Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 901-678-4532
For head coach Melissa McFerrin, it’s about building. Constructing a program, she’s done that. Developing players, check that too.
And in both of her head coaching stints at American University and Memphis, McFerrin has built rather quickly.
By Season No. 3 at American, McFerrin had the Eagles in the Patriot League Tournament championship game. The following campaign, McFerrin directed her 2007-08 American squad to an 18-14 overall record, the Patriot League regular-season crown and a Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) berth. The 18 wins were the program’s most since 1997-98.
The following season in 2008-09, McFerrin took over at Memphis and used a similar recipe in building a successful program. And, it worked again.
Three years later, McFerrin’s 2010-11 Tigers had a 21-13 record, the program’s most wins since 1998-99. The next season in 2011-12, McFerrin worked her fourth-year “magic” again. The 2011-12 Memphis squad won 25 games (25-8 record), finished runner-up in the Conference USA regular-season standings and earned a WNIT bid.
Then, in 2013-14, McFerrin had to remodel her Memphis program. The Tigers moved to the newly-formed American Athletic Conference, and McFerrin went back to work. And, once again, the Season No. 3 proved to be pivotal.
In 2015-16 – the Tigers’ third year in The American – they made their mark. Memphis went 18-13 overall and 12-6 in the conference. Memphis, which was picked to finish seventh in the league’s preseason poll, shook up the standings and placed fourth behind NCAA champion Connecticut, NCAA Tournament participant USF and WNIT quarterfinalist Temple. The Tigers also earned a WNIT berth.
In back-to-back seasons plagued with injuries, Memphis still found a way to make its mark in its fourth and fifth season in the American. In 2016-17, the Tigers came away with their first victory over SEC foe and in-state opponent Vanderbilt in almost 30 years, along with taking down No. 20 USF at home for the second-straight year. The next year, Memphis took down the Commodores on the road for the first time in program history. Two Tigers during this two-year span - Cheyenne Creighton and Brea Elmore - were named all-conference and became the 24th and 25th players in program history to eclipse the 1,000-point club.
The 2018-19 season was marked by a changing of the guard after Creighton and Elmore graduated. Freshman Jamirah Shutes and sophomore Alana Davis were handed the keys to the offense and the duo racked up individual honors. Shutes’ 404 points as a freshman were the sixth-most by a first-year Tiger in school history. The guard was named to the All-Rookie team for her season, as she led the Tigers in scoring and steals. In the post, Davis picked up where she left off as a freshman, piling up nine double-doubles. Her sophomore season’s count brought her career total to 13, a total that is tied for 11th all-time at Memphis.
The highlight of the season was the 19-point comeback in the opening round of the American Athletic Conference Championship. After trailing for three quarters and the deficit growing to 19 points with nine minutes remaining, the Memphis offense came alive in the fourth quarter. The Tigers connected on ten field goals, including five three-pointers, to capture the largest comeback in AAC Championship history.
Building on the momentum of the last year, McFerrin brought in the 31st-ranked recruiting class in the country for the 2019-20 season. With eight newcomers, including four junior college recruits, McFerrin looks to build for the future with the highest-rated class of her Memphis tenure.
With an exciting roster in 2019-20, the Tigers are continuing to move forward, and that’s been the case since Melissa McFerrin took over the reins in Memphis on Apr. 19, 2008. McFerrin’s accomplishments show she has the Tigers moving on the right track:
- 175 wins in her ten seasons in the Bluff City, making her the program’s third-winningest head coach
- Three victories over top-25 foes
- Four-straight postseason appearances (2010-13), the most-consecutive postseasons since seven-straight from 1995-2001
- 18 all-conference selections
- 24 total postseason individual honors
McFerrin’s success is not confined only to the court. She played a major role in the $4 million, two-phase upgrade on the Elma Roane Fieldhouse, the Tigers’ on-campus facility.
The renovation’s $1.3 million first phase delivered two new locker rooms, an officials’ locker room area, a team video room, a renovated player lounge and a coaches’ locker room and meeting area. The second phase was completed in June of 2013 and included a new weight room and athletic training facility, including therapy pools.
Also new to the Elma Roane Fieldhouse arena area — thanks in large part to McFerrin’s fundraising prowess — are two end zone scoreboards, including a video scoreboard on the north end.
McFerrin helped fundraise for the program’s two international trips in the summers of 2011 and 2016. The 2011-12 squad, the first to take an international trip in program history, went on a 10-day, four-game tour of Italy. Prior to the 2016-17 season, the Tigers took a 10-day, four-game tour of Spain and posted a perfect 4-0 record on the overseas trip.
Back in Memphis, McFerrin has taken some of her games to the city’s downtown arena, FedExForum, which also serves as home for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. In doing this, Memphis became one of a handful of college women’s programs to play multiple home games in an NBA arena.
Furthermore, McFerrin has seen 27 players earn their bachelor’s degree in her 10 years. In addition to encouraging her players to pursue their degrees, McFerrin has her program active in the Memphis/Mid-South area communities.
