Mike Blue & White writes today for the case of Suzie McConnell being inducted into the basketball HOF. While he of course speaks glowingly of her psu days (big surprise) he offered this brief assessment of her Pitt tenure:
"McConnell-Serio also had some excellent seasons as Duquesne’s women’s coach before taking the coach’s job at Pitt. Although her tenure at Pitt didn’t end well when she was let go, she also had some successful seasons there."
Didn't end well? It was a full blown disaster. When your star recruit from a local WPIAL catholic school transfers out, that is a huge red flag.
Honestly, I thought she was the biggest home-run hire ever at Pitt, bigger than Wanny. I guess the warnings signs appeared early when she was losing to Duquesne (the school she left) in the first couple seasons. I don't follow women's BB very closely, but that was really a disappointing run she had. Not sure why she didn't have the success we thought would be had here. Maybe the ACC was too big a jump? Her coaching resume, outside of high school, was very light. Hiring her sister as the assistant didn't help much either (er, are you paying attention Jeff?).
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"McConnell-Serio also had some excellent seasons as Duquesne’s women’s coach before taking the coach’s job at Pitt. Although her tenure at Pitt didn’t end well when she was let go, she also had some successful seasons there."
Didn't end well? It was a full blown disaster. When your star recruit from a local WPIAL catholic school transfers out, that is a huge red flag.
Honestly, I thought she was the biggest home-run hire ever at Pitt, bigger than Wanny. I guess the warnings signs appeared early when she was losing to Duquesne (the school she left) in the first couple seasons. I don't follow women's BB very closely, but that was really a disappointing run she had. Not sure why she didn't have the success we thought would be had here. Maybe the ACC was too big a jump? Her coaching resume, outside of high school, was very light. Hiring her sister as the assistant didn't help much either (er, are you paying attention Jeff?).
Prep Talk: Hall of Fame-worthy by herself, Suzie McConnell-Serio makes a championship coaching tandem with her husband
Prep Talk is a weekly column of news, notes, analysis and history of high school sports from longtime Post-Gazette reporter Mike White. Now this is one...
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