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News Police report two sexual assaults

Online: Panther rythyms enters the concert circuit

students train for mass emergency

Dale Shoemaker News Editor

Two women were sexually assaulted at separate house parties in South Oakland between Saturday night and early Sunday morning, according to University crime alerts.

According to the first alert, Pitt and city police responded to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital at about 2:05 a.m. Sunday for a report that a woman was sexually assaulted.

According to the woman, a college-aged man of average height and mixed race with light skin assaulted her between 10:30 p.m.

Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday on the 3300 block of Dawson Street at a house party.

According to the second alert, Pitt police were notified at about 1:11 a.m. Sunday that a white man, about 5-foot-11, with short, dark brown hair sexually assaulted a woman at a house party on the 3400 block of St. James Place. The woman told police she met the assailant at the party, according to the alert.

The alerts did not specify whether the women were Pitt students.

Neither Pitt police nor Pitt spokesperson Ken Service could be reached for comment.

Pitt police ask anyone with information regarding these incidents to call them (412624-2121) or the city police (911) and reference report #15-03273 or CCR# 209836 for the incident on Dawson Street and report #15-03268 or CCR# 15-09772 for the incident on St. James Place. pittnews.com

A student in Pitt’s EMS club acts out an injury during a mass emergency drill. Courtesy of Pitt SEMS

Emily Brindley Staff Writer

After she said the building had collapsed, Lily Roth shouted through a microphone Sunday in the William Pitt Union, directing other students to search for dead or injured people.

“Guys, this person is freaking out,” Roth said. “I think this one might be dead. We have patients who haven’t been helped.”

As co-vice president of Pitt Student Emergency Medical Services, Roth rattled off commands to those acting as injured and first responders-in-training, attempting to organize the chaos she had helped plan for the club’s first mass casualty incident drill at Pitt.

At noon in the Assembly Room of the Union, Pitt SEMS organized the free event for Pitt and Carnegie Mellon students, most of whom were EMTs or training to be EMTs, to teach the students how to follow the chain of command during a mass emergency and how to treat victims efficiently. Fifty-one mock patients and 52 responders signed up to practice saving lives on the mass scale.

Though building collapses are rare in Pitts-

burgh, other large-scale emergencies, like mass shootings, have made headlines recently. In an effort to qualify Pitt as an EMS Ready Campus — a campus that has EMTs and EMTs-in-training prepared for any type of emergency — Pitt SEMS hosted the drill.

The National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation awards the Ready Campus designation each summer based on proficiency in warning the public of the emergency, having a properly trained staff and communicating with emergency leaders, among other qualifications.

Mock patients, some covered in red paint meant to look like fake wounds, sat and laid amid piles of old cardboard boxes that acted as rubble. Patients groaned loudly throughout the Assembly Room, crying to responders of lacerations, burns and asthma attacks. One patient lay unresponsive in the middle of the room, with a black tag around his wrist that signified his mock death.

Alexandra Savkova, the president of Pitt SEMS, said the drill educated both mock responders and patients on how to behave if they

November 2, 2015

ever find themselves in some sort of large-scale disaster, believing it’s best to be prepared for anything.

“I’ve been a patient in a bunch of mass casualty incident drills in Philly and I learned a ton that I’m bringing into this,” Savkova, a senior majoring in emergency medicine, said. “This will give students an idea of what to expect in a mass casualty incident.”

Participants in the drill used the S.T.A.R.T. — Simple Treatment and Rapid Transportation — emergency response system, which emphasizes initial treatment of only immediately lifethreatening wounds and encourages responders to move their patients to hospitals as quickly as possible.

Mark Pinchalk, one of the advisors for Pitt SEMS and the patient care coordinator for the City of Pittsburgh EMS, said S.T.A.R.T. is useful because it is so simple.

“No triage system is perfect. Unless you drill your people with them regularly, they’re hard to put in place when you get a real call,” Pinchalk said. “You need to keep stuff simple, that’s why I See EMS on page 3

2

EMS, pg. 2

Find the full story online at

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The Pitt news crossword 11/2/15

like the S.T.A.R.T. system.”

Along with simplicity, Pinchalk said the first responders need to establish a command structure as soon as they arrive on the scene of a mass casualty incident. For Sunday’s drill, Savkova, as president of Pitt SEMS, took over as incident commander over all of the participants.

Though some participants played more direct roles in triage and treatment, Roth said both patients and responders in the drill learned valuable information about emergency response.

“We learn not only by doing, but from watching other people do,” Roth said.

