Audrey Biggs didn’t know what to expect prior to her first official visit at Pitt this weekend but came away greatly impressed with the program under new head coach Tory Verdi.
Biggs hails from Ashland, Ky. and plays for Boyd County High School. She stands at 6-feet and starts at the small forward position. The best assets of her game includes her ability to drive through opponents to the paint to score, a great quick-spot up shooting efficiency and on-ball defending, along with moving around screens.
She averaged 17.5 points per game as a sophomore in 2021-22, averaging 44% shooting from the field and seven rebounds per game. After undergoing ACL surgery, Biggs recovered and received All-State honorable mentions as a junior from the Lexington Herald-Leader. She also played for her home state in the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star basketball series earlier in June.
Biggs spent this past Sunday-Tuesday at Pitt for her visit. She toured the apartments at the Bridge on Forbes, walked around campus and looked at the athletic facilities the women’s basketball program has to offer. She also rode the Duquesne Incline and had dinner with the Pitt coaching staff at the Grand Concourse in Station Square.
“It was an amazing first official visit,” Biggs said. “From the facilities, to the coaches and then to the campus and everything like that. It’s going to be hard to top that…The city is just beautiful. When you come out of the [Fort Pitt] Tunnel, it’s just breathtaking.”
Pitt offered Biggs back in May, but the real relationship for Biggs started with assistant coach Candice Finley long before. Finley, when she served as an assistant coach for Xavier, first contacted Biggs two and a half years ago and offered her while there. Once Finley took a job at Pitt in April, she continued to stay in contact with Biggs and made sure to offer her a scholarship at her new program.
“I’m grateful for the offer because it’s a great opportunity,” Biggs said. “It’s a huge thanks to coach Finley for sticking by my side and believing in me.”
Biggs came away greatly impressed with Verdi and his staff over this past visit. She knows of his past of turning around programs like Eastern Michigan and UMass into winners and believes that he will do so at Pitt. She also loved the camaraderie between the girls on the team now, not only on the court during practice, but off the court too.
One thing that Biggs loved about her visit to Pitt was looking at the broadcasting major the university offers. Biggs has dreams of working as a sideline reporter in football, whether that be in the NFL or at the collegiate level. Coach Verdi brought her around their facilities, and she said they compare with the best in the country.
“I met [Director of Undergraduate Studies in Broadcast] Kevin [M. Smith], who’s the guy who runs the place and he has so many connections.” Biggs said. “He’ll be able to hook me up with an internship right then and there. I don’t know how you can get much better than that because the ball does stop bouncing at some point and I think Pitt will prepare me after basketball’s over.”
Biggs also spoke to some of the current players and enjoyed watching them practice. She saw how intense one practice really was and believes in what coach Verdi is trying to do with this program and that the team has bought into it as well.
“They definitely believe in what coach Verdi is going to do here at Pitt and what he’s going to bring to the table,” Biggs said. “They compete really, really hard, but they have fun with it. They’re all very passionate about the game and just winning. I got to watch practice and it was very intense. I mean it went for 90 minutes. You wouldn’t think that’s a long time for a college practice, but it was, ‘get in there and get out.’ They worked their tails off. You would say they were the underdogs. They have a little bit of a chip on their shoulders. They’re just in there to work and it’s awesome.”
Outside of her first official visit to Pitt, Biggs is still working things out trying to see where she will visit next. She has made unofficial visits to Kentucky, Marshall and Western Kentucky and also holds offers from UNC-Wilmington, Elon, Western Kentucky, Georgetown, Chattanooga, Southern Miss, Kent State, Xavier, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Youngstown State, Akron and Toledo.
She is currently playing travel ball this summer with the West Virginia Thunder on the Under Armor Circuit and will play many games next month. This restricts how much time she has to visit other programs, making her visit with Pitt an important one.
Biggs is excited to move forward in her recruiting process and onto her final season of high school ball. She will keep Pitt in mind and that this past visit reassured her that if she so chooses to play basketball here, she would be in a great environment, on and off the court.
“Pitt overall will have me ready for the next chapter of my life after basketball, for sure,” Biggs said. “The opportunities are just there and just having the great coaching staff, the great conference they’re in and these facilities and stuff, that’s important. But it’s really the people you’re surrounding yourself with and the opportunities they’re giving you in the city that’s just there. All the connections that you’re going to make, that’s the biggest thing for me with Pittsburgh.”
