Women's basketball preview: 1st-time head coach Chandler McCabe aims to get Robert Morris back on track

When Chandler McCabe flew to Pittsburgh in March to be introduced as Robert Morris’ women’s basketball coach, it snowed.

Welcome to Western Pennsylvania, Florida girl.

But the frosty weather couldn’t cool the Orlando native’s enthusiasm to step into her first head coaching job. Hired March 18, McCabe will try to turn around a once-proud Colonials squad that won a Northeast Conference title just four years ago.

Since moving to the Horizon League in 2020, however, Robert Morris has struggled, bottoming out in 2023-24 at 2-18 (6-24 overall) in coach Charlie Buscaglia’s eighth and final season. That hasn’t fazed McCabe, either.

“I want to win now,” said McCabe, whose coaching stops include seven years at Bethune-Cookman, two at George Mason and one at UCF. “We kept five seniors from last year’s team, and we brought in three seniors that are transfers. If I just want to be good in Year 3, why would I have eight seniors on this team with no years of eligibility left?”

The Colonials return their top four scorers from last season: senior guard Simone Morris (10.2 ppg), junior center Danielle Vuletich (9.1), senior guard/forward Naomi Barnwell (7.0) and senior guard Alejandra Mastral (5.9).

Vuletich (6.7) and Barnwell (5.3) also were 1-2 on the team in rebounds.

Among the key transfers are a pair from the WPIAL: forward Mya Murray (Uniontown), who played in the Ivy League at Brown; and guard Jada Lee (Carlynton), who played at Mount St. Mary’s. Murray averaged 3.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in 70 games (25 starts) for the Bears, and Lee averaged 5.1 points in 78 games (28 starts) with the Mountaineers.

Also joining the Colonials are senior guard Raissa Nsabua, who averaged 3.6 points for Wichita State last season, and senior swing player Isys Grady (5-10), who averaged 9.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 81 career games (73 starts) at UNC Greensboro.

“Every transfer that came in was a very good mid-major type player,” McCabe said. “This team is going to be so good because of our depth. We’re going to be good by committee.”

Though McCabe wants to “win now,” she insisted success won’t necessarily be measured in wins and losses this season. She wants to see improvement every day and for the Colonials to be playing their best basketball in March.

She will get her first “real” look at the team Wednesday against new Division II program Point Park, but McCabe likes what she has seen so far.

Except for maybe the snow.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but we are headed in the right direction every day,” McCabe said. “There’s eight new players and eight returners all in all, and the way they meshed and bonded together has been so fun to watch. Every single one of them get along, and I’ve been a coach for 13 years, and that’s not normal.”

TEAM BREAKDOWNS

Duquesne

Coach: Dan Burt (12th season)

Last season’s record: 21-13, 13-5 Atlantic 10 (fifth)

Top returning players: Megan McConnell (senior, guard), 13.1 ppg, 155 assists, 64 steals; Jerni Kiaku (junior, guard), 6.6 ppg, 29 steals

Noteworthy: The Dukes graduated four of the five players who started the majority of their games last season.

Penn State

Coach: Carolyn Kieger (fifth season)

Last season’s record: 22-13, 9-9 Big Ten (sixth)

Top returning players: Jayla Oden (senior, guard), 5.6 ppg, 37.5% 3-pointers

Noteworthy: An almost-entirely new roster will be led by transfers Gracie Merkle (Bellarmine), Tamera Johnson (Louisiana), Vitoria Santana (Eastern Arizona) and Gabby Elliott (Michigan State).

Pitt

Coach: Tory Verdi (second season)

Last season’s record: 8-24, 2-16 ACC (tied for last)

Top returning players: Aislin Malcolm (junior, guard), 9.3 ppg, 70 assists; Bella Perkins (senior, guard), 7.7 ppg; Marley Washenitz (junior, guard), 4.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 109 assists, 41 steals

Noteworthy: Khadija Faye, a grad transfer who previously played at Texas Tech and Texas, brings 103 games of experience to the lineup. Brooklynn Miles, a senior transfer, played 88 games combined at Tennessee and Kentucky.

WVU

Coach: Mark Kellogg (second season)

Last season’s record: 25-8, 12-6 Big 12 (fourth)

Top returning players: Jordan Harrison (junior, guard), 13.5 ppg, 173 assists, 96 steals; JJ Quinerly (senior, guard), 19.8 ppg, 97 steals; Kyah Watson (senior, guard), 8.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 78 steals

Noteworthy: Point guard Harrison is one of 20 players on the Nancy Lieberman Award watch list. The award goes to the top point guard in the nation.