The patient learned about different injury patterns, such as how to stabilize pelvic injuries to prevent blood loss and how to stop arterial bleeds, as they had to learn how to act in accordance with their mock injury. Though the injuries were fake, the students wore disposable gloves, used gauze and tourniquets to stop bleeding and placed victims with broken bones on body boards.

Savkova said through Pitt SEMS, Pitt has become a HeartSafe campus, meaning those in

the club are certified to notify others on campus when there is an emergency and train others in basic CPR. Though this year’s drill was the first, Pitt SEMS plans to make it an annual event.

In total, the drill cost the club between $200 and $300 for supplies, such as baby wipes for general sanitation, pens to sign in participants and tape to mark the floor with the boundaries of the disaster zone. Pitt SEMS raised the money through CPR classes and T-shirt sales, and obtained the remaining supplies, such as cervical collars and tourniquets, through donations. Paramedics, UPMC doctors and Pitt Police Officers also donated their time to the drill, where they instructed the responders on appropriate treatments specific to a mass casualty incident.

Although the event didn’t require any previous medical experience to participate, many of the responders were EMTs or paramedics. Responders, wearing navy blue shirts and carrying black triage bags, fanned out among the patients, assessing their conditions, stabilizing those with broken bones and working to stop bleeding as best they could.

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November 2, 2015

3

Basketball Preview Jamel’s journey

go online to learn about monica wignot’s transition from player to coach

Artis steps into leadership role for Panthers Jeremy Tepper

Senior Staff Writer High school projections say Jamel Artis’ basketball career wasn’t supposed to go this way — becoming the team’s offensive focal point by his sophomore year and earning NBA draft mentions.

Artis showed flashes of promise as a freshman, and those flashes flared longer at the start of his second year — but nothing suggested he was on a path to stardom.

Then something clicked. In an 11-game stretch from mid-January to late February 2015 of his sophomore year, the 6-foot-7 now-junior forward averaged 19.5 points per game.

Artis’ sudden dramatic leap did not surprise Ryan Hurd, his coach at Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts.

“If you coached him, played with him or been around him for any degree of time, that dude will do whatever he can to win,” Hurd said.

Now entering his junior season at Pitt, Artis is integral to his team’s success. For the Panthers to fulfill any sort of championship aspirations, he’ll need to lead those efforts. Hurd knows Artis is up for the challenge.

“He wins, he wants to win, he’s aggravated if he doesn’t win,” Hurd said. “He’ll make plays to make sure that he’s doing everything he can to get the outcome that he wants.”

At first, Artis didn’t make much of an impression on Hurd. Hurd said there was something off about Artis, who played a postgraduate season at Notre Dame Prep. He didn’t show the energy and emotion that coaches typically want out of their players.

As he became acquainted with the player, Hurd learned that though Artis was laid back and quiet, he still had a competitive fire.

“If you go off Jamel’s body language, you’re either going to think he’s lazy or passive,” Hurd said. “There’s a drive inside of him that you don’t necessarily recognize unless you spend some time with him.”

That drive first surfaced in four-on-four scrimmages in the fall of 2012, Hurd said. Artis treated the

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inconsequential scrimmages like championship games.

His desire to win paid off, as Artis averaged 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game that season on the way to leading Notre Dame Prep to the National Prep Championship semifinals.

Off the court, Artis primarily received interest from La Salle and Georgetown, among other schools, after his stint at Notre Dame Prep. Regardless, recruiting wasn’t a primary focus.

“I knew I was going to play D-I. I wasn’t worried too much,” Artis said.

When Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon first watched Artis on the AAU circuit, it was his passing — not his scoring — that caught the coach’s eye.

“His passing was the first thing that stood out. That’s obviously a thing that we always look at,” Dixon said.

“Any guy with size and hands who can pass, you’ve got to keep an eye on.”

Recently, one of Hurd’s current players made what he called the second-best pass he’s ever seen at Notre Dame Prep’s gym — the best came from Artis.

“I’ll never forget. When he was here, he pulled in a rebound, took two dribbles and threw an 85-foot bounce pass that hit his teammate in transition. My jaw hit the ground,” Hurd said.

Pitt offered a scholarship to Artis shortly after, which he accepted once his grades improved enough to meet Pitt’s academic standards. It was the competition, in part, that attracted him to Pitt.

“They showed trust, and it was a good style of play for me,” Artis said. “It was the ACC, a tough conference to play in, so I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to play with the best.’”

In the 230-pound range when he arrived at Pitt, Artis knew he had to improve his conditioning.

But no matter what, Artis is a master of procrastination.

“I always do things at the last minute, I can just turn it on like that,” Artis said.

