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In my 53 or so years following UMass, I have seen many poor coaches. While not good coaches I have never personally disliked them except for Verdi. A pompous arrogant individual. The fact that he went to a power 4 conference and could not take 1 player to go with him tells me what they really thought of him,

vanmeter wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 8:52 pm In my 53 or so years following UMass, I have seen many poor coaches. While not good coaches I have never personally disliked them except for Verdi. A pompous arrogant individual. The fact that he went to a power 4 conference and could not take 1 player to go with him tells me what they really thought of him,

You liked Lappas when he was in Amherst? He thought he was too big for Amherst.

Again the guy would be coaching Keene St. right now if it was not for Sam Breen. Dude got lucky in a sport where one player literally can win a conference title.

PreecherJenkins wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 11:28 pm

vanmeter wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 8:52 pm In my 53 or so years following UMass, I have seen many poor coaches. While not good coaches I have never personally disliked them except for Verdi. A pompous arrogant individual. The fact that he went to a power 4 conference and could not take 1 player to go with him tells me what they really thought of him,

You liked Lappas when he was in Amherst? He thought he was too big for Amherst.

Again the guy would be coaching Keene St. right now if it was not for Sam Breen. Dude got lucky in a sport where one player literally can win a conference title.

I concur that Lappas thought he was better than UMass, but he wasn't a complete asshole. He more often than not treated people well, even if he thought he was above the stature of the school.

IV you’re right on with your assessment. I think when Steve came here he thought he was above the program. I don’t think he felt the same way as he competed in the A10 and he recognized it was a better conference than he thought.I knew him pretty well and he is a good and decent person.
As far as Verdi, Sam Breen saved his job.

As much I was not a fan of Lappas as a coach here, in my limited experience with him 1 on 1, I found him to be a decent, down to earth guy. He was friendly and sincere.

Based on what I’ve been told about Verdi, he was cut from different cloth.

Pitt's only conference win was against a 0-14 BC squad. If the ACC implodes BC is in big trouble.

When you watch how the team interacts with Mike, it looks very sincere. As has been said, Sam held that team together, not Verdi.

We thought this was coming and it has.

Josh Schreiber@Jschreiber272
36m

Former UMass WBB HC Tory Verdi was fired by Pitt

Verdi was involved in allegations of unfair treatment to players at Pitt (and some UMass players spoke out against him as well although no lawsuit was filed that we know of)

Pitt cited team performance as reason for termination

No surprise there.

Surprised that they waited so long after the lawsuit announcement. There's no way to come back from that.

Closes his Pitt career with a 29-66 record.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/co ... rdi-1.html

That lawsuit now hangs like a cloud over the rest of his career, even if outside of coaching.

Great to hear!
An arrogant pompous individual

Imagine that Verdi was given a 6 year contract from former Pitt AD Heather Lyke ( who was fired by Pitt in 2024).
Verdi still owed 3 years at $800,000.

vanmeter wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 7:29 pm Imagine that Verdi was given a 6 year contract from former Pitt AD Heather Lyke ( who was fired by Pitt in 2024).
Verdi still owed 3 years at $800,000.

They will probably argue “for cause” on this.

Yeah the fact that the school is being sued gives them big reason to fight paying him the rest of his deal.