By David Driver, Special to GoDuquesne.com
Warsaw, POLAND - At the age of 28,
Dan Burt was an assistant coach with the women's basketball team at West Virginia University when he made his first trip to Europe.
"I flew into Bucharest, Romania, and there were broken windows at the airport and military with automatic weapons," Burt recalls. "Even though there were definite hardships, it was a beautiful country, and I had a great experience recruiting there. When I was an assistant at West Virginia we had two young women from Bulgaria and one from Belgium. They affected me and they affect me to this day. They were great young women who made me want to recruit Europe."
Burt, now entrenched as the veteran head coach at Duquesne since 2013, had no idea his personal life would be strongly shaped by another European country that borders Romania to the west. Burt's wife, Kata Katanich, is from Baja, Hungary, a town of about 35,000 people nearly 60 miles due west of university city Szeged in the southern part of the country.
She came to the United States to attend university and play basketball, which she did at West Virginia and at North Carolina Wilmington. The couple will celebrate their 24th anniversary in 2026 and have two sons, Soma and Milan.
"She has had a tremendous impact on my life, obviously," said Burt, who grew up in Washington, Pa. "She came to America with very limited English. Now she is a successful tech worker and has done very well in the technology sector."
The influence and presence of Katanich, who earned a Master of Business Administration at Duquesne, is also felt within the basketball program. Over the years, several women from Hungary – as well as other countries in Europe and now Africa – have played for Burt.
"She has helped me create an advantage over other American coaches and universities," Burt said. "I understand from a cultural perspective what these young men and women who come to us are about to go through. She is also a beacon for these young women who come over here and play a high level of basketball. You can stay in this country after graduating or go back and make your country better either playing pro basketball for a club team or for the national team or getting a job in the business world."
THE GLOBAL GAME
The roster for the Dukes for the 2025-26 season includes players from Senegal, Serbia, Australia, Germany and French Guiana – not to mention two from within 30 miles of the Pittsburgh campus.
That international flavor has been part of Burt's programs for many years. He was an assistant coach at West Virginia, UNC Wilmington, Bucknell and with Duquesne from 2007-13 before taking the head post.
"When I first started going over to Europe, it was me and three or four other university coaches," Burt said. "We were grocery shopping, picking who we wanted. About nine years ago we started seeing more and more Power Five schools recruiting in Europe. Before Covid, there were 80 plus schools with a primary focus on Power Five schools. What had been a blue ocean became a red ocean with a lot of sharks looking for blood. We went away from Europe a little bit. We are now in an era when players are getting paid (through Name, Image and Likeness). Fewer Power Five schools are going overseas."
Duquesne also attracts women who may not have had a good fit at larger programs.
"They are going to places where they may not be understood from a cultural perspective," said Burt. "They may not have had on-court success. They have to ask themselves, 'Am I willing to take less money to go find true happiness?' Now we are getting them for the second time around. That has worked for us."
The coaching staff also has an international flavor.
Pittsburgh native Michaela Porter, who was recently hired by Burt, played overseas in Portugal, Iceland, Finland and Mongolia and also ended up playing in Mexico.
"Overseas basketball completely changed my life," wrote Porter, who played in college at Cincinnati and Appalachian State. "In just three seasons I was able to play in five different countries while also getting the chance to visit several cities in Germany and a few in France. Thanks to Coach Burt giving me some pointers before heading into my first season, I was able to immerse myself into the many cultures that I have lived in. I have tried so many different foods, drinks and even traditional clothing. I got to see everything from another perspective, considering I had to adapt to each country and its culture."
On the flip side, there were 10 former Dukes who played overseas last season. One of them was Paige Cannon, who was the MVP of a league in Malta, played in Germany, Portugal and Sweden and is now on the coaching staff as an assistant at Gannon University in Erie.
In his career, Burt has sent players to the pro ranks to Germany, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, England, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Greece, Malta, Poland, Finland, Spain and Serbia.
Burt says there will be several Duquesne graduates with pro teams this season. One of them,
Kiandra Browne of Canada, will begin her pro career in the Netherlands.
"We wanted to find a place where she would be comfortable being a Muslim, and we were fortunate to find a good club in the Netherlands," Burt said.
Another overseas performer this season will be Pittsburgh, Pa., native
Megan McConnell, 23, who played in one game with Phoenix in the WNBA in 2025 before suffering a knee injury. She will play in Australia, where the season ends in early 2026, which will allow her to have time to prepare for the WNBA summer season. In her college career, McConnell scored 1,795 points with 1,079 rebounds.
