June 16, 2020
Pitt’s Jahsyni Knight has entered the transfer portal
The sophomore played in 30 games — including seven starts — this past season for the Panthers.
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Pitt’s Jahsyni Knight battles her way through traffic against UNC on Dec. 30, 2019. (Mitchell Northam / The Next)
The Pittsburgh Panthers are losing some depth from their bench.
Sophomore guard Jahsyni Knight entered the transfer portal Monday, a source close to the situation told The Next. Knight apparently announced the move via Instagram on Monday night too, but her account isn’t public. Knight will have two years of eligibility left for wherever she lands next.
Knight is the fourth player to transfer away from Pitt in the past year. Kyla Nelson landed at FIU, Alayna Gribble went to Saint Joseph’s and Jasmine Whitney is now at George Washington.
A 5-foot-8 guard from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Knight was tabbed as a four-star recruit by ESPN in 2018 and ranked as the 96th best player in her class. She played her high school ball at Rutgers prep and verbally committed to Pitt midway through her senior year, a few months before Lance White was hired as head coach.
Knight played about 12.9 minutes per game as a freshman, appearing in 27 games. This past season as a sophomore, her playing time increased a bit to 14.1 minutes per game, but she could find a consistent role with the team.
Knight started in seven games in 2019-20, and played decently in the first start of her collegiate career; tallying four points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals across 18 minutes of play in a road loss to UNC. It would be the first of six straight starts for her.
Still, her playing time yo-yo’ed. She played just six minutes in Pitt’s home win over Wake Forest on Jan. 30, and just five minutes in the Panthers’ second-round ACC tournament loss to Georgia Tech — a game that wound up being her last in a Pitt uniform.
Knight is a versatile guard, but it remains unclear what she’s really capable of as her sample size for stats at Pitt is a small one. She averaged 1.8 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 13.5 minutes per-game for the Panthers over 57 contests. She made just 1-of-5 three-pointers she attempted in her career there.
While White’s Panthers are losing a few players this off-season, they’re reloading too and trying to build momentum off a big ACC tournament upset win over Notre Dame. Incoming from the transfer market for the Panthers is Marquette’s Destiny Strother and New Mexico’s Jayla Everett, the latter of which was the Mountain West Freshman of the Year in 2018-19.
Much will also be expected of incoming freshman Tracey Hueston, a four-star forward from Roanoke, Virginia. Pitt also brings back every single player that started in that improbable victory over Notre Dame, including Dayshanette Harris, an All-ACC Freshman Team selection.
Pitt could’ve used Knight going forward, but the Panthers’ future still seems bright.
