McConnell-Serio signs long contract extension
Pitt women’s basketball coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said coaching the Panthers was her dream job when she was hired in 2013.
Now, McConnell-Serio will do it for many more years after the school announced Friday she signed a contract extension that runs through the 2020-21 season.
“I said when I was hired that this, Pittsburgh, is where my family is and where I grew up. It is where I want to live and Pitt is where I want to work the rest of
my career, so this is exciting for us,” McConnell-Serio said. “And I appreciate the trust chancellor [Pat] Gallagher and our athletic director, Scott Barnes, have in me and the confidence they have in me.
“This is an opportunity to build on what we have done here and continue what we have started as we work to build the program.”
The move was not a surprise. McConnell-Serio was hired to rebuild a program that had fallen on hard times and had not won a conference game in the two seasons before she arrived.
In 2013-14, her first year, the Panthers won 11 games and broke their conference losing streak. In 2014-15, she led them to a 20-12 record and a berth in the NCAA tournament.
The Panthers have only four returning players to go with six newcomers starting in the fall, but McConnell-Serio said that won’t change her expectations that the team will compete for the ACC title and make annual trips to the NCAA tournament. They upset No. 7-seeded Chattanooga in the 2015 NCAA first round before losing to powerhouse Tennessee.
“We have set the bar high after having a taste of that success of getting to the NCAA tournament,” McConnell-Serio said. “It is something very, very special to accomplish, and we want to continue that. ... We want to be a contender and we want to get to the NCAA tournament. That’s become the standard for this program.”
Barnes said locking up McConnell-Serio with a long-term deal was an easy decision considering how much success she has had.
“Within a very brief per iod of time, Suzie McConnell- Serio has made a remarkable imprint on women’s basketball at the University of Pittsburgh,” Barnes said in a statement. “On and off the floor, she has Pitt on the rise, and we are thrilled to announce this commitment to her and our women’s basketball program. Suzie is nationally respected as both a coach and person, and we couldn’t be more excited about her leading our program into the future.”
McConnell-Serio, who coached Duquesne from 2007-13, has a record of 154100 in eight seasons as a Division I coach. Six of her eight teams have won at least 20 games a year.