The concept and process of building up a program is not unfamiliar to Robin Harmony.
In 2007, at St. Thomas University in Florida, she was the inaugural coach of a newly-founded women’s basketball program that didn’t even have its own gym for the first two seasons.
Foundations then had to be crafted at Lamar and College of Charleston, her next two coaching stops, where Harmony took over and got results.
Now, the challenge for Harmony will be reinvigorating a Pitt women’s basketball program that’s fallen on hard times.
“This is what I’ve done,” said Harmony, who was introduced as Pitt’s 11th head coach Friday at Petersen Events Center. “I’ve always built and I’ve built from the ground up where I didn’t have all the resources. Now, we’re going to rebuild this with all these resources. That’s how I know we can get it done.”
Harmony, 64, who spent the past seven seasons (2019-26) at College of Charleston, inherits a Panthers program which hasn’t had a winning season or NCAA Tournament berth since 2014-15.
Pitt also comes off an 8-23 (1-17 ACC) campaign that resulted in coach Tory Verdi being fired March 3.
Verdi went 29-66 over three seasons and his predecessor, Lance White, had an equally if not more disappointing tenure, as he owned a 42-99 overall record from 2018-23.
In her introductory remarks Friday, Harmony cited the tradition and success of former Panthers coach Agnus Berenato (2003-13), a friend, who took Pitt to its first NCAA Tournament, as well as back-to-back Sweet 16s in 2008 and ‘09.
That will be the level of success Harmony chases with the Panthers.
“I don’t like to lose,” Harmony said. “I’m a competitor and the sooner that we can turn this program back to where it was and win will be great.”
Athletic director Allen Greene, who hired Harmony on Monday, was blunt in both laying out his own expectations for Pitt women’s basketball moving forward and how the Panthers will get there in an era of college sports driven by revenue-sharing and NIL.
“I do want to be straightforward with you about what success looks like for Pitt women’s basketball,” Greene said. “We know that we don’t have the most money and we’re not going to spend our way to competitiveness in the ACC. But our path is going to be identifying young women who will out-prepare, out-work, out-hustle, outsmart and out-tough their opponents.
“When we find those players and develop them, the wins will follow. We want to compete for NCAA Tournament berths. It may not happen all at once. … But we know with (Harmony’s) leadership, it’s possible at Pitt.”
In her last season with the Cougars, Harmony led College of Charleston to a 27-6 record, Coastal Athletic Association regular-season and conference titles, and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance.
That campaign built off a 22-win season in 2023-24 and 25 wins two years ago, with the Cougars making the WNIT both times.
Greene and executive associate athletic director Jennifer Tuscano, who “ran point” on the recent coaching search, were impressed with Harmony’s resume.
“When we began this search, we were clear-eyed about what we needed,” Greene said. “We were looking for a builder (and) a sitting D-I head coach who preferably was competing in the NCAA Tournament. Someone who had already been in the chair, someone who knew the weight of the role and someone who had proven that they could build this inside out.
“We wanted someone with a demonstrated ability to connect with our student-athletes — not just coach you, but to reach you. Someone who would embrace our alums, someone who would embrace this community and someone who genuinely wanted to call Pittsburgh home. Robin checked every single box.”
A 1984 graduate of Miami, where she played collegiately, Harmony spent about two decades on staff with the Hurricanes (1985-87, 1988-2005), which included 13 seasons as associate head coach under Ferne Labati.
At St. Thomas (2007-2013), Lamar (2013-19) and College of Charleston, Harmony is 369-198 (.651) over 19 consecutive seasons as a head coach.
All told, Harmony has been in the game a long time, with an uninterrupted coaching career that dates to 1985.
This October, she’ll turn 65, but for Harmony, age is just a number.
“I know that myself and my staff will outwork anybody that’s maybe (younger),” Harmony said. “If you do hate to lose more than you love to win, you’re going to work until it gets done. I don’t really think age is an issue.”
Greene concurred.
“It’s less about age and more about experience, having gone through and seem lots of different types of teams, having had lots of different types of seasons — those are all attributes that are going to be very beneficial for us,” he said.
Speaking of Harmony’s staff, Pitt’s new coach did reveal Friday that she’ll be bringing Randy Snyder (associate head coach) and Greg Long (assistant) from College of Charleston.
Brief introductions have been made with Pitt’s current players, while work will soon commence on constructing a full roster for 2026-27.
To that end, Harmony will look to the transfer portal, with which she seems to have a love-hate relationship.
“It is what it is,” Harmony said. “Kids now are going to get in that portal. I was fortunate at Charleston to have players who played for me and they stayed and they finished their career. That’s also maybe luck, culture — they know that they had a role that they wanted to stay in.
“But we try to not to recruit too many people who have been to multiple schools. … That transfer portal is going to make teams good and it’s also going to take a really good team and make it not so good if your wrong players leave.”
So what kind of basketball can fans expect Pitt to play under Harmony?
Last season at College of Charleston, the Cougars held opponents to 58.8 points per game, shooting 343 more field goals than opponents on the year while making 40.4% of their shots.
From deep, the Cougars shot 32.7%, averaging about 23 shot 3s per game.
Those will be the trademarks Harmony seeks to bring to Pitt.
“We’re going to push the ball down the floor, we’re going to defend full court, we’re going to shoot a lot of 3s (and) we’re going to take more shots than the opponent because we’re going to (defend) them up so bad,” Harmony said. “We’re going to hustle and if we don’t hustle, we’re going to be hustling to the bench. That’s who I am.
“At the end of the day, it’s working hard, it’s having grit, teamwork, hustling and representing the University of Pittsburgh.”
For the time being, Harmony is soaking in the better facilities and resources at hand for an ACC program compared to the CAA, Lamar of the Southland Conference or St. Thomas of the NAIA.
Time will tell whether she comes to view the job at Pitt as Greene laid out, requiring a coach to be scrappy and do more with less.
What Harmony already knows less than a week on the job is that success of Pitt’s women’s basketball program will be a team effort by the administration, coaching staff, players, donors and fans alike.
“We need help,” Harmony said in a plea to Panthers faithful. “We need you to come to games, we need you to support us, we need you to cheer and just be that to help us turn this program and tradition back to what it was. It can be done and it will be done.”