2023–24 Houston Cougars women's basketball team

2023–24 Houston Cougars women's basketball
2023–24 Houston Cougars women's basketball
Conference	Big 12 Conference
Record	14–16 (5–13 Big 12)
Head coach	Ronald Hughey (10th season);
Associate head coach	Tai Dillard ; Vonn Read
Assistant coach	Chynna Grimes
Home arena	Fertitta Center
	Seasons ← 2022–23 2024–25 →

2023–24 Big 12 Conference women's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 21 Oklahoma	15	–	3	.833	23	–	10	.697
No. 7 Texas †	14	–	4	.778	33	–	5	.868
No. 19 Kansas State	13	–	5	.722	26	–	8	.765
No. 25 Iowa State	12	–	6	.667	21	–	12	.636
No. 13 Baylor	12	–	6	.667	26	–	8	.765
No. 24 West Virginia	12	–	6	.667	25	–	8	.758
Kansas	11	–	7	.611	20	–	13	.606
Oklahoma State	7	–	11	.389	14	–	16	.467
TCU	6	–	12	.333	21	–	12	.636
BYU	6	–	12	.333	16	–	17	.485
Cincinnati	5	–	13	.278	14	–	18	.438
Texas Tech	5	–	13	.278	17	–	16	.515
Houston	5	–	13	.278	14	–	16	.467
UCF	3	–	15	.167	12	–	17	.414

† 2024 Big 12 tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 2023–24 Houston Cougars women's basketball team represents the University of Houston during the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cougars, are led by tenth-year head coach Ronald Hughey and play their home games at the Fertitta Center as members of the Big 12 Conference.^[1]

Previous season[edit]

The Cougars finished the 2022–23 season 15–16, 10–5 in AAC play to finish in fourth place. As a No. 4 seed in the AAC women's tournament advanced in the quarterfinals they defeated No. 5 seed SMU and No. 8 Wichita State in the semifinals before losing in the championship game to No. 3 East Carolina.

Offseason[edit]

Departures[edit]

Houston Departures
Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Tiara Young	2	G	5'9"	Senior	Shreveport, LA	Graduate transferred to SMU
Tae'Lor Purvis	4	G	5'7"	Junior	Houston, TX	Transferred to Xavier
Taryn Johnson	5	G	5'8"	Freshman	San Diego, CA
De'Myla Brown	15	G	5'7"	Senior	North Little Rock, AR	Graduate transferred to Missouri
Kendall Brown	21	G	5'7"	Sophomore	DeSoto, TX	Transferred to Prairie View A&M
Ca'Leyah Burrell	25	G	5'8"	Senior	Waco, TX	Graduated
Tatyana Hill	30	F	6'2"	GS Senior	Houston, TX	Graduated

Incoming[edit]

Houston Incoming Transfers
Name	Num	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Previous School
Gigi Cooke	3	G	5'9"	Sophomore	Clinton, MD	Maryland
N'Yah Boyd	5	G	5'6"	Senior	Mesquite, TX	UTEP
Maliyah Johnson	21	F	6'0"	Junior	Columbus, OH	Pittsburgh
Djessira Diawara	30	F	6'3"	Senior	Bamako, Mali	Clarendon College
Shalexxus Aaron	35	G	6'1"	Senior	Apple Valley, CA	Oregon State
Peyton McFarland	42	F	6'4"	Junior	Boise, ID	Utah

Recruiting[edit]

There were no recruiting classing class of 2023.

Roster[edit]

2023–24 Houston Cougars women's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
F	1	Bria Patterson	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	GS	DeSoto	DeSoto, TX
G	2	Kierra Merchant	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	Fr	Westfield	Spring, TX
G	3	Gia Cooke	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	So	Bishop McNamara Maryland	Clinton, MD
G	5	N'Yah Boyd	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)	GS	Horn UTEP	Mesquite, TX
G	10	Britney Onyeje	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	GS	Pflugerville UCF	Pflugerville, TX
G	11	Ash'a Thompson	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Sr	DeSoto Old Dominion	DeSoto, TX
G	14	Laila Blair	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)	Sr	Waller	Houston, TX
F	21	Maliyah Johnson	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Jr	Africentric Early College Pittsburgh	Columbus, OH
F	22	Avalon Miller	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	Sr	Riverton Gulf Coast State College	Salt Lake City, UT
F	30	Djessira Diawara	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	Sr	Massa Makan Diabaté Clarendon College	Bamako, Mali
G	32	Amari Conn	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	Sr	Lincoln Prep Little Rock	Kansas City, MO
F	33	Logyn McNeil	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	RS So	Rockwall-Heath LSU	Rockwall, TX
F	34	Kamryn Jones	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Sr	Magnolia West	Magnolia, TX
G	35	Shalexxus Aaron	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	RS Sr	Martin Luther King Oregon State	Apple Valley, CA
F	42	Peyton McFarland	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	Sr	Boise Utah	Boise, ID

Head coach

Ronald Hughey (Limestone College)

Assistant coach(es)

Tai Dillard (Texas)
Vonn Read (Clark Atlanta)
Chynna Grimes (Wichita State)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule[edit]

