Women’s Basketball: Team surprised, excited about move to ACC

Editor’s Note: Although most of the media attention since Pitt announced its move to the… Editor’s Note: Although most of the media attention since Pitt announced its move to the ACC has focused on how the conference change will affect men’s basketball and football, almost all of the sports on campus will make the switch as well. This is first in a series of reports The Pitt News will do on the conference switch, so check back this week as The Pitt News gets the perspective of all the University’s teams.

At first, Pitt women’s basketball player Ashlee Anderson was surprised — shocked, even — to hear that her school decided to leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference. After all, the redshirt sophomore guard came to Pitt expecting to spend her college career competing in the Big East.

“I was surprised at first,” Anderson, who appeared in every game for the Panthers last season, said. “My teammates and I committed to play Big East basketball.”

Pitt head coach Agnus Berenato was also surprised when she first learned of Pitt’s defection, but she added the style of play doesn’t vary much between the ACC and the Big East.

“Basketball is basketball,” she said.

Both the ACC and the Big East are home to some of the best teams in the nation. At the end of last season, six ACC teams were ranked in the Top 25; five were ranked from the Big East. But the Big East produced more national champions in recent history, with Connecticut taking home the title six times in the past 11 years and Notre Dame winning in 2001.

Maryland, the last national champion from the ACC, won in 2006.

Pitt and Syracuse announced that they were leaving the Big East Conference to join the ACC on Sept. 18. Both schools will have to pay the $5 million Big East exit fee and currently won’t be able to play in their new conference for 27 months.

When Pitt makes the move, Bernato said that the biggest adjustment will be the increase in travel.

“What’s different is just location — its geography,” she said. “We have a lot of schools in this area that we play and that we’ve formed great rivalries with — West Virginia, Villanova. We love going up to the New York area and the D.C. area — they’re hotbeds for us. Rather than style of play, though, I think you have to look at proximity. You have Maryland, who’s close — four hours, maybe — so that’s a drive. But everywhere else is far. There’s going to be a lot of flights.”

Soon after hearing the news about the move, Anderson began to understand Pitt’s decision. Teams all across the nation were switching conferences; it only made sense that Pitt would too.

“One of the main things was trying to figure out why we were moving conferences,” she said. “Once I started understanding why things were happening and seeing that a lot of teams are trying to leave the Big East, it made sense.”

And her uneasiness gave way to excitement.

“The ACC is one of the best conferences, so I’m happy about the move,” she said.

Like Anderson, Berenato said such a move was inevitable in today’s ever-changing world of college athletics.

“I was surprised at the timing of it,” Berenato said. “But I was not surprised that we moved. There was great discussion going on now for eight months probably. So I knew something was going to happen — but I was shocked when it actually did. I give Chancellor [Mark] Nordenberg and our athletic director, Steve Pederson, tremendous kudos for having the foresight to be the aggressor and to pursue and accept an invitation. Often times, people sit and they mull over things, and they wait and they wait, and it becomes too late.”

Berenato, who is entering her ninth season as the Panthers’ head coach, said moving to the ACC should not affect her team’s recruiting. She said that she thinks the university — rather than the conference — determines where recruits choose to play.

“Student athletes want to go to a great university, and they want to play basketball, and they want to be surrounded by great people,” she said. “The University of Pittsburgh is a Top-10 public school in the nation. We’re known worldwide, not just on the East Coast. We have freshmen right now from Florida, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York and Seattle, Wash. So we recruit nationally and internationally as it is.”

Freshman guard Brianna Kiesel said Pitt’s reputation as an elite academic and athletic institution mattered more to her during her college-selection process than the chance to play in the Big East.

“I came to Pitt more [for] the education and the team — not just the conference,” she said.

But Anderson said that the ACC’s prestige and visibility has always caught her attention.

“I’ve been following ACC basketball since I was young,” she said. “I was recruited by some ACC teams, so I did my homework. They have multiple teams that make the tournament. They have tradition like the Big East. Plus, they were always on TV — you grow up watching the Cameron Crazies and the fans at North Carolina. I’m really looking forward to playing all the different teams.”

For Berenato, who coached at Georgia Tech before coming to Pitt, moving to the ACC means returning to her roots.

“I got my first start in the ACC at [North] Carolina,” she said. “So I’m very familiar with the ACC — I was there for 18 years.”

Berenato said that so far she has been warmly received from her friends down south. She received a text message from one of her former players, saying that Berenato would return to the ACC in time for the 20^th anniversary of their National Championship.

“In the last week, I’ve probably heard from 15 to 20 former players from Georgia Tech,” Berenato said. “There was one lady who wrote me whose kids used to be my ball girls. Now they’re married and have kids. I’m like, ‘Holy Camole! They can’t be married.’ I’m just extremely excited.”

So excited, in fact, that she can barely wait for her team’s first game as a member of the ACC.

“I always look at everything as, ‘Let’s go.’ You know, ‘Bring it on, baby.’”