Today on the College Basketball Edition of The IX Sports Podcast, co-hosts Melissa Triebwasser and Michael Waterloo bring you an interview with the University of Pittsburgh’s new head coach, Robin Harmony.
Prior to her role at Pitt, Harmony served in assistant and associate head coach roles at the University of Miami for 18 years and then served as the first head coach at St. Thomas University for eight years. She worked as the head coach at Lamar University from 2008-19, and then at the College of Charleston from 2019-26.
“I really wasn’t planning on leaving Charleston, but when they [Pitt] called, I started listening to it …,” Harmony said, adding that the recently remodeled facilities were a plus. “So you know when you’re from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and you get a call from somebody like Pitt, you listen,” Harmony explained, mentioning her hometown just a few hours from Pittsburgh.
Waterloo asked how, in her discussions with Pitt Director of Athletics Allan Greene, she knew that the school would be a good match. Harmony said that it was a combination of a great city, a great academic institution, and the resources at her disposal.
“… I just knew that if I could recruit players to come to the other schools that I’ve been at with less resources, that here [at Pitt], with all these resources and the great academic institution, that it would be a lot easier, and why not try it?” Harmony explained.
In building her team, at Pitt, Harmony said she has focused on versatile players, naming Avery Watkins, a transfer from Fresno State University and Alancia Ramsey, a transfer from University of Alabama, as examples.
“I see them fitting in very, very well, based on kind of what you did at the College of Charleston,” Waterloo said.
Before asking some Pennsylvania-centric rapid-fire questions, Triebwasser asked Harmony what she would define as success in her first year at Pitt.
“Let’s get some double-figure wins, how about that?” Harmony said. “We only won one conference game last year, so if we could get up, you know, we can get up towards the middle of the pack or right at the edge of the middle, it’d be great to get off to this bottom, but it’s just game by game.”
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What you missed on today’s episode of Women’s Sports Daily: Roland Garros round-up, Boutier nabs seventh LPGA win