Pitt WBB F Jala Jordan Follows in Dad’s Footsteps in Final Season

Forward Jala Jordan has played across the college basketball landscape over the past five seasons but is now finally where she has always wanted to be at Pitt.

Jala Jordan’s father, Gerald Jordan, played for the Panthers in his final two years, after starting out at Morgan State and sitting out a year due to transfer rules. Standing as a 6-foot-11 forward, he averaged 8.7 points as a junior and 7.9 points as senior, playing in 55 games and starting 25 as a Panther from 1995-97.

While Jordan is now a Panther after committing to the program in May, she took a long journey to eventually end up in Oakland.

Jordan grew up on the other side of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She played high school basketball for St. Frances in Alpharetta, Ga. in the Atlanta metro and finished at the prestigious IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

She started off college playing for rival West Virginia in the 2018-19 season as a first year. Jordan didn’t see much playing time, averaging 1.6 points, 1.1 rebounds in just 6.0 minutes per game as a reserve player, and chose to transfer to find a better fit.

Auburn ended up being the landing place for Jordan, where she would stay for the next three seasons. She redshirted and sat out the 2019-20 season per NCAA transfer rules, the last season before the transfer portal started, and then played in the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.

Jordan spent that season she sat out training and getting better over time. She learned to adjust to the system and stringent press under then Tigers head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy and improved as a player. 

She would play in 15 games, starting seven and averaging 7.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 0.7 blocks and 16.8 minutes per game, respectively, as a redshirt sophomore for Auburn. Jordan made 28 appearances and started seven games, while averaging 6.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 0.9 blocks and 16.6 minutes per game as a redshirt junior in her final season there.

Looking to find a way to be closer to home, Jordan transferred following her redshirt junior season to Big East school in Seton Hall, located in South Orange, N.J., only an hour and a half from Philadelphia.

She played in 29 games, starting two, and averaged 5.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 12.0 minutes per game last season. Her 0.8 blocks per game placed her at No. 14 in the Big East conference during the 2022-23 season.

Jordan wished for a better outcome last season, in terms of more playing time and also more success with the team but enjoyed being closer to home.

Pitt fired head coach Lance White after five seasons with the program this March and hired Tory Verdi in his place a month later in April. Verdi brings to Pitt experience rebuilding programs, including Eastern Michigan from 2012-16 and UMass from 2016-23.

Jordan had a friend who played under Verdi at UMass, who was going to join him at Pitt and gave her his number. She contacted Verdi and the two soon planned an official visit for her to see the…