Sytia Messer long-time Mulkey assistant hired as UCF head coach

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Long-time Kim Mulkey assistant coach Sytia Messer has been hired by the University of Central Florida as their next head coach UCF announced on Sunday, March 3.

Messer spent the last eight seasons with Mulkey at Baylor and joined her in Baton Rouge for her first season with the LSU Tigers. During her eight seasons at Baylor, the Lady Bears had a combined record of 260-23, while winning eight Big 12 regular season championships and six conference tournament titles, winning an NCAA National Championship, and reaching the NCAA Elite 8 six times.

In her first season in Baton Rouge she helped Mulkey and the Tigers reach the biggest turnaround by a first year coach in the SEC by winning 26 games, the Tigers won just nine games in 2021. The Tigers also earned a Top-16 seed for the NCAA Tournament and won their first tournament game since 2014.

LSU finished ranked No. 9 in the final AP Top 25 poll and second-place finish in the SEC behind eventually National Champion South Carolina.

Messer was a former head coach at Tennessee Tech from 2009-2012 and was the 2011 Ohio Valley Coach of the Year. She was a standout at Arkansas where she helped the Razorbacks reach the Final Four for the first time in school history in 1998.

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