Suzie McConnell-Serio

Suzie McConnell-Serio (born July 29, 1966)[1] is a former American women's basketball coach and player. She was the head coach for the women's basketball team at the University of Pittsburgh from 2013 to 2018. In 2004, she was named WNBA Coach of the Year as coach of the Minnesota Lynx. McConnell-Serio was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

Suzie McConnell-Serio

Biographical details
Born	(1966-07-29) July 29, 1966 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Playing career
1984–1988	Penn State
1998–2000	Cleveland Rockers
Position(s)	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1991–2003	Oakland Catholic HS
2003–2006	Minnesota Lynx
2007–2013	Duquesne
2013–2018	Pittsburgh
Head coaching record
Overall	190–155 (.551)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3× PIAA AAAA champion (1993, 2001, 2003)
Awards
First-team WBCA All-American (1988) Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award (1988) All-WNBA First team (1998) 2× Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award (1998, 2000) WNBA Coach of the Year Award (2004)
Medal record Women’s basketball Representing the  United States Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Team competition 1992 Barcelona Team competition FIBA World Championship 1986 USSR Team competition World University Games 1991 Sheffield Team competition William Jones Cup 1985 Taipei Team competition Assistant coach for the  United States Women's national basketball team World University Games 2011 Shenzhen Team competition

Career

Born in Pittsburgh, McConnell-Serio attended Seton-La Salle Catholic High School, leading the Lady Rebels to the PIAA State Championship in 1984. McConnell-Serio played college basketball at Penn State. In four seasons at PSU (1984-85 through 1987-88), she helped the Lady Lions to a 95-33 record and four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. In the process, she was named the school's first First-Team All-American while setting NCAA Division I records for career assists (1,307), assists in a season (355 in 1987) and season assist average (11.8 in 1987). Her assist total and assist per game average led the nation in both 1986 & 1987.[2] She also set the record for most career points by anyone with 1000+ assists at 1,897 points. In 2011, Courtney Vandersloot of Gonzaga University passed McConnell-Serio in number of assists in a single season with 367 in 2011, and number of career points with 1000+ assists with 2,073 points.[3] As of the start of the 2017-18 season, McConnell still holds the records for most career assists, most assists per game in a season (and most assists per game in a season by a sophomore and by a junior), and most career triple-doubles.[4] She graduated from Penn State in 1988. McConnell-Serio won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award in 1988.[5] At the time, this award was given to the best women's basketball player in the country no taller than 5'6" (1.68 m); the height limit was later increased to 5'8" (1.73 m) before the award was discontinued in 2013. She also ended her college career with seven career triple-doubles, which at the time was an NCAA all-divisions women's record (later equaled by Louella Tomlinson of Saint Mary's). This record has since been broken by Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu.[6]

Before joining the Minnesota Lynx, McConnell-Serio served as head coach of the girls basketball team at Oakland Catholic High School in Pittsburgh for 13 years, from 1991-2003. During that time, her teams won 3 PIAA state championships (1993, 2001, 2003), were runners-up twice (2000-2002), and won five consecutive district championships (1999-2003). On December 17, 2002, Suzie reached a coaching milestone with her 300th win. She finished her high school coaching career after the 2002-2003 season with a 321-86 record.

She also played in the WNBA. The former point guard played three seasons with the Cleveland Rockers (1998-2000). As a first-year player in 1998, she earned WNBA Newcomer of the Year and All-WNBA First Team honors after averaging 8.6 ppg and 6.4 apg (second in the league). She was a two-time winner of the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award (1998 and 2000), and finished her professional career with averages of 6.4 ppg and 4.6 apg in 81 contests.

In January 2003, McConnell-Serio returned to the WNBA as head coach of the Minnesota Lynx and took a team that finished 10-22 in the previous season to an 18-16 record and first-ever playoff appearance.

One year later, she took a team picked to finish last in the Western Conference by a number of preseason publications and made a return trip to the playoffs and in the process was named the 2004 WNBA Coach of the Year. The '04 Lynx, who earned a franchise-best #3 seed in the WNBA Western Conference, tied franchise records for wins (18), home victories (11) and road wins (7) all set in McConnell-Serio's first season. In addition, Minnesota enjoyed a franchise record six-game winning streak.

However, the Lynx struggled in the 2005 and 2006 season, and she resigned at mid-season on July 23, 2006.

Prior to her professional playing career, McConnell Serio won two Olympic medals. She was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. women's basketball team in the 1988 Summer Olympics, and earned a bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

She also won a gold medal at the 1991 World University Games. She won the 2004 WNBA Coach of the Year Award. In 1999, Sports Illustrated magazine named her one of the Top 50 Athletes of the Century in the state of Pennsylvania.

