UCF head coach Sytia Messer has announced the first two members of her women’s basketball coaching staff. Tennille Adams joins the Knights as associate head coach and Greg Brown returns for his second stint as an associate head coach. Ashleigh DeBoue also joins UCF as an executive member of Coach Messer’s staff.
“Coach Brown and Coach Adams bring a ton of experience – including head coaching experience – to our program,” Coach Messer said. “They are both great recruiters and skill developers. They are also excellent communicators, which will enhance what we’re doing at UCF.”
TENNILLE ADAMS
Coach Messer reunites with her former Arkansas teammate, Tennille Adams, for the first time in their collegiate coaching careers.
“Coach Adams brings experience as a standout player and a standout collegiate basketball coach,” Messer said. “While we were teammates and have both been in collegiate coaching, we’ve never had the opportunity to coach together. I’m excited that we have found our way back together with the goal of leading UCF on the national stage.”
Adams comes to Orlando after one season as the associate head coach at Memphis. In 2021-22, the Tigers quadrupled their win total from the 2020-21 campaign and recorded the program’s best start through seven games.
Prior to Memphis, she served as associate head coach for three seasons at Wright State, helping the Raiders 65-27 with two NCAA Tournament trips and two Horizon League championships in three seasons.
At Wright State, Adams’ primary responsibility was the post players. She mentored All-Defensive honoree Tyler Frierson and Freshman of the Year, Shamarre Hale and served as the strength and conditioning liaison.
Adams also spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Ball State, making three-straight WNIT appearances.
Prior to Ball State, Adams spent two seasons as the head coach at Howard University after stops at Northwestern and American. At American she developed two post players into All-Patriot League honorees. During her time at Northwestern, she was named the defensive coordinator in 2011, then offensive coordinator in 2012. She was critical in recruiting the 20th- and 14th-ranked recruiting class in 2009 and 2011. Adams’s post development expertise continued as she mentored three All-Big Ten post players. The Wildcats also made two consecutive postseason appearances.
Adams began her coaching career in 2004 as an assistant at Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas, before taking a similar position at North Carolina A&T State for two years.
As a student-athlete at Arkansas, Adams was a teammate of Coach Messer and member of the 1998 Final Four and 1999 WNIT Championship teams. She recorded the historic rebound put-back that advanced the Razorbacks to the Final Four. She graduated from Arkansas with a B.A. in English and was also a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
A native from the talent hotbed of East Chicago, Indiana, where she attended Central High School, Adams was ranked as one of the top five post players in the country by BlueStar and was a member of the 1995 Indiana All-Star team.
GREG BROWN
Brown, a 16-year Division I coaching veteran, is back for his second stint with the Knights.
“Greg Brown is someone I’ve had my eye on for awhile,” Messer said. “He brings a wealth of basketball knowledge to our staff. He is a very respected coach in the women’s basketball game and has years of coaching experience, including time as a head coach. He will have an immediate impact on our program and help develop our student-athletes.”
Brown is back in Orlando after spending the 2021-22 campaign as an assistant coach at Texas A&M.
Prior to his time in College Station, Brown was the head coach of his alma mater, Lipscomb, from 2012-2019, and spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the legendary Hall of Famer Pat Summitt.
During his stint as head coach of Lipscomb, Brown’s players earned the program’s first ever Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, three ASUN All-Conference nods, five ASUN All-Freshman honors, eight ASUN Academic All-Conference selections, nine ASUN Players of the Week, one ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year and an ASUN Newcomer of the Year award.
Throughout his tenure at Lipscomb, Brown’s teams ranked at or near the top of the ASUN in several scoring and shooting categories. In the 2014-15 season, the Lady Bisons led the ASUN and ranked 32nd nationally in 3-point field goal percentage, shooting at a 35.8 clip from beyond the arc. The team’s 8.1 3-point field goals per game placed them second in the conference and 15th in the nation.
Prior to being tabbed head coach at Lipscomb, Brown was the associate head for the Knights. He spent five seasons at UCF, helping lead the Black and Gold to two Conference USA championships in 2009 and 2011 along with two bids into the NCAA Tournament. He joined UCF in April 2007 as an assistant coach and was elevated to associate head coach in June 2009.
Before his first stint at UCF, Brown worked with women’s basketball pioneer and legend Pat Summitt for two seasons at Tennessee, first serving as a graduate assistant before being promoted to assistant coach in 2003-04. During that time, the Lady Volunteers compiled a record of 64-9, earned two Southeastern Conference Championships and were twice the runners-up in the NCAA Championship Game. His responsibilities at Tennessee included coaching post players, highlighted by several current WNBA players such as the 2004 Kodak All-America selection Shyra Ely.
A 1993 Lipscomb University graduate with a degree in political science, Brown began his coaching career as a student assistant under former Bisons men’s basketball head coach Don Meyer.
Prior to UCF, Brown served as head girls’ basketball coach at Goodpasture Christian School in Nashville. He also led Friendship Christian School girls’ basketball team to three district championships, a regional championship and a sub-state title. He earned two District 8A Coach of the Year awards.
In 2015, Brown released the book “Best Things I’ve Seen in Coaching” chronicling the time he spent with Coach Summitt and Coach Meyer and the coaching thoughts, quotes, and ideas he gained from the two legendary figures along the way.
Brown and his wife, Teresa, have two sons, Cole and Carter.
ASHLEIGH DEBOUE
Coach Messer has also announced the addition of Ashleigh DeBoue to her staff, reuniting the duo who spent four years together at Baylor.
“I met Ashleigh as a student worker at Baylor, helped develop her and was able to mentor her,” Messer said. “She has gone on to work in the academic field, develop her career as Syracuse and now I’m excited to welcome her at UCF.”
DeBoue joins the Knights after spending the 2021-22 campaign as the director of basketball operations at Syracuse where she was responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of the women’s basketball program.
Prior to joining the Orange staff, DeBoue was an assistant academic coach in the Baylor University Student Athlete Center for Excellence. In 2018, she was elevated to a learning specialist where she worked with student-athletes from various teams to achieve academic success.
The two-time Baylor graduate was a women’s basketball manager with the Bears from 2013 to 2017 where she helped supervise the daily roles and responsibilities of five student managers, managed inventory of team apparel and equipment, aided the team’s recruiting coordinator with design and distribution of printed materials and organized trip information and tournament schedules for coaches.
Additionally, DeBoue assisted with Lady Bear Basketball Camps where she handled camper registration, prepared rooming assignments for campers, arranged practice gym set up and managed the timeline of activities to keep operations running smoothly.
DeBoue is a member of the Women Leaders in College Sports. the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with a minor in sociology from Baylor in August 2016 and completed a Master of Science in sports pedagogy in December 2017.
https://ucfknights.com/news/2022/5/11/womens-basketball-womens-hoops-adds-three-to-staff.aspx
