‘I know that we can win here’: New Pitt women’s basketball coach Tory Verdi ready to compete in ACC
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Tory Verdi officially was introduced as Pitt’s 10th women’s basketball coach Friday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center, and he celebrated his arrival surrounded by family, friends, Panthers players, Pitt’s athletic administration, and other university athletics dignitaries.
Verdi said he is ready to hit the ground running and is optimistic he can help turn around a program that had hoped for better overall results the past several seasons.
“Today is such an exciting day,” Verdi said to those gathered just a few feet from where he will work with his new team in practices and games in and out of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“Today is the day we start winning. We will win, and we will win big. I say that with such confidence because of what I’ve been doing for the past 25 years. I know that we can win here. I felt that from the moment I stepped foot on campus. Today, we will act like winners. Today we will carry ourselves like winners. Today we will look like winners.
“This program is a sleeping giant, and it needs to be awakened.”
Verdi, while looking to the future at Pitt, looked back for a moment and acknowledged his UMass athletic family for their support while he guided the UMass women’s team the past seven seasons.
The Minutewomen won just nine games in his first season in Amherst in 2016-17. The program posted 14, 16, 20, 14, and 26 victories over the next five seasons leading up to this year’s 27-7 mark and a trip to the WNIT.
Under Verdi’s leadership, UMass earned three postseason berths, including its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 25 years in 2022 after it also won its first Atlantic 10 championship.
He concluded his tenure with the Minutewomen with an overall 126-85 record.
UMass, who won this year’s A-10 regular-season title with the most A-10 victories in program history (14), made it to A-10 tournament title game before falling to Saint Louis in overtime.
Verdi owns coaching experience at all levels of women’s basketball from high school to college and the WNBA where he was an assistant coach with the Connecticut Sun in 2003.
Verdi’s hire ends a month-long search for Pitt’s next women’s head coach after the school parted ways with Lance White after five seasons. The Panthers finished 10-20 overall and 3-15 this season.
White was 42-99 overall and 11-74 in ACC regular-season games.
Pitt last made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2015.
Verdi said working with athletic director Heather Lyke and other members of the search committee made for a smooth transition.
“Working with such a professional and someone I have known, the transparency was flawless,” he said. “It was a whirlwind, and it happened fast. But it was a great transition.”
Verdi said that when the position came open, he did his homework on the Pitt women’s program and the school overall.
“The facilities, and the school, and the environment, and the diversity; it’s a special place,” Verdi said.
“I know we are going to be able to recruit here. I know we are going to be able to get special players. But more importantly, we are going to get special people.”
Lyke came to Pittsburgh as athletic director in March 2017 after serving seven years in the same position at Eastern Michigan.
During her time with Eagles athletics, she got to know Verdi, then the women’s coach at EMU, and the two stayed in touch through his tenure at UMass.
“We scoured the country and talked to a lot of coaches,” Lyke said. “I knew early on what type of person he is and his desire to be here at Pitt. We had to do our due diligence and go through the process. I knew (Thursday) night that I couldn’t wait to call coach because I was really confident he would be all in.”
Verdi spent four seasons at Eastern Michigan and compiled a 72-61 record over four seasons.
His teams were selected for the WNIT in 2015 and ‘16, and the ‘15 squad reached the Mid-American Conference championship game.
He was 8-22 in his first year at EMU before growing the program to where it won 24 games two years later and won another 22 games the next season.
Prior to begin named coach at Eastern Michigan, he served as an assistant coach at Columbia, Nebraska and Kansas.
Verdi said he’s ready to get to know the Pitt players currently on the roster and work to build the team over the next several months with the recruits coming in and others who could arrive through the transfer portal.
He also looks forward to establishing a coaching staff that will help guide the program to the start of practices in October.
“We’re going to be really busy,” Verdi said. “There’s no question about that. I am just super excited about the four players that we have in our program right now. They’re my main priority. I had the opportunity to meet with them a little while ago and spend some time with them. I am excited to coach them. I will be there with them every step of the way. But we’re going to tackle the portal, and like I said, there’s a lot of work to be done here in the next 48 hours.
“We have the great opportunity to bring in great players, players who can impact and help us win now. We’re not waiting for three years, and we’re not saying we need all this time to rebuild and get the right people in. We’re winning. I can’t sit here before you and tell you a number. But what I can tell you is that this team will be different, and we will play hard, we will play smart and we will play together.”