Dixon had been through this before — the skilled wing with conditioning issues. Current Atlanta Hawk

November 2, 2015

Lamar Patterson, who was a senior when Artis arrived at Pitt, fought a four-year battle to reach optimal weight. Given their similarities in body types, Dixon worried the body change would take longer than he hoped.

Artis surprised him. Staying in extra nights doing cardio work with the treadmill and stair stepper quickly toned Artis’ body down to 212 pounds.

“I didn’t used to do that at Notre Dame Prep at all. I just used to go to practice, eat whatever,” Artis said. “When I came here, it’s college, so I had to do what I had to do to play.”

Dixon said the weight loss helped Artis’ overall game.

“When Jamel got here, he lost that weight pretty quick, so that was surprising,” Dixon said.

The weight loss didn’t give him the confidence to step out of the normal learning curve though. Playing 15 minutes a game as a freshman, Artis averaged 4.9 points per game. There were times when Artis would flash his slick passing ability or midrange shooting but not enough to warrant him more than a modest bench role.

“It was a typical freshman year. I didn’t do too much,” Artis said. “I guess I was just staying in my system. Staying in the system of the plays, trying to fit in.”

See Artis on page 5

4

Artis, pg. 4 Still, his ball skills, passing and shooting ability had all been refined. As a shooter, Artis was significantly better than what Dixon saw at Notre Dame Prep, which came as a surprise.

“As soon as he got here, he showed a great ability to put the ball in the basket from 15 to 17 feet,” Dixon said.

It was imperative Artis continue that trajectory next season. Patterson and Talib Zanna’s graduations left a tremendous void in the roster.

Pitt needed a star, and after cutting the weight for his sophomore year, Artis prepared to take on that role.

But Hurd saw a very different Artis than the one who shined at Notre Dame Prep.

Following Pitt’s game against Boston College on Jan. 6, Hurd waited for Artis outside of Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. After watching Artis accumulate only four points and turn the ball over five times in a starting role, Hurd knew something was up with his former player. At that point in early January, 15 games into the season, he wasn’t producing. They talked as Artis walked to the team bus.

“I said, ‘This isn’t the dude I know. I don’t know what you’re doing or what’s got you playing passively or not confident, but it’s not the Jamel Artis I’ve seen play basketball before,’” Hurd said. “‘So whatever you have to do to figure that out, you just have to get back to yourself.’”

Artis took Hurd’s advice, calmed down and returned to the fundamentals that had helped him succeed.

After a rough game against Clemson, Artis shot five of six for 13 points against Florida State on Jan. 14. From there, he never looked back, regularly scoring in the high teens and 20s each game while also being instrumental in facilitating offense.

Artis has a simple explanation for the success.

“Just taking more shots I guess. I was too passive in the beginning of my sophomore year. I was just passing to my guys, trying to get them shots,” Artis said. “I knew that for us to have a chance at winning, I had to shoot the basketball.”

Artis began to play primarily power forward as opposed to small forward, where he began the first half of the season.

Though he said small forward is his more natural position, his skill set is more effective against taller, less mobile power forwards.

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Jamel Artis drives for a close-range shot. Jeff Ahearn ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR “Guys couldn’t guard me at the four. I was too quick. And once my shots started falling, I could make more plays for others,” Artis said.

Functioning essentially as a point forward, Artis’ playmaking ability was a keystone of Pitt’s offensive success. Though his knockdown midrange shooting stood out, his passing ability was just as important.

“I always could see my man and where the defender’s going to be. I’ve always just been natural at that,” Artis said. “I’ve never, like, worked at it all, it’s just been natural.”

For all of Artis’ success, Pitt still struggled as a whole, finishing 19-15 and missing the NCAA tournament in the process. After their sophomore seasons, both Artis and forward Mike Young have established themselves as Pitt’s strongest offensive players. The team’s success, subsequently, will hinge on their performances this season.

Despite the pressure, Hurd said he believes Artis will stay focused.

“He’s just not bothered by things going on in his environment,” Hurd said. “He’s not going to be

November 2, 2015

easily distracted.”

After a strong sophomore season, Artis is well aware that he’s worked his way onto the NBA radar. Few players have his size, shooting, passing and ball handling abilities.

“It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that he could have a year here that could put him on some fairly solid ground on some NBA draft boards,” Hurd said.

That standing partly depends on his ability to solidify the small forward position. After playing more power forward than small last season, Artis will be back at the latter position with the influx of height in transfers Alonzo Nelson-Ododa, Rafael Maia and Rozelle Nix. “Either way, we’re going to keep him in the same spots and try to keep him doing the same things whatever position he’s playing,” Dixon said.