The Tigers, under McFerrin’s guidance, continue to help their student-athletes grow away from the basketball arena. She has her teams actively participating with Girls, Incorporated of Memphis and on various community service projects such as: construction of an all-abilities playground, participating in breast cancer awareness and arthritis awareness walks, distributing shoes to children in need, making visits to Memphis-area children’s hospitals and talking to various schools and youth groups about the challenges of making healthy choices. The Tigers have also added a trip to the West Cancer Center to visit with Memphis-area cancer patients the previous two seasons.
McFerrin also has sent some of her Tigers into the professional basketball ranks, as Brittany Carter spent the 2013 season in Israel and part of the 2014 season in Latvia. Former teammates Alex Winchell and Paris Leonard also played professional level ball. Winchell returned to Memphis and now is on McFerrin’s staff for a fourth-consecutive season in 2018-19. In 2017, Ariel Hearn and Brianna Wright signed professional contracts to play in Germany and most recently in 2018, Cheyenne Creighton signed to compete in Germany while Brea Elmore signed to compete in Great Britain.
Despite playing with the tremendous youth the first two seasons in The American (2013-14, 2014-15), McFerrin developed three all-conference performers. One of those All-American Athletic Conference honorees was Hearn, who finished her career as one of the program’s all-time greats. Hearn’s name appears on many game, season and career charts throughout the record book.
The other two award winners were Mooriah Rowser and Breigha Wilder-Cochran. Rowser and Wilder-Cochran both were both named to the 2013-14 All-Freshman Team. Wilder-Cochran became just the third freshman in program history to dish out 100 or more assists in a season, and Rowser averaged 8.1 points in 2013-14. Rowser finished Memphis career in 2015-16 with over 900 points.
Prior to Memphis’ move to The American, McFerrin had the Tigers as one of the top teams in Conference USA. In the five seasons she coached in C-USA, McFerrin guided Memphis to winning seasons four times, including three-straight 20-win seasons. The three-consecutive 20-win campaigns were the program’s first since five straight from 1994-95 to 1998-99.
Included in those four winning seasons were two second-place finishes in Conference USA and four-straight postseason berths. The second-place finish in 2009-10 was Memphis’ highest since it won the C-USA regular-season crown in 1997-98.
In those C-USA years, McFerrin had five players earn a total of 12 all-league honors. She also coached a C-USA Player of the Year (Jasmine Lee), C-USA Newcomer of the Year (Brittany Carter) and C-USA Defensive Player of the Year (Ramses Lonlack).
Prior to her hire at Memphis in in April of 2008, McFerrin was named the 2007-08 Patriot League Coach of the Year in her fourth season at American University in Washington, D.C. McFerrin’s 2006-07 American team advanced to the Patriot League championship game, and her 2007-08 squad won the school’s first-ever Patriot League regular-season championship, finishing with an 11-3 conference mark. That team won 11 of 12 games down the stretch, advancing to the postseason for the first time since 1997-98 with a WNIT bid. In four seasons at American, McFerrin compiled a 50-70 record and coached five different players to all-conference honors, while two other players earned all-freshman honors.
Before her time at American University, McFerrin was an associate head coach at the University of Minnesota from 2002-04. She helped Minnesota to a 50-15 record, including an NCAA Final Four appearance in 2004 and a Sweet Sixteen berth in 2003. She signed two recruiting classes ranked in the top 20 at Minnesota, and helped coach two Kodak All-Americans, including WNBA players Lindsey Whalen and Janel McCarville.
McFerrin’s time at Minnesota came after a five-year association with the WNBA. She began her affiliation with the WNBA as an assistant coach with the New York Liberty from 1997-1999, assisting with coaching duties for the 1997 WNBA Championship runner-up Liberty squad. She moved to the Washington Mystics as an assistant coach in 1999-2000, taking over as the Mystics’ general manager in 2000. As the GM, she guided a team that made its first WNBA playoff appearance in 2000, and handled all player trades and draft decisions before joining the coaching staff at Minnesota.
Her WNBA stint followed a 14-year coaching career that made three different stops.
McFerrin began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wayland Baptist University in Texas in the 1983-84 season. She was then hired as an assistant coach at Central Michigan University, where she helped the Chippewas to a 95-77 record in her six seasons, including a 1985 Mid-American Conference championship.
She left Central Michigan in 1990 to become an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at The Ohio State University. At Ohio State, she helped the Buckeyes to a 118-90 record and a 1993 Big Ten championship and an NCAA National Championship runner-up. That 1993 squad benefited from a 1992 McFerrin recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 in the nation and featured WNBA player and three-time Olympian Katie Smith. The 1992 class was one of seven Buckeye recruiting classes to be nationally-ranked under McFerrin’s watch at Ohio State. In 1996, McFerrin helped guide the Buckeyes to the NCAA Tournament second round, before leaving the following season for the WNBA.
A native of Cassville, Mo., McFerrin was a four-year letterwinner and starting point guard for the University of Missouri from 1979-83. She helped Missouri to a 1983 Big Eight Tournament championship and NCAA tournament berth and a 1982 NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance. She earned All-Big Eight honorable mention honors and Scholar-Athlete awards. She graduated cum laude with a degree in secondary education from Missouri in 1983 and received her master’s degree in physical education from Central Michigan in 1988.
