Pitt Lands Briggs
Glenn Nelson/ESPN.com Loliya Briggs let down her recruiting guard and is bound for the Big East.Sophomore sensation Loliya Briggs wasn't giving college coaches the time of day. Barred by NCAA rules from going directly, dozens of coaches called her high school and club coach Tony Bannister in hopes of establishing contact with the 5-foot-11 shooting guard from Potter's House Christian School.
The University of Pittsburgh was one of those schools trying to get some phone time with the Floridian who embodies a scoring guard. Several months ago the Panthers' coaches were just like every other school with Bannister's number on speed dial, getting nowhere with Briggs. This past weekend Briggs not only was on the Pitt campus, she verbally committed in hopes of bringing a national championship to Pitt.
"First of all my coach, coach Bannister, was telling me, 'Oh, they want you,' and you know I just blew them off like I did everyone else because I wanted to wait," Briggs said. "And then I noticed they kept watching us play, kept coming, kept coming and I said, 'OK, let me give them a chance.' So I called and talked to (assistant coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin) one day and she was a real person. She wasn't lying like half these college coaches do& We built a connection and I realized (that) I might want to go here."
Briggs, one of the best in her class at creating scoring opportunities, wants to be an impact player but wants to win as well.
"I started watching and noticed they got to the Sweet 16 and it was a school people know about but is still under the radar," Briggs added, "so when I get there I can make a difference."
Briggs also values women's sports and wanted an institution that treated female athletes well, not like second class citizens to their male counterparts.
"That's another reason I chose Pitt," Briggs said, "because they keep the boys and the girls, it's like they treat them the same, everybody has the same, it's not higher than the girls or anything."
It's not often you find a person who wants to move to a place where the winters are a good 30 degrees colder than home.
"Florida, you know it's always hot down here so I wanted to get away," Briggs said. "I lived in Gainesville for a while and that's five minutes from (University of Florida), and it's always hot so I wanted to go away. That's a little too close to home; I can't be living 10 minutes up the street."
Briggs also got a vote of confidence after calling former Pitt standout and All Big East player Shavonte Zellous.
"You know she's from Orlando," Briggs said, "and she was telling me how it was from there to Florida and I was like, if she can do it I can do it."
While the coaching staff played a big role in Briggs' decision she is also aware of the roster and how she could fit in as Pitt stands to lose four guards to graduation prior to her arrival.
On Briggs' visit this past weekend she got an appreciation for the campus, especially the hilly terrain which she is looking forward to utilizing for training. But as she was discussing an academic plan something dawned on her, the Petersen Center where the team works out and practices is right across the street from the dentistry building, a field she became interested in after her brother's wife, a dental assistant, cleaned her teeth.
This path is very different from the plan she told Bannister about when she was 10 years old. At that time she wanted to jump straight from high school to the WNBA. While playing in the pros is still a goal, it is a part of her plan, not the plan itself.
"My plan is to go to the league to say I went, two, three years and then I'm going overseas because (WNBA players) don't make nothing compared to NBA players," Briggs said, "which is kind of silly."
Bannister knows she's capable of a lot. She carries a 4.0 grade point average but said what stands out most about her is the way she gives back at a young age, especially to the younger kids in her school.
Briggs was one of 34 players selected by USA Basketball to try out for the inaugural U16 National Team in May. She didn't make the team but came away having learned about herself and what it takes to play at the highest levels.
"What happened was when I went out there, a majority of people told me (prior) they're looking for the little things because they know if you've been invited out there they know everybody can score," Briggs said. "So I went out there thinking I'm going to make sure I take my man away when I run the plays and stuff like that. And then I noticed everybody else was scoring so when it came to that night session I was like, hey I might as well go and do what I do. It got me in the beginning because I didn't know what they were looking for but I learned you have to keep working because there's people out there with talent that are just as good as you are -- so what's going to separate you at the next level."
As was the case with most of the kids not making the final 12-player roster, it was the first time she had ever been cut in basketball.
Her parents threw a welcome home party for her, celebrating what was the first time she'd ever failed at anything. Her failure was hardly that, more like a catalyst.
"When I came home my whole work ethic changed," Briggs said. "I'm running, dying in the heat out here trying to run around the track, trying to get a quicker first step than it already is, just trying to be better, trying to be great."
Bannister saw the change right away too.
"A new thing that's driving her is not making the USA team," Bannister said. "It's almost a blessing though. She's even more determined."
Where many prospects feel relief following a commitment or a lifting of stress, Briggs sees just as much stress. She has now given her word to Pitt to be a certain caliber of player and she has no intentions of coming up short.
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Chris Hansen is the National Director of Prospects for ESPN HoopGurlz and covers girls' basketball and women's college-basketball prospects nationally for ESPN.com. A graduate of the University of Washington with a Communications degree, he has been involved in the women's basketball community since 1998 as a high-school and club coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. Hansen can be reached at chris.hansen@espn3.com.