Other former Dukes playing overseas in 2025-26 include Nina Aho (Hungary), Jose Ann Johnson, Nae Bernard (France), Kadri Ann Lass (Sweden), Precious Johnson (Italy) and Fatou Pouye (France), according to Burt.
Every player in the Duquesne program under Burt has left Pittsburgh with a college diploma. Even before their eligibility has expired, Burt and his staff help prepare their players if they have the desire to head overseas, whether they are North American or from other countries.
"The process starts the freshman year in college," he added. "By their senior year they are pretty much used to understanding what they are looking for. We work with three or four agents that are known in women's basketball. That does not preclude working with other agents. It seems like these four have worked hard to gain the trust of myself and the staff."
Among his former players to go overseas includes Kristi (Little) Kaack, who played in Hungary before returning to the Keystone State to be a high school coach. This past season, the Bishop Guilfoyle Academy girls' basketball coach was selected the Pennsylvania Sports Writers All-State Coach of the Year in Class 1A for the third time.
Another standout is Wumi Agunbiade, who began her professional career in Romania, where she played several seasons and helped lead Alba Lulia to the finals of the Romanian Cup. She went on to compete in Italy and Germany before transitioning into coaching. Agunbiade gained experience as a junior coach with the Raptors 905 through their mentee coaching program, then served as an assistant coach for the Guelph Nighthawks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. She now holds an assistant coaching position with the Queen's University women's basketball team. In addition to her coaching career, Agunbiade founded Hoopers Loop in 2019, a program designed to empower young girls by combining sports discipline with mentorship. The initiative emphasizes service, quality, and work ethic while providing guidance to both student-athletes and volunteers.
NEW FRONTIERS
Burt has been recruiting in Europe for nearly 20 years. This past summer, he flew to Budapest and then drove to Romania to watch the European 16U championships.
There is now a new source of talent for the Dukes, who were 21-13 overall last season, including 9-9 in the Atlantic 10.
"We went into Albania and Macedonia (in southern Europe)," said Burt. "We went to Senegal. We are really the only university that has been there. There are tall, talented women and we are fortunate to have two on our roster. We will be adding to that in the future."
Burt says that Duquesne assistant coach
RJ Bell has been vital in recruiting overseas.
"RJ has been instrumental for us in our recruiting in Senegal, and in our transfer portal recruiting," Burt said. "We have gotten players from Australia, Germany and Serbia in the transfer portal. His understanding of the cultural side, be it Senegal or Serbia, has paid dividends for us with high school recruiting and overseas."
"I have been to Senegal once but will be going back very soon," said Bell, who has also recruited in Hungary, Canada and Romania. "It has been the best experience of my life so far. Being able to see how our Senegalese players live and seeing their rich culture was truly life changing and I can't wait to go back. We have two Senegalese players that will be on our roster this season.
Fatou Sane is a Swiss Army knife that can play and defend all five positions on the floor. She has a very strong frame, which helps her with her versatility. We are looking for Fatou to make a big jump from her freshman season and be a high impact player for us as a sophomore.
Bakhaw Seye, meanwhile, can play guard and forward and is wildly considered the best player in her class in the entire country of Senegal. She has an outstanding skill set for her size and can shoot the three with deep range. The sky is the limit for Bakhaw, and we are super excited for her future as a Duquesne Duke."
Even though Porter did not play for the Dukes, she is now part of that overseas connection.
"Coach Burt being so heavily involved in international recruiting was a huge reason I accepted the position here are Duquesne," Porter noted. "I knew that I would be able to adjust to his style of recruiting easily and share some potential prospects from the countries I have played in, as well. Coach Burt's experience and his willingness to share and help develop the rest of the staff was also a huge factor in helping me decide whether I would take the position or not. I am so blessed to work under someone who is a wizard in recruiting and has already started to mold me for international recruiting and everything else that comes with being a coach."
Burt said he is not a perfect coach, but he invests himself, and his family, into the program. He said he is just as happy for a graduate that plays overseas as he is for one who gets a job in the business world and stays in North America.
"I try to pour into our players as much as I can, but our success comes from the women that will chose to come into our program," said Burt. "They are highly professional individuals. We are very happy with the young women who come through our program. We feel they have represented Duquesne and the city of Pittsburgh very well."
And it doesn't matter where they are from – or where they are going after their college career is over.
Note: Virginia native David Driver is the author of "Hoop Dreams in Europe: American Basketball Players Building Careers Overseas," available on Amazon and at daytondavid.com. A former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and Harrisonburg, Virginia, Driver lived three years with his family in Szeged, Hungary and now lives in Warsaw, Poland with his wife. He has interviewed men and women basketball players in nearly 20 countries. He covered the Atlantic 10, including the conference tournament, for several years from his home in Maryland.
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