Pitt women’s basketball team struggling in ACC play

The Pitt men’s basketball team is winless in the conference and the growing consensus is that there’s a chance they may not even win a single ACC game. Unfortunately, the women aren’t faring much better.

The women’s team does have a conference win, defeating Georgia Tech earlier this month, 68-62. They also nearly defeated North Carolina, losing by one point, and have been a little more competitive than the men. But Suzie McConnell-Serio’s bunch still has a long way to go.

The team is only 1-6 in the conference and 9-11 overall. And aside from the close loss to the Tar Heels, they’ve also had their share of ugly defeats, losing every other contest by double digits. Add it all up and the team looks like it will be hard-pressed to match the 13 wins they had last year in the program’s second straight season with that total.

Ordinarily, it might seem logical to replace a head coach that has struggled so much. But McConnell-Serio doesn’t deserve the boot in my estimation - here’s why.

The Pitt head coach has had some serious player stuff to deal with in her last two seasons. Last year, star Yacine Diop missed the entire season. This year, the team lost its best player, Brenna Wise, to a transfer. Also this season, the team has been without senior point guard Aysia Bugg, who has started the last three years. Bugg hasn’t yet played and, although she was expected back in January, with the month coming to a close, you wonder if she’s going to simply redshirt at this point. I don’t know how much sense it makes to try to make a run now with the team in such a deep hole. Pitt has no other seniors on the roster and could make a big push by returning all of its starters.

It’s hard to get much going with those kind of issues so I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt. That said, with what looks to be a third consecutive losing year, McConnell-Serio needs the team to improve in a big way next year returning so many players.

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