.8ppg) to the unknown - I could not find any info on what happened to her. Right after having an incredible performance (10/15 26pts inc 6/6 from 3) she was dismissed from the team. She came to Pitt after playing her first 2 years at USC. Sadly, that's one of the decisions a coach has to make even though they know it's likely to cost them in the win column.
What remains: After losing both several starters and experienced reserves you'd think the outlook was pretty bleak but there's still a solid core remaining. Starters M.Johnson(rs Jr. 6'1" G 10.9ppg) and A.Biggs(So. 6'0" G 2.1ppg) are back. Also returning are key reserves A.Jenkins(rs Jr. 5'10"G 9.7ppg) and L.Rust(rs So. 6'0" F 8.0ppg). Her name being Rust is appropriate as she went down early last season with an injury and missed the rest of the season.
Incoming transfers: Three players. A.Jones(Sr. 5'4" G 15.2ppg) from Coppin St., C.Viegas(Jr. 5'9" G 6.0ppg) from fellow ACC FSU, and F. Diakhate (rs Jr. 6'5" F 5.3ppg).
Incoming Freshmen: A lot. 7 players. #30 N.Wilson(5'9" G) and #99 T.Haganssu(5'9" G). Three players from Canada: D.Tumba Tshibuabua(6'2" F), J.Queeley(5'10" G),and M.Hollingsworth(6'0" G). Also coming in are M.Arzner(5'11" G) and from France A. Le Faou (6'5" F).
Pitt lost a lot but I think they have a chance to improve from their 15th place finish of a year ago. Pitt has had a difficult time finding a HC who can turn their program around but Tory Verdi might be that person. He is a better recruiter than most of his predecessors for one thing quietly getting commits from 2 Top 100 players one of which was #30. Second, he does a very good job developing the talent he has. K.Faye had an avg of 6.0ppg/5.5 rebs over 2 years with TT and slightly lower avg over her next 2 years with Texas. In her sole year at Pitt those numbers jumped to 19ppg/10.2 rebs ! L. Rust had also developed into a very solid player and she was just starting to hit her stride at 8.0ppg when she suffered a season-ending injury. Last year there were several other players who sustained injuries and Pitt was the walking wounded finding it difficult to field a cohesive starting five for much of the season. A lot to overcome. Lastly, it looks like he's taken the approach of "Canada South" as 3 incoming freshmen will be joining fellow Canadian L.Rust. There were a lot of P4 offers on the table for freshman D. Tumba Tshibuabua(say that 3 times fast) but Verdi was the one who got her. She probably should have been ranked. It will be interesting to see if he can develop F. Diakhate (from GA) the same way he was able to K.Faye a year ago. If not there's the 6'5" freshman from France coming in that he has time to work with. While I think that's too many freshman for one class as we all know there will undoubtedly be some attrition along the way. With the decline of Cal, GT, BC and a drop off for FSU,ND, and SYR there's a chance to move up and battle for the lower middle part of the conference IF Verdi can bring them together quickly enough. I think Pitt will end up somewhere around 12th to 14th depending on how their post players perform. Their back court is solid if not spectacular.
Pitt finished their 2nd season under HC Tory Verdi with a 14 point loss to Virginia in their first game of the ACC tourney. They began and ended the season unranked with a record of 13 - 19 overall and 5 - 13 in the ACC. Verdi's win pctg over two seasons is .328 overall/ .194 in conference. Last year's W/L record looks bad but consider his 1st year was 8 - 24/ 2 - 16 so that's an improvement of 5 wins overall and +3 in conference. Having said that it may be difficult to improve further this year.
What was lost: Quite a bit. Let's begin with starter 6'4" K. Faye who will be impossible to replace She averaged 19ppg and 10.2 rebs/gm and not surprisingly had 16 dbl-dbls. Other starters moving on are graduate M.Elmore(6'3" F 7.2ppg/7.2 rebs/gm) and M.Washenitz (Sr. 5'7" G 9.3ppg) who transferred to ASU. Also gone are important reserves/sometime starters B.Miles(4.9ppg) to graduation and A.Battle(Jr. 5'10" G 3.3ppg) to the portal and Hampton. Also departing are A.Malcolm(Sr. 5'10" G 4.6ppg) to Robert Morris and B.Perkins(Sr. 5'9" G 7.8ppg) to the unknown - I could not find any info on what happened to her. Right after having an incredible performance (10/15 26pts inc 6/6 from 3) she was dismissed from the team. She came to Pitt after playing her first 2 years at USC. Sadly, that's one of the decisions a coach has to make even though they know it's likely to cost them in the win column.
What remains: After losing both several starters and experienced reserves you'd think the outlook was pretty bleak but there's still a solid core remaining. Starters M.Johnson(rs Jr. 6'1" G 10.9ppg) and A.Biggs(So. 6'0" G 2.1ppg) are back. Also returning are key reserves A.Jenkins(rs Jr. 5'10"G 9.7ppg) and L.Rust(rs So. 6'0" F 8.0ppg). Her name being Rust is appropriate as she went down early last season with an injury and missed the rest of the season.
Incoming transfers: Three players. A.Jones(Sr. 5'4" G 15.2ppg) from Coppin St., C.Viegas(Jr. 5'9" G 6.0ppg) from fellow ACC FSU, and F. Diakhate (rs Jr. 6'5" F 5.3ppg).
Incoming Freshmen: A lot. 7 players. #30 N.Wilson(5'9" G) and #99 T.Haganssu(5'9" G). Three players from Canada: D.Tumba Tshibuabua(6'2" F), J.Queeley(5'10" G),and M.Hollingsworth(6'0" G). Also coming in are M.Arzner(5'11" G) and from France A. Le Faou (6'5" F).
Pitt lost a lot but I think they have a chance to improve from their 15th place finish of a year ago. Pitt has had a difficult time finding a HC who can turn their program around but Tory Verdi might be that person. He is a better recruiter than most of his predecessors for one thing quietly getting commits from 2 Top 100 players one of which was #30. Second, he does a very good job developing the talent he has. K.Faye had an avg of 6.0ppg/5.5 rebs over 2 years with TT and slightly lower avg over her next 2 years with Texas. In her sole year at Pitt those numbers jumped to 19ppg/10.2 rebs ! L. Rust had also developed into a very solid player and she was just starting to hit her stride at 8.0ppg when she suffered a season-ending injury. Last year there were several other players who sustained injuries and Pitt was the walking wounded finding it difficult to field a cohesive starting five for much of the season. A lot to overcome. Lastly, it looks like he's taken the approach of "Canada South" as 3 incoming freshmen will be joining fellow Canadian L.Rust. There were a lot of P4 offers on the table for freshman D. Tumba Tshibuabua(say that 3 times fast) but Verdi was the one who got her. She probably should have been ranked. It will be interesting to see if he can develop F. Diakhate (from GA) the same way he was able to K.Faye a year ago. If not there's the 6'5" freshman from France coming in that he has time to work with. While I think that's too many freshman for one class as we all know there will undoubtedly be some attrition along the way. With the decline of Cal, GT, BC and a drop off for FSU,ND, and SYR there's a chance to move up and battle for the lower middle part of the conference IF Verdi can bring them together quickly enough. I think Pitt will end up somewhere around 12th to 14th depending on how their post players perform. Their back court is solid if not spectacular.