What Dixon will want Artis to do differently than last year, though, is improve on his defense, which has been Artis’ main focus in the offseason. Looking back at last season’s film, Artis said he’s diagnosed his problems.

“I feel like I’m quick enough, smart enough — I know where to be — it’s just that sometimes I get too deep in spots or not at the right spot at the right time,” Artis said.

Dixon added Artis will need to put forth more effort on that end while also upping his physicality.

“I think you can’t be a great defender without physicality. There has to be a consistent level of physicality and aggressiveness,” Dixon said. “He has to value the defensive possession as much as he values the offensive possession.”

Along with improving his defense, Artis will now have to take on a new role as leader, given his upperclassman status and importance to the team.

The coaches have stressed that he’ll need to be more vocal, Artis said, but he still believes he can lead predominantly through his actions and play.

“I don’t really talk a lot. I try not to talk a lot because I don’t want the guys to think I’m yelling at them or something like that. I just try to lead by example,” Artis said.

With a deeper roster and better presence inside from graduate transfers, Artis said Pitt is in a much better position to succeed this year.

Though he personally would like to gain AllACC status, his primary goal remains simple.

“I just want to win, that’s about it. I just want to get my team where we want to be,” Artis said.

5

Dixon, staff embrace advantages of analytics Jeremy Tepper

Senior Staff Writer Trailing by one point with less than 15 seconds left against Notre Dame last season, James Robinson took the ball to his right, spun and hit the game-winning floater.

The point guard’s basket may have began with his natural ability and strength, but head men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon’s love of advanced statistics and analytics subtly guided the play.

“We ran that last-second play against Notre Dame because we had that statistical evidence in our minds,” Dixon said.

Using a basketball statistical analysis program Synergy, the staff found that Robinson shot better off screens than in catchand-shoot situations. Robinson also is adept at receiving handoffs and then driving, influencing Dixon’s late call during the Notre Dame game last year.

That concept — scouting to maximize

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player’s skills — isn’t new, but it has increased in popularity with the rise of advanced metrics. This practice allows coaches to create plays tailored to their players’ strengths and has progressively gained popularity over the past five to seven years.

Dixon has been interested in b aske t b a l l statistics since his college days at Texas Christian University, where he did a project on various statistics in the NBA before official

tracking was popular..

“I’ve always been enamored with numbers as they relate to sports, specifically in basketball,” Dixon said.

The topic and its hidden benefits also piqued the interest of Jason Richards, Pitt’s video coordinator and director of analytics, when he got his master’s in business administration at Pitt after an injury ended his short NBA career.

Together, Dixon and Richards have created a comprehensive analytics program

I’ve always been enamored with numbers as they relate to sports.

-Jamie Dixon, men’s head basketball coach

November 2, 2015

for Pitt, including a stat sheet that tracks 38 different statistics each game.

“On a normal stat sheet you have your rebounds, your points, your assists. But we have a stat sheet that we use for each game that has 38 statistics, whether it be screening assists, a hockey assist — which is the pass before the assist — deflections, dives on the floor,” Richards said.

Richards said the statistics provide “numerical values that are good indicators of how well the team is playing.”

Every coach isn’t as quick to welcome this technology into their roster, according to Ken Pomeroy, an expert in advanced metrics and the creator of kenpom.com, which maps tempo-free statistics for every Division I team.

“Not everybody’s on board. And you can kind of predict who is more accepting of it by how old they are,” Pomeroy said.

Pitt’s analytics operation is not just Richards — it’s a collaborative effort, as Richards has a staff of nine managers that See Analytics on page 12

6

trio of transfers ready for last year in college hoops Chris Puzia

Assistant Sports Editor Rafael Maia, Alonzo NelsonOdoda and Sterling Smith aren’t going to set school career records for Pitt men’s basketball — but it’s not for lack of talent.

Their Pitt careers will only last one year, as head coach Jamie Dixon brought in the three players as graduate transfers for this upcoming season after their careers at their respective former schools came to a close. They came from varying conferences and backgrounds — Maia from Brown, Nelson-Ododa from Richmond and Smith from Coppin State — but now share the blue and gold on their uniforms.

The transfers, who comprise half of Pitt’s six new faces to this year’s squad, say they can still make an immediate impact in their lone sea-

son as Panthers.

Maia said his newness hasn’t hindered his chemistry with the team or his ability to pick up head coach Jamie Dixon’s game plan.

“I wouldn’t say it’s like, ‘Oh, the graduate transfers are coming here then moving out.’ It’s not like that at all,” Maia said. “Some of my best friends on the team are younger guys. I’m really close with [sophomore forward] Ryan Luther, but I’m also still really close with Sterling and ‘Zo [Nelson-Ododa], who are graduate transfers also.”

