Susan McConnell Serio, rumored to be Penn State's top choice to replace Rene Portland as Penn State's women's basketball coach, is rumored to be accepting the job at Duquesne.
McConnell Serio interviewed for the job along with Xavier assistant Kristin Cole, Maryland assistant Joanna Bernabei and former Duquesne assistant Mike Iuzzolino.
One source involved in the search process and another close to McConnell Serio each confirmed that she's getting the job. Two of the candidates were told yesterday they were out of the running; the other candidate could not be reached.
I'm disappointed to hear this. I think McConnell is going to be a great college coach and I was hoping it was going to be at Penn State. Now Penn State's search has to turn elsewhere. At this point I would say the leading candidate is Portland's long time assistant head coach, Annie Troyan.
Troyan brings 20 years of experience in the college coaching game and is surely ready for a head coaching job. My only concern is she's been a Portland disciple her entire life. I would ideally like to see them bring in someone with ties to the program who has been out playing or coaching someplace else for a few years to bring a new perspective to team. Expect a decision to be made very soon since several scouting combines are scheduled in the near future. Whoever the new coach is will have to be at those camps to get started on recruiting before Penn State falls behind.