Piatti Finds New Home to Her Liking

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Caterina Piatti had multiple options after entering the transfer portal last spring, but it was no surprise that she ultimately chose to follow Kelly Rae Finley to the University of Virginia. Piatti, after all, played for Finley at the University of Florida in 2025-26, and they’ve been close since the fall of 2024, when Finley flew to Italy to speak to Piatti in person.

“As soon as I met her, it was like I’d known her for a long time,” Piatti recalled recently at John Paul Jones Arena. “It was amazing.”

After nearly 10 years at Florida, the last five as head coach, Finley was dismissed in March. The next month, she joined her friend Aaron Roussell’s staff at UVA as associate head coach. Roussell was still putting together his first roster at Virginia, and Finley mentioned Piatti, a 6-foot-4 post player, as a potential frontcourt addition.

“She’s got size, she’s got skill, she’s got athleticism, she’s got the IQ,” Finley said Piatti, who started all 33 games for Florida last season. “She’s just a talented player and a talented person.”

Piatti entered the transfer portal before Roussell hired Finley, and she’d spoken to numerous other schools by the time she heard from UVA. “It was really a stressful period for me,” Piatti said.

Her visit to Charlottesville put her at ease, but not because Finley was there to show her around Grounds. Finley was out of town when Piatti visited.

“In some ways, that wasn't ideal,” Roussell said, “but I think long term that worked out really well, because we got to know Cat without the crutch of Kelly. Cat got to see the University, got to see our staff without that, I’ll say, crutch of Kelly.”

Piatti signed with UVA in late April. She didn’t arrive in Charlottesville, however, until late July, more than a month after most of her teammates had started training at JPJ. She spent the first part of the summer playing for Italy at FIBA’s U20 Women’s EuroBasket tournament.

Two of her new Virginia teammates—freshman guards Sintija Aukštikalnytė (Lithuania) and Emilie Brzoňová (Czech Republic)—also played in that event, and Piatti was familiar with both before coming to UVA. Brzoňová, in fact, has played in Italy and speaks Italian, Piatti said.

That the international players missed most of the summer practices at JPJ wasn’t ideal from a team-building standpoint, Roussell said, but to their “credit, I think so much of what we're doing was a comfort to them and very similar to how they had played. So it wasn't perfect, but I do think those guys meshed really well.”

Roussell said there’s “a strong correlation or relationship between how we play and how a lot of Europeans play, too. So I think they've actually adjusted really, really well ... I think our system now and in the future with Europeans is a pretty tight fix.”

Virginia opens the season at 6 p.m. Monday against Maryland Eastern Shore at JPJ. The Cavaliers played three preseason exhibition games, all of which Piatti started, and much will be asked of her on a team that’s deeper on the perimeter than in the frontcourt.

“I think as much as I have incredibly high expectations for her, she probably has too high of expectations for herself sometimes too,” said Roussell, who came to UVA from the University of Richmond. “I’m trying to get her to understand she's got to give herself some grace at times. The talent is there. We know she's going to be great down the road, It's just making sure that she understands that it is a process.”

Piatti grew up in Scandiano, a town of about 25,000 residents in northeast Italy. Her father is 6-foot-8 and her mother is about 6-foot-5, Piatti said, and “I’ve always been tall, and my brothers too.”

Her parents played and coached basketball, and Piatti gravitated toward the sport as well. At 13 she left Scandiano to play for a club close to Milan: Basket Costa Masnaga. She played there for four years while attending school and blossomed into one of her country’s top young prospects.

Being away from her family “was not that hard,” Piatti said. “I think I'm pretty independent. Of course, at first I was 13, so I had to adjust myself and get used to my new life and everything, but I will say I never really felt homesick.”

After four years with Costa Masnaga, she joined another club, Lupebasket, that competes in Serie A1, the top women’s division in Italy. That gave her the opportunity to play with and against players from the United States, “and it was a great experience,” Piatti said.

As her game progressed, Piatti became a fixture on national age-group teams, and “coaches from the States started to watch me play.”

Finley was one of those coaches, and the rapport she developed with Piatti paid off for the Gators. In a 2024 interview, Piatti said she “chose Florida because there I felt a special connection, authenticity in relationships, and great enthusiasm from the staff. Florida earned my trust and made me feel at home right away.”

In the rugged Southeastern Conference, Piatti averaged 4.5 points and 2.9 rebounds in about 20 minutes per game last season.

“I was really pleased with how she was able to perform in that league in her first year,” Finley said. “I think it provided her tremendous experience.”

Overall, Piatti said, she enjoyed her time at Florida, though “it was not easy at first. Honestly, the first two months I had some difficulties just adjusting myself to new habits, new culture, and of course the language barrier too. But then I got really close to my teammates. I loved the coaching staff and Kelly was there, and I'm really close to her, so she helped me a lot. And I got the opportunity to play at the highest level. I think I've grown a lot [in showing] leadership on the court. My voice has grown a lot, and I think it's what I'm trying to show here right now here.”

A psychology major, she’s found her classes at UVA more challenging than those she took at Florida, Piatti said. “Last year, honestly, I didn't have any type of difficulties in school or following lectures, while here it's way different.”

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Roussell expects Piatti to thrive in his system. In seven years under Roussell, UR went 148-72 and advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of his final three seasons there.

“She’s a really good fit right now, and I think in the future, and in the near future, she's going to be an incredibly fantastic fit,” Roussell said. “I think she embodies everything that we want and how we want to play. Her IQ, her feel for the game is incredible. We've got to get her finishing at the basket. We've got to get her doing things that I really demand.”

He knows that Piatti has “a learning curve, and sometimes I have to remember that, too,” Roussell said. “Nobody's really going to be great in this offense in that position right away.”

Roussell said he prioritizes and values “versatility, and I think that's what she can do. She can handle the basketball away from the basket. She's crafty finishing at the basket. Her size and length can help us on the defensive end, but just her IQ combined with her ability at the basket and away from the basket, that’s kind of been the key for us in years past.”

Piatti is looking forward to helping Roussell build a consistently success program at JPJ. “I will try to be a leader for my teammates, not only when I'm on the court, but also when I'm on the bench, on the side,” she said. “I’m trying to bring my voice every day.”

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