Three more additions join Verdi's first roster at Pitt

New Pitt women’s basketball coach Tory Verdi has had plenty of scholarship spots to fill this spring.

In the wake of the firing of Lance White, the Panthers have seen eight players leave the program for the transfer portal, with just four remaining on the roster.

Those four - guards Marley Washenitz and Aislin Malcolm and forwards Gabby Hutcherson and Liatu King - will join with three incoming freshmen to form the nucleus of Verdi’s first team at Pitt.

Now the first-year Pitt coach has added three more players to go with those seven in transfers Bella Perkins and Jala Jordan and JUCO transfer Mia Simpson.

Perkins played two seasons with the Trojans, appearing in 25 games and starting six as as freshman. But injuries derailed her sophomore season; she played seven games in November but one in December and two in January. She averaged 3.5 points per game in those 10 contests while making 42.9% of her 28 attempts from the field.

Perkins was the 2021 Gatorade Player of the Year in Virginia as a senior at Paul VI Catholic High, where she was the point guard on a team that reached the Geico National Championship Game.

Simpson spent the last two seasons at Morton College in Illinois. A native of Waukegan (Ill.), Simpson led the charge for Morton in 2022-23, pacing the team with 17.4 points, 11.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 71.2% from the floor. She’ll come to Pitt with two years of eligibility remaining.

Jordan comes to Pitt from Seton Hall where she spent the 2022-23 season after transferring from Auburn. She started her career at West Virginia in the 2018-19 season and played in 27 games but transferred to Auburn following that season. After sitting out the 2019-20 season due to NCAA transfer rules, she appeared in 43 games over the next two years for the Tigers and averaged 6.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.

This past season, she transferred to Seton Hall and made 58% of her field goal attempts to average 5.3 points per game in addition to 2.9 rebounds.

Pitt Director of Athletics Heather Lyke fired White this offseason after he failed to win more than three ACC games in any of his six seasons with the Panthers. In White’s final season, Pitt went 10-20 overall and 3-15 in the ACC to finish 15th in the conference.

Verdi replaced White this spring after spending the last seven seasons at UMass, where he compiled a 127-85 overall record. He advanced to the WNIT in two of the last three seasons and made the NCAA Tournament two years ago.