University of Memphis Athletics
Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- eagrant@memphis.edu
- Phone:
- 901-678-4797
Erin Grant, a four-year letterwinner at Texas Tech from 2002-06, joined the University of Memphis women’s basketball coaching staff in May of 2012. The former point guard still holds the Texas Tech and Big 12 Conference career assists record (844) and oversees the development of the Tigers’ perimeter players.
“Erin brings a wealth of knowledge and very high-level experiences to the University of Memphis,” head coach Melissa McFerrin said. “As an elite level point guard at Texas Tech and in the WNBA, she understands the game from the players’ perspective. She played for an outstanding high school coach and for a Hall of Fame coach in Marsha Sharp at Texas Tech. She acquired her knowledge of the game from some of the game’s very best.
“She has high-level recruiting and coaching experience from her time in Texas and New Mexico and is a dynamic, charismatic and confident personality. She really is the complete package and is a great part of our staff.”
In her first season at Memphis, Grant helped develop freshman point guard Ariel Hearn into a Conference USA All-Freshman Team pick. Hearn led Memphis with 109 assists in 2012-13, becoming the first Tigers freshman since 1982-83 to dish out 100 or more assists in a season. The next two seasons (2013-14, 2014-15), Grant continued to have a hand in Hearn’s development, as the Tigers guard garnered All-American Athletic Conference honors. Hearn also became the fifth-fastest player in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone
Grant helped another freshman shatter that mark one season later, molding Breigha Wilder-Cochran into an American Athletic Conference All-Freshman Team selection after handing out 125 assists and ranking third in assists (4.2 apg) in one of the premier women’s basketball conference.
Grant came to Memphis after spending one season as an assistant at New Mexico, where she helped the Lobos make a run to the Mountain West Conference (MWC) Tournament championship game. As a guards coach at New Mexico, Grant helped junior Caroline Durbin to her first career All-MWC first team honor, after the guard led the league in three-point field goal percentage.
Prior to her one-year stint with New Mexico, Grant was an assistant four seasons at UT Arlington, where she helped the Mavericks to the program’s second WNIT appearance in 2009. That 2008-09 UT-Arlington team defeated Memphis in the Fun in the Sun Shootout in The Bahamas and eventually finished the year with a 22-11 overall mark.
Before joining the coaching ranks, Grant was a standout point guard at Texas Tech. She played for legendary coach Marsha Sharp, helping the Red Raiders compile a mark of 93-36 in her four seasons. She was a three-time All-Big 12 Conference honoree, including first team accolades in 2005 and 2006. Grant was also a three-time Big 12 All-Academic first team pick and was the Big 12 co-Freshman of the Year in 2003 when her 228 assists led the league and became the freshman single-season assists record.
Three of her seasons at Texas Tech remain in the Big 12 records book. Her 228 assists in her freshman season rank third in the Big 12 single-season record book and her 3.30 assist-to-turnover ratio from her junior season is still a Big 12 single-season mark.
As a freshman, she helped Texas Tech to the NCAA Elite Eight and played in the 2003 World University Games for Team USA. She also represented Team USA in the 2005 World University Games, winning a gold medal.
As a senior in 2006, Grant was a Kodak/WBCA All-America finalist and an Associated Press (AP) All-America honorable mention selection. She played in the WBCA All-Star Challenge following her senior campaign and was the 39th overall pick in 2006 WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm.
She also played overseas, helping the Stockholm 08 team to the Swedish Championship and earning the championship’s MVP award. Grant completed the 2006 season with the WNBA Houston Comets before beginning her coaching career with UT Arlington in the 2007-08 season.
A native of Arlington, Texas, Grant graduated from Mansfield High School, where she played her prep basketball under head coach Samantha Morrow from 1998-2002. When Morrow was hired as the UT Arlington head coach in the spring of 2007, she added Grant to her staff following the conclusion of Grant’s WNBA career later that same year.
At Mansfield, Grant led the Tigers to an unprecedented four consecutive state championships, and when she graduated, she was the only girls basketball player in Texas high school basketball history to win four-straight class 5A state championships. A McDonald’s All-American, she posted 1,055 career assists in her prep career.