Many teams typically bring in most of their incoming players from traditional high school recruiting.

This year, Pitt has only one true freshman in guard Damon Wilson, in addition to junior college transfers Rozelle Nix and Jonathan Milligan and the graduate transfers,

respectively.

Maia said graduate transfers can benefit Pitt because many of those incoming players already have experience at the college level and can mentor the younger players during their lone season here.

“My role with the team is to bring the experience that I’ve had.

I’ve played a really long time at the international level, coming from Brazil on the national team,” said Maia, who picked the Panthers over a final list of USC, California and Nebraska.

Smith, who officially transferred to Pitt on April 24, said spending the summer at Pitt helped the new players catch up and gel with their new teammates.

The team often hangs out and goes to the movies, which Smith said See Transfers on page 13

Sterling Smith came to Pitt after four years at Coppin State. Wenhao Wu STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Pitt News SuDoku 11/2/15 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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November 2, 2015

7

Dan Sostek

1988 Finishes her fouryear career at penn state, leaving as the ncaa’s all-time leader in career assists with 1,307

1988 wins gold medal as a member of the united states Olympic women’s basketball team

1990 accepts position as head coach at oakland catholic high school

1998 drafted with the 16th pick in the second round in the 1998 wnba draft by the cleveland shockers pittnews.com

Sports Editor

Suzie McConnell-Serio was going to play with the boys.

Long before the native Pittsburgher was gracing the sidelines of the Petersen Events Center and revitalizing the University of Pittsburgh’s women’s basketball team as its head coach, she was just a fourth grader shooting hoops in a gymnasium.

Talented but teamless, her school — Our Lady of Loreto, a Catholic school in Brookline — didn’t have a women’s basketball squad. If she was going to play, she would have to accept another offer to join the boy’s team, where a coach had noticed her skills in the school gym.

She accepted his offer, joined the league and did all she could to fit in with the rest of the team.

“I had long hair,” McConnellSerio said. “Then in fifth grade, I guess to blend in more. I went from long hair to short hair. But I still stuck out.”

McConnell-Serio’s integration with the boys opened the door for her sister, Kathy McConnell-Miller, who joined the boys’ team one year after Suzie did.

“The boys didn’t like that so much,” McConnell-Miller said.

“When it became an issue, and Suzie had sparked an interest in girls playing basketball, the coach decided if there’s enough interest, then we’re going to start an all-girls team.”

Those two years of scoring against the boys not only helped form a girl’s

team— launched an irreplicable career.

McConnell-Serio, 49, has spent more than three decades playing with and coaching women on a winding career path with stops at every level of competition. An NCAA record holder, WNBA Coach of the Year and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, she has achieved more in her still-budding basketball career than most players can ever dream of accomplishing.

Born and raised in the Steel City, McConnell-Serio is one of eight siblings in a basketball-centric family that saw six children play in or coach the sport at various levels. The passion for the game is a genetic trait in the McConnell family, as the siblings’ children have found success playing the sport — highlighted by her nephew T.J. McConnell, who made this year’s Philadelphia 76ers’ roster.

She developed her game at Seton-LaSalle High School with her pre-collegiate career culminating in a PIAA State Championship win with Kathy by her side.

Her point guard prowess drew numerous athletic scholarship offers, and McConnell-Serio considered five schools — Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Georgia and Louisiana Tech — before making Happy Valley home.

“When you’re a student athlete, I think you get a gut feeling that, ‘This is where I want to be for the next four years,’” McConnell-Serio said. “And that’s exactly how I felt being at Penn State.”

She also chose Penn State to be close to Pittsburgh, the first — but

November 2, 2015

Suzie McConnell-Serio poses with her two Olympic medals.

Courtesy of Pitt Media Relations not the last — time the city influenced her career decisions.

As a Nittany Lion, McConnellSerio was dynamic from day one.

She was an immediate starter as a freshman, embarking on a recordsetting career spanning from 1984 to 1988, in which she passed from the point guard position like no one else has since been able to duplicate/.

The game was different then.

Because of single-sport specialization and increased focus on training, McConnell-Serio said the talent pool is better, and there’s more opportunity for play.

While she said she needed

to improve her strength at Penn State — “I wasn’t growing any” — the 5-foot-5 guard averaged 12.6 points and 9.7 assists per game as a freshman. McConnell-Serio eventually broke the NCAA career record for assists in a career, finishing with a total of 1,307.

“I don’t even know what the previous record was,” McConnellSerio said of the record she still holds to this day. “I never paid attention to statistics.”

