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So, I was browsing around Pitt's fine athletics department website and noticed this on Monday morning.
The University of Pittsburgh women’s basketball team is seeking highly skilled and competitive male practice players for the upcoming 2014-15 campaign.
To be eligible, you must be an enrolled full-time student at Pitt and have high school varsity basketball experience.
The selected players will assist in the daily operations of practice. This is a tremendous opportunity to continue playing basketball at an elite level, while learning from Hall of Fame Coach Suzie McConnell-Serio and her staff.
Yikes.
This was actually perfect timing as I had been planning something on the injuries on the women's team. Safe to say, they're a little shorthanded.
Head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio talked about the injury issues in her opening press conference for the season. As I wrote before, Bubbles Anderson is out for the season after reinjuring her ACL. Brittany Gordon is also out for some time with a shoulder injury.
Pitt is down to nine healthy bodies right now and, interestingly enough, someone asked her at the presser about concern with that. She mentioned that they have guys in practice to help scrimmage. Apparently, not enough.
To offset the injuries, the team is taking some unusual steps. First, they've added Monica Wignot - a former Pitt volleyball player. McConnell-Serio also brought her daughter, Jordan, a current Pitt student that played in high school, out of retirement.
The few bodies, of course, is a real problem. While you can add in players to help practice, it's not ideal since it's hard to develop true chemistry with the rest of the team. Pitt will also need to depend heavily on the incoming freshmen and hope that everyone can remain healthy.
McConnell-Serio has this thing going in the right direction and was an excellent hire. But results might not be coming this year.
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