Mallorie Winn Returns To Pitt

Former women's basketball player Mallorie Winn has accepted an assistant coaching gig with Agnus Berenato and the Panthers.

Winn averaged nearly 16 points per game during her junior season.  She was one of Pitt's best players in recent memory and a big part of their resurgence several years ago.  Her hiring now fills out Berenato's staff.

Women's Team Back On Track?

I don't normally mention women's basketball recruiting, but 6'2" center Chyyna Golden committing to Pitt is big for two reasons.

First, she's one of the top basketball prospects in the country.  She ranks at #79 in ESPN U's top 100 recruits on espn.com (must be an insider to view).

Second, the program has been on a downward spiral since the season ended.  The team lost two assistants to other coaching jobs and their entire sophomore class.  This move shows that Agnus Berenato is still able to lure top recruits to the school and maybe the program isn't in the dire situation as it appeared to be a few months ago.

News and Notes

I normally don't comment on recruiting misses, but just a brief note here.  Pitt lost out to Alabama for Vinnie Sunseri - brother of Tino and son of Sal, who's a coach at Alabama.

You know you've hit it big when the gambling sites are tabbing you to win your conference.

Brian Bennett of ESPN.com matches up Dion Lewis against Noel Devine and Chris Low of the same site pits Lewis against Mark Ingram.

Agnus Berenato and the women's basketball staff are hosting day camps and their first ever 'Elite' camp.  My favorite part is that it is open to 'any and all participants.'  There are so many directions I could go with this.

And a former Pitt basketball walk-on Pat Cavanaugh has opened up his own line of clothing.  Seriously.  But the thing that caught my eye was the article is written by Sean Brown - apparently by the Twitter profile, the same Sean Brown that was a walk on at Pitt.  Looks like he's now writing for SLAM.

Women's Basketball Program Update

Even though women's basketball may not be the hottest topic out there, I'd been waiting for a story on what's transpired over the past several months. The program seemingly has been in disarray with two assistant coaches leaving and the transfer of three players, which made up the entire sophomore class.

The Post-Gazette came out with a pretty thorough piece about everything that's transpired.

We know that Jeff Williams left to become a head coach, so that's understandable. Yolett McPhee McCuin the other assistant left to become an assistant. When it was first announced, it appeared to be a lateral move at a lesser school. However, the article points out that she left for more money and a promotion from 3rd assistant to 2nd assistant. Not a huge jumpg, but at least understandable.

Regarding the three transfers:

- Pepper Wilson transferred for personal reasons
- Kate Popovec transferred for more playing time
- Sarah Ogoke transferred to be closer to home and for more playing time

At least those reasons are somewhat reasonable and don't necessarily point to a major clash with the coach.

When you look at the fact that the team hasn't lost any of its starters from last year, they have four incoming freshmen, and were able to attract a former WNBA coach, things don't seem to be as bad as perhaps they first appeared.

Dusting off Women's Basketball

After a really down season, which saw the women's team go 16-15 with a first-round NIT loss, things have been gotten a bit strange. Not so much with losing as assistant head coach in Jeff Williams, who took the head job at LaSalle. Things like that happen all the time.

But three players have now left the team since the end of the season, leaving Pitt with only eight players on their current roster. Further, six of those eight are going to be seniors next year, leaving them with only two current players that will still be around in the 2011 season.

All three that left (Pepper Wilson, Kate Popovec, and Sarah Ogoke) were sophomores and they were head coach Agnus Berenato's entire 2008 recruiting class. You have to wonder what the circumstances were and as of now, I've not seen any reasons given for the departures. The student newspaper, The Pitt news tried to reach Coach Berenato, with no luck.

Pitt started off 12-2 to begin the season, but then closed it out with a 5-13 stretch.

Not to mention, all this is on the heels of Pitt reporting that money was lost from hosting NCAA Tournament games this year.