This lack of emphasis on personal accomplishments doesn’t surprise those close to her.

“She would be perfectly comfortable going through life and

8

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cisions I made.”

She had prolific success at Oakland Catholic, averaging 24 wins per season while winning three PIAA Class AAAA championships and finishing runner-up twice.

Her coaching career at Oakland Catholic wasn’t McConnell-Serio’s full-time job. For a while, she did motivational speaking for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

But over the last three years of her coaching career at Oakland Catholic, she added a different vocation: professional basketball player.

McConnell-Serio had just given birth to her fourth child, Madison prior to the inaugural WNBA sea-

“

calling the shots Mcconnell-serio looks back at career on court

people not recognizing her,” McConnell-Miller said of her sister.

“To her, she does what she does because she loves it. Not because people notice her or because she receives awards by doing it.”

A self-described “risk taker” of a point guard, McConnell-Serio said she only really paid attention to her assist-to-turnover ratio, hoping to monitor and improve her efficiency with the basketball.

Following her success in State College, McConnell-Serio earned one of 12 spots on the 1988 United States Olympic team that summer in Seoul. As a key contributor, she helped the U.S. team win gold, defeating Yugoslavia in its final game.

She was also a member of the 1992 U.S. team, which took bronze in Barcelona.

“To play in the Olympics and to stand on that platform and to wear that gold medal around your neck, the American flag is the top flag and they play your national anthem during the ceremony, it’s a moment you never forget,” McConnell-Serio said. “It’s something special and something every athlete strives for.

I don’t think there’s a greater moment in sports.”

So what did a superstar basketball player — after setting Division I records and earning international accolades — do after her college graduation in 1988?

She went home and coached high school ball, of course.

With the WNBA still seven years away from formation, McConnell-Serio received and accepted an offer to coach women’s basketball at Pittsburgh’s Oakland Catholic High School in the spring of 1990.

“I just decided to do it,” she said.

“Even though I was going to have my child in October and basketball season would start right around there. But it was one of the best de-

“

Year award during her rookie campaign.

Despite her success in the league, McConnell-Serio retired after three seasons. Although nagging injuries contributed to the decision, she was tired of missing out on watching her children grow up.

“I’m getting ready to go out for a game and it was the night of one of my daughter’s recitals,” McConnell-Serio said. “It was breaking my heart that I wasn’t there. She was in a dance recital and she was four years old and I wasn’t there for her.”

She would eventually return to the WNBA by a different route.

Still coaching at Oakland Catholic, McConnell-Serio received a

“She does what she does because she loves it.”

-Kathy McConnell-Miller

son in 1997, — but seeing former teammates and opponents enter the league sparked her interest to return to the game.

In order to get back in shape to play professionally, McConnell-Serio began going to the gym at night and playing against men’s teams at Oakland Catholic.

Family members helped her take care of her children, and McConnell-Serio said the family was “just making it work.”

The Cleveland Rockers selected her with the 16th overall pick in the second round of the 1997 draft. She proved to be a steal of a selection, earning All-WNBA First Team honors and the Newcomer of the

voicemail telling her to call back. It was from Roger Griffith, the CEO of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, who knew her from her time as part of a WNBA touring team.

Griffith asked her if she was interested in coaching in the WNBA. “As an assistant?” McConnellSerio asked.

“Head coach.”

The offer caught McConnellSerio off guard.

“I was shocked. I was coaching high school,” McConnell-Serio said. “I thought at that time, the natural progression was going from coaching high school to college, and thought that that’s what I would have done, if I ever left high

November 2, 2014

school.”

McC onnell-S erio traveled to Minnesota for the interview but wasn’t too keen on the offer at first.

“I was ready to turn the job down,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I could move my family or ask them to move.”

But her family supported the trek to Minnesota, and McConnellSerio took the helm of a struggling franchise that had recorded a measly 10 wins the season before.

McConnell-Serio made it her goal to rebuild the program — a feat that would jumpstart a tangible theme throughout her coaching career.

She brought a team with no career postseason berths, and a 10-22 record the previous season, to the team’s first-ever playoff appearance and an 18-16 record in 2003. In 2004, she earned the WNBA Coach of the Year award after leading the Lynx to a three-seed in the playoffs.

But amidst two subpar seasons, McConnell-Serio resigned midseason in 2006.

“We immediately came back to Pittsburgh. My husband and I are both from here,” she said. “Nothing was keeping us in Minnesota.”

In doing so, McConnell-Serio found herself in the right place at the right time.

A few months after the Serio clan returned to Pittsburgh and McConnell-Serio had started doing TV analysis for the Big Ten, Dan Durkin resigned as the head coach of the Duquesne Dukes’ women’s basketball team following a 7-20 season.

