PITTSBURGH — Pitt Panthers women’s basketball received a last place finish in the ACC Presason Poll for the upcoming 2024-25 season.

Notre Dame came in at No. 1 with 70 first place votes and then NC State at No. 2 with eight place votes. Duke, Louisville, Florida State, North Carolina, ACC newcomer Stanford, Miami and Virginia rounded out the top half from No. 3-No. 9, respectively. Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Clemson, ACC newcomer Cal, Boston College, ACC newcomer SMU and Wake Forest all rank No. 10-No. 17.

Panthers head coach Tory Verdi took over as head coach last season and had an 8-24 overall record and 2-16 in the ACC. The program hasn’t had a winning season since 2014-15, when they last made the NCAA Tournament.

Pitt will also look to replace the production of forward Liatu King, who earned All-ACC First Team and ACC Most Improved Player honors last season, She averaged 18.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per game, while shooting 52.3% from the field.

Other departures from the Panthers include forwards Jala Jordan to graduation and Ioanna Chatzileonti, who returned to Greece to play professionally.

There were also four transfers along with King, in guard Jasmine Timmerson to Davidson and forwards in Gabby Hutcherson to Duquesne and Rapuluci Ayodele to Tennessee.

Verdi and his coaching staff added five transfers to the program in graduate student forward Khadija Faye from Texas, guards in senior Brooklynn Miles and junior Amiya Jenkins from Kentucky, senior forward Makayla Elmore from Clemson and redshirt sophomore guard Mikayla Johnson from Colorado.

Pitt brings back a plethora of guards in senior Bella Perkins, juniors in Marley Washentiz, Aislin Malcolm and Raeven Boswell and sophomore Aaryn Battle. They also return sophomore forward Lauren Rust.

Freshman guard Audrey Biggs should feature this season, while fellow freshman in forward Kiara Williams sits out with an injury and will redshirt.

Pitt will play an 18-game conference slate, which is the same as last season, cutting down the home-and-away opponents from four to just one, which is SMU.

They will also play 13 non-conference games, against rival West Virginia on the road and local rivals in Duquesne and RMU at home, as well as the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands, against Kansas, Auburn and Northern Iowa over Thanksgiving weekend.

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