^[2]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-conference regular season
November 10, 2023* 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Air Force	W 99–61	1–0	Fertitta Center (935) Houston, TX
November 14, 2023* 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Sam Houston	W 106–65	2–0	Fertitta Center (964) Houston, TX
November 19, 2023* 2:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Grambling State	W 106–74	3–0	Fertitta Center (897) Houston, TX
November 26, 2023* 2:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		New Orleans	W 81–54	4–0	Fertitta Center (1,139) Houston, TX
November 29, 2023* 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Middle Tennessee	L 45–70	4–1	Fertitta Center (698) Houston, TX
December 3, 2023* 2:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Florida A&M	W 79–59	5–1	Fertitta Center (1,160) Houston, TX
December 8, 2023* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+		at Texas A&M–Commerce	W 86–53	6–1	The Field House (1,189) Commerce, TX
December 12, 2023* 11:00 a.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Texas Southern	W 89–42	7–1	Fertitta Center (3,658) Houston, TX
December 14, 2023* 6:00 p.m., ESPN+		at UTSA	W 66–64	8–1	Convocation Center (869) San Antonio,TX
December 17, 2023* 4:00 p.m., P12N		at Washington State	L 48–95	8–2	Beasley Coliseum (956) Pullman, WA
December 20, 2023* 1:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Rice rivalry	W 71–63 ^OT	9–2	Fertitta Center (1,033) Houston, TX
Big 12 Conference regular season
December 30, 2023 1:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Texas Tech	L 71–79	9–3 (0–1)	Fertitta Center (1,975) Houston, TX
January 3, 2024 6:30 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at No. 11 Kansas State	L 38–72	9–4 (0–2)	Bramlage Coliseum (3,397) Manhattan, KS
January 6, 2024 2:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at No. 6 Baylor	L 58–87	9–5 (0–3)	Foster Pavilion (4,530) Waco, TX
January 10, 2024 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		BYU	W 79–69	10–5 (1–3)	Fertitta Center (805) Houston, TX
January 13, 2024 2:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		TCU	W 77–66	11–5 (2–3)	Fertitta Center (1,635) Houston, TX
January 17, 2024 6:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at West Virginia	L 39–80	11–6 (2–4)	WVU Coliseum (2,251) Morgantown, WV
January 20, 2024 6:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Oklahoma	L 65–71	11–7 (2–5)	Fertitta Center (1,780) Houston, TX
January 24, 2024 6:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at Texas Tech	L 48–66	11–8 (2–6)	United Supermarkets Arena (4,775) Lubbock, TX
January 27, 2024 1:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at UCF	L 87–92 ^OT	11–9 (2–7)	Addition Financial Arena (1,092) Orlando, FL
January 30, 2024 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Cincinnati	W 54–46	12–9 (3–7)	Fertitta Center (974) Houston, TX
February 4, 2024 2:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		No. 13 Baylor	L 60–83	12–10 (3–8)	Fertitta Center (2,069) Houston, TX
February 8, 2024 6:30 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at Kansas	L 52–69	12–11 (3–9)	Allen Fieldhouse (3,090) Lawrence, KS
February 14, 2024 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		No. 5 Texas	L 66–82	12–12 (3–10)	Fertitta Center (1,610) Houston, TX
February 17, 2024 4:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at Oklahoma State	W 65–57	13–12 (4–10)	Gallagher-Iba Arena (2,112) Stillwater, OK
February 21, 2024 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		Iowa State	L 64–76	13–13 (4–11)	Fertitta Center (995) Houston, TX
February 24, 2024 6:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at TCU	L 49–59	13–14 (4–12)	Schollmaier Arena (2,133) Fort Worth, TX
February 28, 2024 8:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		at BYU	L 54–64	13–15 (4–13)	Marriott Center (1,760) Provo, UT
March 2, 2024 7:00 p.m., BIG12/ESPN+		UCF	W 68–67	14–15 (5–13)	Fertitta Center (1,141) Houston, TX
Big 12 Conference Tournament
March 7, 2024 5:30 p.m., ESPN+	(13)	vs. (12) Texas Tech First Round	L 60–74	14–16	T-Mobile Center Kansas City, MO
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. ^[3]^[4]

References[edit]

^ "Women's college basketball preview: A look at UH, Texas, A&M, Rice, HCU, TSU and Prairie View". Houston Chronicle. November 6, 2023. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
^ "University of Houston Official Athletic Site :: Women's Basketball". Uhcougars.Com.
^ "Cougars Announce 11 Game Non-Con Schedule". uhcougars.com. September 6, 2023. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
^ "Inaugural Big 12 Women's Basketball Schedule Released". uhcougars.com. September 26, 2023. Retrieved November 26, 2023.

[1] "Women's college basketball preview: A look at UH, Texas, A&M, Rice, HCU, TSU and Prairie View". Houston Chronicle. November 6, 2023. Retrieved November 26, 2023.

[2] "University of Houston Official Athletic Site :: Women's Basketball". Uhcougars.Com.

[3] "Cougars Announce 11 Game Non-Con Schedule". uhcougars.com. September 6, 2023. Retrieved November 26, 2023.

[4] "Inaugural Big 12 Women's Basketball Schedule Released". uhcougars.com. September 26, 2023. Retrieved November 26, 2023.

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v t e Houston Cougars women's basketball
Venues	Fertitta Center (1975–present) Health and Physical Education Arena (2017–2018)
Rivalries	Rice
Culture & lore	History Shasta "Cougar Fight Song" Spirit of Houston
People	Head coaches Retired numbers
Seasons	1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24