Women’s Basketball: Panthers recruit on more than just talent

Leadership. Work ethic. Character. Toughness.

These traits, the Pitt women’s basketball… Leadership. Work ethic. Character. Toughness.

These traits, the Pitt women’s basketball team will tell you, defines them this season.

Jania Sims returned after a season-ending injury last year to take her place as point guard and coach on the court for the 8-0 Panthers.

Shayla Scott worked over the summer so she could switch from a forward to a guard, because that’s where the team needed her to play.

Taneisha Harrison became Pitt’s leading scorer after the Panthers lost Shavonte Zellous to graduation and the WNBA last year.

It’s no wonder that beyond physical skill, Pitt coaches look for these personality qualities in potential recruits.

With players like Sims, Scott and Harrison, the Panthers coaches have been able to build not only a successful team, but also a solid program — one that has advanced to three straight NCAA Tournaments, including the past two Sweet 16s.

The team’s climb into the national scene hasn’t gone unnoticed by potential recruits, whom head coach Agnus Berenato said are becoming aware of Pitt’s recent success.

“They see us on ESPN, and we have a lot of games on national television,” Berenato said. “People are talking about us now that wouldn’t have talked to us three years ago. Success breeds success.”

However, associate head coach Jeff Williams added that the coaches still work hard to make sure the Pitt name is recognizable, because there might be some recruits who are still unfamiliar with the program’s accomplishments.

“One or two good seasons doesn’t mean you are there to stay,” Williams said. “It means you need to keep working harder and harder to ensure that you can make it back again and again.”

Berenato added that having players such as Zellous, who was drafted in the first round of the WNBA last season, find success at the next level is attractive to recruits.

She said the coaches are currently watching a potential recruit in Detroit who knows Zellous as last season’s star rookie for the Detroit Shock and as a former All-American at Pitt.

“Every striving student athlete knows about Shavonte Zellous,” Berenato said. “She was fabulous. She was on television all summer long. She has such a great passion for Pitt, and we’re recognized through her.”

Berenato added that Zellous isn’t the only Pitt player aiding Pitt’s recruiting with success beyond the collegiate level, as former Panthers Xenia Stewart and Marcedes Walker are currently playing professional basketball overseas.

Williams said the team is using the recognition of the Pitt name in order to branch out and find recruits from across the country.

The coaches go where the talent is, Berenato said, so there isn’t a particular geographical area of focus.

Among the recruits that signed during the early signing period in November are players from California, Virginia and Maryland.

Kyra Dunn, a power forward from Sacramento, Calif., was named a Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American for her senior season and is rated the No. 42 power forward by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.

Marquel Davis is a guard from Fredericksburg, Va., who ranks as the No. 18 guard by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report and was also named a Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American.

Rounding out the class is Asia Logan, a native of Baltimore, Md. The Collegiate Girls Basketball Report ranks her as the 31st best guard in the country.

Although the latest recruits come from across the country, Berenato said that the coaches find particular recruiting success in local areas, such as the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, as well as around Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Seven of the 12 current members of Pitt’s roster come from those locations.

Berenato said she mostly hears of potential recruits from her assistant coaches Williams, Caroline McCombs and Yolett McPhee-McCuin.

“Jeff Williams is just fabulous,” Berenato said. “He’s very sharp. Caroline is very strong in the Midwest. Yolett is from Portland, so she’s taken us to some very diverse areas.”

Another way the coaches locate players is through scouting services and games, Berenato said. The services provide top 100 lists of players, by categories such as position and location.

The coaches also attend recruiting camps that run all summer and one weekend in the fall and spring.

“We have recruiting weekends and recruiting periods,” Berenato said. “There are times when all of the coaches are going from 8 a.m. to midnight every single day.”

She said the coaches might watch as many as four or five games at one time while standing on a balcony with recruiting books, checking information such as statistics and height.

“You watch reactions to officials calls, coaches instructions, if their teammates make a bad pass — that sort of thing,” Berenato said.

Williams said that once the coaches find a player they want to recruit, they often work through a player’s high school and AAU coaches.

“We want to get them on campus for a visit to showcase what we have to offer and so that they can see how things are run and envision themselves as a player here,” Williams said.

If recruits want to see themselves on the Petersen Event Center floor, all they have to do is look at the characteristics of the players that came before them: leadership, worth ethic, character, toughness.