Jayla Everett’s time at Pitt is officially over.
Everett — the Panthers’ leading women’s basketball scorer this season — was dismissed from the team on Sunday without explanation. On Monday, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to Pittsburgh Sports Now that Everett has entered the transfer portal and will aim to play her final season of college hoops elsewhere.
Because of the NCAA’s ruling that made it so the 2020-21 season didn’t count toward a player’s eligibility clock, Everett has one year of eligibility remaining.
When reached by Pittsburgh Sports Now on Sunday, Everett declined to comment.
Everett was averaging 13.6 points per-game this season for the Panthers. She last played in Pitt’s 67-65 home loss to Syracuse on Feb. 13. She was held out of the lineup in Pitt’s next two games — losses to Boston College and Miami — and then officially dismissed from the team prior to Pitt’s loss to Virginia on Sunday.
A 5-foot-10 guard, Everett was fourth in the ACC in usage percentage with a 28.6% mark. She also led the league in field goal attempts with 21.2 per-game.
Everett began her college career at New Mexico. As a freshman, she averaged 13.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per-game for the Lobos and was named Mountain West Freshman of the Year. Everett left New Mexico 16 games into her sophomore season, and the Albuquerque Journal reported at the time that “friction between Everett and UNM’s coaching staff appeared to be building.”
A former ESPN top 100 recruit in the class of 2018 out of St. Louis, Missouri, Everett joined Pitt ahead of the 2020-21 season, and was named as an All-ACC Honorable Mention last season. Perhaps Everett’s best game as a Panther came last season, when she tallied 22 points, seven assists and three rebounds at Boston College in what was Pitt’s third ACC win of the year.
Across parts of four combined seasons at New Mexico and Pitt, Everett has seen action in 88 college basketball games, starting in all but four of them. She’s scored 1,197 points, a 13.6 points per-game average.
Pitt improved in non-conference play this season with Everett leading the team in scoring on most nights. The Panthers started the season 8-2, but have gone 3-14 since. Sunday’s loss to Virginia was Pitt’s seventh in a row.
Seems to be another ‘problem child’ infatuated with herself. Pitt should have known better since she was at the U of New Mexico.
What do you mean when you refer to her as a problem child? Please be specific.
Yeah, I’d say there’s a problem when you dismiss your leading scorer. Chemistry with the other players or coaching staff? Conduct detremental to the team? Everett isn’t talking and neither is White. Someone will go fishing for her in the portal but there’s a huge risk vs. reward factor there.
Or maybe White wasn’t happy with her bench press.