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Message: [QUOTE="Rooster C., post: 5337740, member: 10168"] 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. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach