Women’s basketball head coach Brenda Mock Brown was named to the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Watch List on Wednesday, Nov. 1. 

This award is in its inaugural year and pulls coaches from a combination of 26 conferences across the country that are deemed to be mid-major, not to be confused with high-major conferences like the Big Ten and the SEC.  

“It is good recognition for our program as a whole. It means that the previous year you did something well. Obviously, it’s an honor to be listed among some really good coaches and a great honor for the program,” said Mock 

Coach Mock came to ETSU for the 2022-23 season, where she took the team to a school-record season, winning 25 games and losing only 10. This was their first winning season since 2018.

Photo of Coach Brenda Mock Brown. (Contributed/ETSU Athletics)

The Bucs finished the season in third place in the Women’s Basketball Invitational, where they competed against schools outside of the Southern Conference. It was their first time invited to play in this tournament. 

After her first season last year, coach Mock was named the SoCon Coach of the Year. 

“We are a relationship-based program, and relationships take time. That’s why it’s been really cool to develop those over the summer and have our kids here. Everything is a lot more settled. Last year, we were building the plane while we were flying it. Now our challenge is how do we perform with high expectations and a target on our back,” commented Mock. 

Twenty coaches, including Mock, were named to this list before the season started. In January, the list will be updated for the midseason stats and become a ten-coach list. The five finalists will be announced in March. 

“We are excited to be playing an SEC team, as we did last year. It will be a great test, and that’s how you get better is being tested and refined through the fire, and that’s why we wanted to open up with somebody that was going to be very competitive and a tough game for us,” said Mock. “At this point in the year, we are just trying to get better every day and get ready for our Southern Conference play in January.”

The Bucs kicked off their season on Tuesday, Nov. 7, against the University of Kentucky, falling to the Wildcats 74-66.

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