Pitt Fires Women's Basketball HC Tory Verdi

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers have made an important coaching change, following the end of a disastrous season for the women's basketball program.

Pitt Athletics announced that athletic director Allen Green made a leadership change and moved on from women's basketball head coach Tory Verdi ending his tenure after three seasons with the program.

Greene also announced in his press release that they will begin a national search for the next head coach of the program.

“After a thorough and thoughtful evaluation of our women’s basketball program, it has been determined that we have not progressed enough competitively and now is the right time to seek a new leader for our program," Green wrote in his press release.

"We thank Tory for his dedication over the past three seasons and wish him and his family nothing but the best in their future endeavors. The search process for our next leader is already underway.”

Verdi was a part of a lawsuit filed by six former players, alleging that he created an environment of hostility, psychologically abused the players and punished them when they spoke up.

This is also coming off a recent report from Cooper Andrews of The Daily Orange that former Pitt Athletic Director Heather Lyke, who hired Verdi in 2023, is a subject of an HR complaint that says she, "contributed to 'a culture of intimidation' within Syracuse University Athletics."

Tory Verdi Background and Pitt Tenure

Pitt hired Verdi back on April 7, 2023 as the program's 10th head coach, spending his past seven seasons at UMass and accrued a record of 127-85, including an A-10 title and an NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2021-22 season.

He had a prior relationship with Lyke, as they both were at Eastern Michigan for three seasons from 2013-16.

Verdi had previous success at both programs, turning them into competitive outfits and getting them into postseason tournaments, including two WNIT appearances and a WBI appearance with Eastern Michigan and two other WNIT appearances with UMass.

The hope from Verdi was that Pitt would struggle initially, but that he would make them into a winner in the coming seasons.

That success never translated to Pitt, as he finished with a 29-66 record (.305) and 8-46 in ACC play (.148) during his three seasons with the program.

Pitt Panthers Women's Basketball head coach Tory Verdi — Pitt Women's Basketball head coach Tory Verdi | Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

The lawsuit likely played a role in his firing, but the team was also poor on the court as well, including going 8-23 this season and 1-17 in the ACC, missing out on the tournament.

Pitt suffered an incredibly embarrassing defeat to Division III program Scranton, 69-63 at the Petersen Events Center on Nov. 16, while also losing to four other mid-major programs in Drexel, and Lafayette at home, Ball State in the Florida Gulf Classic and Duquesne on the road.

They also suffered two 50-point losses this season, both at home to Duke and NC State, a 40-point loss to Louisville, a 38-point loss to Virginia and a 35-point loss to Notre Dame.

All of this came after Verdi had his first real recruiting class, bringing in seven new freshman and five-star recruit Nylah Wilson, who didn't play after November.

Verdi had individual success with players like Liatu King, who was First-Team All-ACC and won the ACC Most Improved Player Award in the 2023-24 season, plus Khadija Faye, who also earned First-Team All-ACC honors in the 2024-25 season.

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