Column: Rebuilding Pitt toughest test yet for McConnell-Serio

The Pitt women’s basketball team is not winning games right now, and that is a problem, especially for the leader who has tried to build up a Panthers program that hit rock bottom just before she was hired eight months ago.

Pitt head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio is a proven winner, and for the first time in her coaching career, or playing career for that matter, things aren’t going the way she had hoped.

McConnell-Serio began her impressive record in her playing days. As a high schooler, she was a four-year starter at Seton-La Salle High School and led her team to a state championship her senior year. She even led the softball team to a WPIAL championship while batting .500.

The 1984Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Female Athlete of the Year continued her dominance at Penn State, where she still holds the NCAA Division I record for career assists. 

Following an Olympic gold medal in 1988, McConnell-Serio made her first foray into coaching by becoming the head coach for the varsity women’s basketball team at Oakland Catholic High School.

In 13 years at the helm, she guided her teams to three state titles and two other state title game appearances while producing 24 Division I scholarship athletes.

Next call, a struggling WNBA franchise in the Minnesota Lynx that had only won 10 games the season before McConnell-Serio took over. Back-to-back playoff berths in 2003 and 2004 highlighted the short but illustrious tenure of McConnell-Serio, who was named the 2004 WNBA Coach of the Year.

She returned to Pittsburgh in 2007 to take over the Duquesne women’s program and to no one’s surprise, guided the Dukes to five straight postseason appearances while posting a 123-68 (.644) winning percentage between 2007 and 2013. 

So what can fans expect from the coach and former player who has seen nothing but success, with a roster that has failed to win a conference game in more than two years?

We might have gotten our first glimpse Wednesday night of what to expect when adversity strikes from McConnell-Serio. She was more vocal than ever with her players and on occasion, with the officiating crew, voicing her frustration while strolling the sidelines and barking out plays.

When I asked in the postgame press conference, one that she held after her players exited the media room, about how she carried herself on the sideline Wednesday, she said, “What I said to our players is that I don’t accept losing, never have. For some reason we get in our own little world out there, we made mistakes and didn’t execute things we wanted to do in our game plan.“

Some of that frustration might have carried over from Sunday’s four-point loss to Buffalo, in what surely was the Panthers’ worst performance this season.

It seems McConnell-Serio still had the loss to Buffalo on her mind Wednesday night, especially considering the fact that the Bulls called in April and tried to back out of the game once Pitt hired McConnell-Serio.

The loss to James Madison might not leave as sour of a taste in the mouth of McConnell-Serio and her staff, but the opportunity for the 5-4 Panthers to pick up a few victories before conference play begins is right in front of them.

Pitt plays at the Petersen Events Center against Old Dominion on Dec. 15 before the Panthers head to Las Vegas for Duel in the Desert, where winning three or even four games should be a reachable goal for McConnell-Serio and her team. 

One more thing I forgot to mention: Pitt plays Duquesne at home Dec. 29 in its last game before conference play begins.

Think McConnell-Serio will want her team to win that one?