She hadn’t considered looking for a job at the collegiate level but was more than intrigued by the local opportunity. Duquesne hired her April 12, 2007.

“It was an opportunity to get See Feature on page 10

2000 retires from the wnba

2003 hired by the WNBA’s minnesota lynx as head coach

2004 wins wnba coach of the year award

2006 Resigns as head coach of the lynx

2007 hired by duquesne as head coach of women’s basketball

2008 inducted into the women’s basketball hall of fame

2013 hired by university of pittsburgh as head coach of women’s basketball 9

Feature, pg. 9 into college coaching,” she said. “I loved everything about it.”

Coaching collegiately was a different animal for McConnell-Serio. The distinction didn’t come as much through preparation or in-game management, but instead with recruiting athletes. “[Recruiting] is the biggest difference,” McConnell-Serio said. “Our success is because of recruiting. We have to have players.”

While McConnell-Serio said she enjoys the game-related aspects of coaching more, she has proven to be an impactful recruiter. Players respect her accolades and achievements, which makes it easy to buy into her teaching.

“She obviously knows what she’s doing,” forward Stasha Carey, who was a member of McConnell-Serio’s inaugural 2014 recruiting class at Pitt, said. “She’s been an Olympian, she’s been through the process, she knows what it’s like. It’s definitely easy to trust her.”

Back at Duquesne, McConnell-Serio, who was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame after her first season with the Dukes in 2008 righted the sputtering program, going 123-68 in her six seasons there.

Her success elicited the attention of a nearby neighbor — former University of Pittsburgh athletic director Steve Pederson.

Pederson was looking to fill a head coaching position after Pitt fired Agnus Berenato following two consecutive winless Big East seasons.

“This was the big time job in Pittsburgh,” McConnell-Serio said. “This is the BCS school, this is competing at the highest level in the ACC. That excited me. It was an opportunity. It’s a challenge.”

Exactly six years after Duquesne hired

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November 2, 2015

her, Pitt officially hired McConnell-Serio April 12, 2013. Her sister Kathy joined the staff a month later as the associate head coach. She had previously served as the head coach at University of Tulsa and University of Colorado, as well as an assistant for the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock.

“She has won everywhere she has been, so in my selfish ways I wanted to see the way she worked, how she worked and learn from her,” McConnell-Miller said. “I’ve become a much better coach working with her.”

McConnell-Serio’s ability to revive the sputtering program materialized faster than anyone could have thought, including herself.

In her first season, McConnell-Serio led the Panthers to their first three conference wins since 2010, but still struggled through an 11-20 season.

But with her first recruiting class under her belt, Pitt went 20-12 in 20142015, with a 9-7 record in conference play. Under McConnell-Serio, point guard Brianna Kiesel bloomed, and the Panthers earned their first NCAA tournament berth since 2009.

“Never [did I think the turnaround would occur that quickly],” McConnellSerio said. “There’s no doubt, we overachieved. There’s no doubt that we exceeded expectations. These players, they continued to believe and fight and work together and develop chemistry and believe that every time they stepped out on the floor they would win.”

Family members like nephew Matty McConnell, a freshman guard at Robert Morris University, knew that success would eventually come when Pitt hired his aunt.

“I knew she’d be able to [turn Pitt around],” McConnell said. “She went in to Duquesne and turned that program around. I knew it wouldn’t happen right See Feature on page 14

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Analytics, pg. 6 compiles the stat sheet during games.

“After the game or even at halftime, we know who has been the most efficient player on our team, and it can help with certain lineups, who we want to put together,” Richards said.

The desired result of compiling the stat sheet, Dixon said, is to quantify the team’s priorities, which ideally helps players focus on those areas.

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“We try to emphasize to our guys that those are the things that win games. By us making them important, hopefully they make them important,” Dixon said. “By putting a number on it and letting our guys know where they stand, it’s our hope that we get the message across.”

Part of Pitt’s preparation from game to game largely relies on Synergy, which tracks every possession of every game and is divided into a number of categories, including play types and player tendencies.

It can also track individual choices, such

as if a player prefers to drive right or left.

“In a short time we can prepare our team to take away some things and see what they emphasize,” Dixon said.

The team found forward Jamel Artis, for example, shoots more efficiently from the 15- to 17-foot range. Based on that knowledge, Pitt tweaked its offensive strategies to put Artis in positions to take those shots.

“You take into account analytics because you see where guys are most effective on the floor,” Richards said. “Whatev-

November 2, 2015

er level you’re at, some of the best coaches put guys in places where they’re going to succeed the best.”