On April 13, 2007, she was named the head coach at Duquesne University.

On April 12, 2013, she was named the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. She was fired on April 5, 2018.[7]

Penn State statistics

Source[8]

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Year	Team	GP	Points	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1985	Penn State	33	415	45.8%	NA	74.3%	2.8	9.7	NA	NA	12.6
1986	Penn State	32	382	44.2%	NA	78.9%	2.9	10.6	NA	NA	11.9
1987	Penn State	30	418	50.1%	NA	72.3%	4.7	11.8	NA	NA	13.9
1988	Penn State	33	682	49.9%	40.0%	81.1%	5.0	8.9	3.9	0.2	20.7
Career		128	1897	47.8%	40.0%	77.0%	3.9	10.2	NA	NA	14.8

Personal life

She is married to Pete Serio, with whom she has four children: Peter, Jordan, Mandi and Madison, all of whom have played basketball.

McConnell-Serio is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Hall on June 14, 2008, at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee.[9]

Her brother Tom played two seasons at Davidson College and was the head coach for Saint Francis, Pa. from 1992–99 and has been an assistant coach at Wake Forest, Marquette and Dayton as well as women's assistant coach at the University of Colorado with sister Kathy. Before becoming the current head coach of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania women's team, he served as an assistant at Old Dominion.

Her sister Kathy, who was her teammate on the 1984 PIAA Championship team, is now Suzie's associate head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Kathy was previously the head coach at Tulsa (1999-05) and the University of Colorado (2006–10) before accepting a position as an assistant coach with the WNBA's Tulsa Shock. She was also an assistant coach at the University of Illinois (1996–99) and Rutgers (1994–95). Her first coaching job out of college was at the University of Pittsburgh as a recruiting coordinator during the 1991 season. Kathy played in four NCAA Championships while at the University of Virginia.

Her brother Tim played at Waynesburg and has served as the boy's coach at Chartiers Valley from 1992 to 2018 and has won over 80 percent of his games while earning his 400th career win in 2010. In 2018, Tim moved to coach the Chartiers Valley Girls Basketball team.

Her sister Maureen played at the University of Pittsburgh, and her nephew T. J. McConnell (Tim's son) was on the Duquesne men's basketball team for two seasons (2011 and 2012) before transferring to Arizona. T.J. McConnell is currently a member of the Indiana Pacers.

Head coaching record (College)

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Duquesne Dukes (Atlantic 10 Conference) (2007–2013)
2007–08	Duquesne	15–15	6–8	7th
2008–09	Duquesne	20–12	9–5	T–4th	WNIT 1st Round
2009–10	Duquesne	20–12	9–5	T–4th	WNIT 1st Round
2010–11	Duquesne	24–9	9–5	3rd	WNIT 3rd Round
2011–12	Duquesne	20–12	7–7	T-6th	WNIT 1st Round
2012–13	Duquesne	24–8	11–3	T-4th	WNIT 2nd Round
Duquesne:		123–68 (.644)	51–33 (.607)
Pittsburgh Panthers (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2013–2018)
2013–14	Pittsburgh	11–20	3–13	T–14th
2014–15	Pittsburgh	20–12	9–7	7th	NCAA 2nd Round
2015–16	Pittsburgh	13–18	4–12	T–12th
2016–17	Pittsburgh	13–17	4–12	T–11th
2017–18	Pittsburgh	10–20	2–14	T–14th
Pittsburgh:		67–87 (.435)	22–58 (.275)
Total:		190–155 (.551)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

See also

• List of Pennsylvania State University Olympians
• List of NCAA Division I women's basketball career assists leaders
• List of NCAA Division I basketball players with 5 or more career triple-doubles

Notes

1. "Women's Basketball Coaches Career". NCAA. Retrieved 26 Sep 2015.
2. "Suzie McConnell-Serio". Retrieved 29 March 2011.
3. "2010–11 Women's Basketball Individual Statistics: Courtney Vandersloot". NCAA. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
4. "Division 1 Women's Basketball Records" (PDF).
5. "Frances Pomeroy Naismith". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 30 Jun 2014.
6. "Ionescu sets NCAA mark for triple-doubles in Oregon's win". ESPN.com. Associated Press. December 31, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
7. Batko, Brian (April 5, 2018). "Suzie McConnell-Serio out as Pitt women's basketball coach". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
8. "Women's Basketball Finest" (PDF). fs.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
9. "WBHOF Inductees". WBHOF. Retrieved 2009-08-01.

External links

• WNBA Profile
• Women's Basketball Hall of Fame