LOS ANGELES – The UCLA women's basketball team has hired Tasha Brown as an assistant coach as announced today by the Michael Price Family UCLA Women's Head Basketball Coach Cori Close. Brown will report to her new post on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Brown replaces Jenny Huth, who was named head coach at Northern Colorado on May 1.
Brown spent the 2017-18 season as an assistant coach at Rice University after spending the previous five seasons in the same capacity at the University of Cincinnati.
With more than two decades of coaching experience, Brown has made nine postseason appearances and helped develop 16 all-conference award winners and 12 professional players. Prior to Cincinnati, Brown spent four seasons as the head coach at Western Michigan University, where she produced an All-Mid-American Conference selection and a MAC All-Academic honoree each year.
"Tasha is an elite coach," said Close. "She is a superb teacher who knows how to genuinely invest in our players as people and is an excellent recruiter. She will help us in our continual quest to be an uncommon transformational staff."
Brown also served as an assistant coach at Wisconsin (2005-08), where she helped develop perimeter players and assisted with recruiting. During the 2006-07 season, Brown and the Badgers set a program record with 23 wins and Wisconsin made its first postseason appearance since 2002.
Prior to her appointment at Wisconsin, Brown was an assistant coach at UC-Santa Barbara (who advanced to the Sweet 16) from 2001-05, where she served as the recruiting coordinator, defensive coach, and helped coordinate the offense in her final campaign. She also was the team's community outreach coordinator and was in charge of guard development.
Brown also had coaching stints at Bradley University, the University of Dayton and she began her coaching career at St. Ambrose in 1997.
A native of Rock Island, Ill., Brown is a graduate of St. Ambrose (1997) in Davenport, Iowa, with a degree in mathematics. She played four years of collegiate basketball, the first two of which were spent at Illinois Central College. After graduating from ICC, Brown attended Southwest Missouri State before transferring to St. Ambrose. In her lone season with the Queen Bees, the team went 27-7 and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament.
"I am excited to join one of the most transformative programs in the country," said Brown. "Cori is one of the great leaders, teachers and motivators in this profession. She has been a mentor to me throughout my career and I am blessed to join such a talented group of people that are dedicated to the growth and development of young women and this game."
Brown is married to Darryl Brown, who was a women's basketball coach for 20 years.