Beyond a game-to-game basis, Pitt has also utilized analytics when scouring the transfer market.

The staff took valued Coppin State transfer Sterling Smith, for example, because it found that Smith was one of the most efficient guards in college basketball, according to Synergy. That abundance of information makes transfers even more intriguing, Dixon said, though he believes high school and prep recruits will receive similar treatment in the future.

Though the advantages of analytics, ironically, are not quantifiable, Pomeroy said it give teams an edge in preparing for their next opponent, and in learning their own capabilities.

“It’s obviously not going to turn a 15win team into a 22-win team. It’s not that valuable. But in games that are very competitive and very close, it figures to give the teams that are into these statistics a slight advantage,” Pomeroy said.

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Transfers, pg. 7 pays off in practice.

“It’s a good group of guys, and we get along great,” Smith said. “We hang out a ton off the court, so on the court it makes it easier for new players or incoming freshmen like Dame [Wilson] to feel comfortable and play with each other.”

Smith chose Pitt over Rutgers, Wake Forest and Louisville for his final season. He said he wanted to play at a high level and finish with a winning season, something he never accomplished during his time at Coppin State.

“I wanted to win, and I went to the team that I thought had the best chance to make the tournament,” said Smith, who averaged 13.9 points per game last season at Coppin State.

“I lost every single year at my other school, we never had a winning record, we didn’t make the tournament, so this year I just want to win.”

In just a few months around Dixon and the program, the graduate players seem to have already embraced Dixon’s reputed defense-first mentality. Smith said he’s practiced more defensive sets than he ever did at Coppin State, and Nelson-Ododa said he’s prioritized defense and rebounding so far.

“And I can block a lot of shots,” Nelson-Ododa added, laughing. “I’m going to work those areas that they lacked last year, like rebounding and stuff like that.”

Nelson-Ododa officially transferred to Pitt on June 11, and he finished sixth in the Atlantic 10 Conference with 1.7 blocks per game last year, making him an attractive candidate to Dixon.

Dixon said the number of graduate students made for an interesting summer.

“We’ve never really had this,” Dixon said. “These guys have really picked things up well, and they’ve changed a little bit of their game, which I’ve been a little surprised by.”

Dixon said Smith has improved defensively and that the Coppin State

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transfer has been Pitt’s most consistent player in practice so far.

“Sometimes it may be hard for guys to change after their fourth year in college,” Dixon said. “He’s also improved his passing, getting other guys’ shots.

He really plays hard, and when guys play that hard, good things tend to happen. I’m really excited about him.”

Off the court, for any player changing schools, post-college plans factor into their consideration .

Smith graduated with a degree in

criminal justice from Coppin State and is pursuing a health and fitness degree at Pitt. Nelson-Ododa is taking classes for a degree in health and physical activity after graduating with a political science degree at Richmond.

Maia, who got his bachelor’s degree from Brown in business, is enrolled in the Katz Graduate School of Business for a master’s in science and marketing.

“I was really fortunate that I was able to finish at Brown, and to have

November 2, 2015

this is something I’m really proud of,” Maia said. “Only more doors are going to open with a master’s degree. So I’m really happy to be here.”

The three graduate students came to Pitt to earn degrees, but they also wanted to compete at a higher level than they had before. Smith said his new team is ready for the challenge.

“There’s no cupcakes on the schedule,” Smith said. “We have a lot of talent and we’re going to face up well against a lot of teams in the ACC.”

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Feature, pg. 10 away — it took a year. But like she did at Duquesne, she turned [Pitt] around.

She’s doing a great job there.”

At Pitt, McConnell-Serio appears to have found a final landing spot. In her introductory press conference in 2013, she noted that Pitt was the only job she would have left Duquesne for, emphasizing that Pittsburgh is her family’s “home.”

She feels that she can impact her play-

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ers’ future in college, more so than at any other level.

“Each level has been so rewarding, and each presents its challenges, and I’ve loved all of them,” McConnell-Serio said. “But right now, I’m probably having a bigger impact on someone’s life being at the collegiate level.”

According to her sister, that is why Suzie McConnell-Serio coaches. It’s about educating, not ego.

“She does what she does because she loves it. Not because people notice her

or because she gets awards for doing it,” McConnell-Miller said. “She is a wonderful teacher and keeps giving back to the game that has given so much to her.”

McConnell-Miller doesn’t think her sister has fully grasped what her career has meant to her pupils and the sport as a whole.

“Suzie is one of the most humble people I know,” McConnell-Miller said. “I still don’t think she’s realized the impact that she’s had on so many young women and how she’s impacted our game.”

November 2, 2015

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