University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Voices, Actions and Experience Shape a New Pitt Women's Basketball Team
10/6/2026 5:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
CHARLOTTE — Pitt women's basketball coach Robin Harmony had already tried twice to land Alancia Ramsey. The third time, she wasn't leaving it to chance.
Ramsey was at an airport, getting ready to fly home from a visit to another program, when Harmony's staff made their move. Don't board, they told her. We'll get you a ticket right now. A couple of hours later, she was on Pitt's campus.
"I guess three times is a charm," Harmony said Tuesday at ACC Tipoff. "It is her presence on the court, her rebounding. She doesn't miss point blankers. She just knows what it's going to take to win."
Ramsey was not the only piece Harmony chased.
When she left the College of Charleston for Pitt, she brought Taryn Barbot with her, along with Taryn's twin sister Taylor. Taryn arrives as a two-time conference Player of the Year and the face of a championship season.
Ramsey arrives as the one newcomer with a season of SEC play behind her. Together, they are the foundation of a rebuild that started with 11 newcomers and one returning scholarship player.
The pursuit of Ramsey made sense once you looked at what Harmony was building.
A roster like that needs people who have seen the level before. Ramsey, a senior forward, appeared in 27 games at Alabama last season, where the SEC schedule gave her a full year of the kind of nights Pitt will face in the ACC. She set career highs with 13 points and 23 minutes against Stetson on Nov. 3 and seven rebounds against Arkansas on Jan. 4, even though she averaged just 10.4 minutes a game.
That is part of why Pitt appealed to her. Ramsey had spent time at programs where the pecking order was already set and major opportunities were hard to come by. She wanted the opposite for her final season. A brand new staff and a brand new roster meant nobody's role was decided before she arrived, including hers.
Harmony also noticed how much her game had grown since the last time she recruited her. Ramsey was not a great three-point shooter then, and she is now.
But Harmony talks about both players less as pieces of the lineup and more as messengers, and she brought them to Charlotte on purpose.
"It's really good for us to be here today, so they can take the message back home to their team that no, we've got to have really good practices," Harmony said. "We look really good two, three days, and then two days of like, 'I don't know this team.' So it's about being consistent."
Consistency has been the hardest thing to teach.
Fall practice began the week of Sept. 21, and everything about it is new to nearly everyone in the room. Harmony has been reteaching the system from scratch, and she knows tired players make for foggy minds. With just under a month to go before the opener, she is ready to be done with the roller coaster.
It helps that she has three players who already know her schemes in the Barbot twins and Jamisen Hill, who also followed her from Charleston.
"They saved me from a lot of gray hairs because they already know our system," Harmony said. "They know our press, they know the rotations. They are coaches on the floor helping the other players learn it."
The Barbots and Hill bring the familiarity. They can show a newcomer where to be and when to be there. What they can't hand over as easily is a feel for how hard the ACC demands you play, and that is where Ramsey comes in.
It isn't that the Barbots lack effort, because they set a high bar on that front too. But Ramsey is the one who has lived this level, and she has taken on teaching it as her job. She sees herself as the voice of the group, the one who speaks up when the effort dips.
"I definitely feel my role is leader, speaking life into the team and telling them how it is because I have been on this level," Ramsey said. "I try to get them to understand, 'Yeah, you're tired, but in the game, you're gonna be tired. You'd rather feel bad now than later.'"
Ramsey admits it has not fully landed. Many of her teammates arrived from mid-major programs, junior colleges or high school, and the speed and physicality of the ACC are hard to explain until you feel them. The team's focus sharpened when 20-hour practice weeks began, but she is still waiting for everyone to catch up to what the season will demand.
Taryn Barbot leads differently. She does not say much, and she does not pretend otherwise.
Harmony calls her a "skill leader," someone who shows up, does the work and lets it speak. Taryn agrees with that description without hesitation.
"I'm more of a leader by actions," Taryn said. "We need a bucket, I'm gonna get a bucket. We need a stop, I'm gonna get a stop."
Her actions carry weight. Taryn led Charleston to the program's first CAA championships and first NCAA Tournament appearance, was the 2026 CAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, finished as the school's all-time leading scorer and averaged 20.1 points a game last season. Harmony said bringing her and Taylor, the point guard, was key to the whole rebuild.
Taryn is trying to carry the habits of that title run to Pittsburgh. She talks about teammates getting in the gym for extra shots and working with a coach when they need it. She also knows the ACC will ask more of her than the CAA did, and she has already adjusted.
"It's definitely different because the conference is stronger, tougher, kids are bigger," Taryn said. "You don't change the mindset all the way, but you change it a little bit. You got to be more of a dog."
Ramsey has seen the work up close, and she says the scoring numbers hold up in practice.
"She's very consistent in her play and her game," Ramsey said. "Even with the scoring, when you say 20 points a game, it's literally like that. Even in practice, probably double. And she's never really tired. You can't really ever tell on the court."
Harmony wants more from Taryn, though. She wants her to find her voice, partly for the team and partly for what comes next, because a player headed to the WNBA or overseas will need to lead out loud. Taylor, the one with the ball in her hands and a finger pointing teammates into place, gives Pitt a third kind of leader.
So the leadership picture is still being drawn. One player talks, one player produces and one runs the offense, and a coach is still waiting to see how much of it has rubbed off.
Avery Watkins is proof that roles are still being earned. Harmony was not sold on her at first, and now she is in the starting lineup. The team is eight deep, maybe nine, and the rest will be decided by who shows up every day.
"Every day you come in and you give your best effort no matter what's going on in your life," Harmony said. "What test you have, midterms, finals, you just play, and take up your backpack when you leave, and go about your business. It's about being mature and being consistent."
There's just under a month until the first game of the season. The roster is still learning the system, and the leaders are still learning how to lead it. No one is pretending the work is finished.
"It's a long season," Ramsey said.
