Pitt a winner with Berenato

I have a confession to make.

I was once one of those guys who said women’s sports were… I have a confession to make.

I was once one of those guys who said women’s sports were boring. The prospect of a WNBA or, heaven forbid, an entire World Cup soccer tournament for women being televised excited me about as much as a Lifetime movie marathon.

But no longer.

Why the change? Where did my sporting chauvinism disappear to? I can’t be entirely sure, but a good deal of it has disappeared in the last two years, and for that I have to thank a resurgent women’s basketball team here at Pitt.

In May 2003, Agnus Berenato took over the program at Pitt, leaving a very successful Georgia Tech team after a decade and a half at the helm in Atlanta. Pitt’s program was at a low, with one winning season (16-13 in 1999-2000) in its last eight.

Her first Panther team last year was unimpressive on paper, compiling a 6-20 record and losing the final 12 games on the schedule. To watch the team was a different story, however.

For someone like myself, who enjoys intense, defensive-pressuring, floor-burn-inflicting basketball, Berenato was No-Doz for basketball boredom. For the first time in years, the Pitt women’s team was entertaining.

Enter the 2004-05 season. Captained by scrappy, 5-foot-6 senior guard Amy Kunich; 5-foot-11 junior post player Cheron Taylor from Detroit, whose play evokes the Pistons teams of our youth; and 6-foot-3 sophomore Jennifer Brown, who has the physical tools and intensity to be an All-Big East selection in the future, the Panthers have in their leaders, if nothing else, a willingness to battle. Just how Berenato wanted it.

So heading into this season, with Berenato’s second recruited class and her first selection of captains, those of us who watched the team in the media and as fans knew they’d at least play hard. But then, a funny thing happened.

The team won. And they won again. And again. Before anyone knew it, the team was 6-0 and had two pieces of hardware, winning tournaments in Greensboro, N.C. and Stony Brook, N.Y.

Pitt’s women’s basketball team had matched their win total of the previous year, and it was only Dec. 4!

Before the season, Berenato said the thing she was least prepared for in her first year at Pitt was losing. Now she was winning, but was the team ready for it?

A poor second half did the team in at Duquesne, followed by late disappointment in a near-upset with Penn State and a poor offensive performance at Clemson, left the team 6-3 and looking sadly like the Pitt of old.

But with 16 days between games over the winter break, Pitt regrouped and ran off three straight wins in New York, including the Big East opener at Syracuse.

A tough home loss to St. John’s leaves Pitt currently at 9-4 and 1-1 in the Big East, but as the team continues to gel, they become better as a group, and even more exciting to watch

Freshman Marcedes Walker has become a star inside, averaging 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game and a mighty 20 and 14 in two conference games. With amazing strength and a deceptively soft touch on her shot, she is a threat on both ends of the court and is capable of great things. Great and memorable, in the case of one Penn State player who found out about Walker’s strength the hard way, trying to pull down a rebound.

Walker ripped the ball away from the helpless Penn State player, slinging her a clear 15 feet across the floor, leading many, including Pitt Athletics Director Jeff Long, to jump up in excitement and then in disbelief when the referees wrongly tagged her for a foul.

Katie Histed, who emerged at the end of last season, now leads the team with 13.2 points per game, and, more importantly, has contributed a team-high 24 steals. In addition to her scoring prowess, Histed displays her agility by diving into the seats to save a loose ball.

Combine everyone I mentioned with other emerging players like Danielle Taylor and Vika Sholokhova, and Berenato now has the bodies to play her style of basketball, employing frequent full-court pressure and trying to hustle the opposition off the court.

All told, the team is not only rapidly improving, but fun to watch! Yes, I said it, the women’s basketball team has become an attraction, and, to paraphrase Berenato, you should buy your season tickets now, because they are going to be putting up banners in the future.

How soon is the future? Maybe sooner than anyone could have guessed because, with them being at 9-4, at least one writer is sold on this team being legit. And that’s pretty impressive considering they had to sell me on the sport, too.

Matt Grubba is a senior staff writer for The Pitt News, and can actually name at least five WNBA teams. Contact him at Grubba@comcast.net.