Mittie announces staff changes
5/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
May 24, 2007
FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU women's basketball coach Jeff Mittie announced the restructuring of his coaching staff on Thursday.
Mittie announced that Tricia Porter has been named assistant coach and Tonya Benton has been named co-recruiting coordinator with Josh Keister, who joined TCU's staff as an assistant on May 15.
Porter joins the assistant coach ranks after spending the past three seasons as director of basketball operations. A native of Duncan, Okla., Porter was a four-year letterwinner for the Lady Frogs from 1998-2003 prior to joining TCU's staff on June 9, 2004.
 Tricia Porter  | |
Porter, who replaces former assistant Yolanda Wells-Broughton, is the first former player of Mittie to later join his staff. Since her arrival to the coaching staff, the Lady Frogs have combined for a 63-33 record (.656 winning percentage) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament each season.
Benton, the longest-tenured assistant on Mittie's staff, takes on the role as co-recruiting coordinator with Keister after spending the past seven seasons as assistant coach for the Lady Frogs.
"I like the structure of having shared recruiting duties," Mittie said. "I think they both have skills that compliment each other in this role and they will continue to help us sign talented student-athletes.
"Tonya has been a vital piece of our recruiting for seven years," Mittie said. She has been an excellent coach for us and I think her and Josh (Keister) will work well together."
 Tonya Benton | |
In her seven seasons at TCU, the Frogs have a combined record of 157-69 (.694 winning percentage). Since Benton's arrival, the Frogs have advanced to the NCAA Tournament seven straight seasons after never advancing to the tournament prior. TCU has also won two regular-season conference championships and a trio of league tournament titles.
Prior to coming to TCU in September of 2000, Benton served as an assistant coach at Howard Junior College in Big Spring, Texas.
In her first season at TCU, the Lady Frogs took the basketball world by storm. It was a season of firsts for TCU, which set numerous school records including overall wins (25) and league triumphs (13). The Lady Frogs also won the institution's first conference title of any kind by snagging both the Western Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament crowns. TCU landed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time and pulled off the largest first-round upset that year as a No. 11 seed by upending No. 6-seeded Penn State, a Final Four team the previous year.
Individually, the Lady Frogs' starting backcourt of Jill Sutton and Amy (Sutton) Porter received all-conference accolades. Sutton was a second-team All-WAC honoree and Porter snared a spot on the conference all-tournament squad.
In 2006-07, Benton helped tutor guard Adrianne Ross, who earned Honorable Mention All-America honors by the Associated Press and was named MWC Co-Player of the Year. Ross was also a WBCA/Kodak All-America finalist after leading the league in scoring and in steals. In addition to Ross' success, guard Ashley Davis earned Second Team All-MWC honors and led the league in three-point field-goal percentage and three-pointers made.
Since joining the Purple and White, 13 different players have garnered 17 academic awards from the conference office.
Benton, a native of Waco, Texas, played two seasons at Cisco (Texas) Junior College from 1993 to 1995 before transferring to McLennan Community College in her hometown. She earned her bachelor's degree in health and human performance from Baylor University in 1999 and her master's in liberal arts from TCU in 2003.
As a player, Benton was a star guard at Robinson High School in Waco, earning all-state accolades in 1993 and all-district honors in 1992 and 1993. She also was tabbed a Scholar-Athlete All-Star and was named to Who's Who Among American High School Students Sports Edition.
Porter, whose last name was Payne prior to marrying fiancé Tyler in August 2003, is TCU's all-time leader in free-throw percentage (83.0) and ranks sixth in school history with 1,178 career points. She is one of nine players in TCU history to eclipse 1,000 points. She also ranks among the top 10 in career games played, games started, field goals, field goal attempts, threes made, threes attempted, three-point field goal percentage, free throws made, free throws attempted and assists.
After earning her Bachelor of Business Administration from TCU in August 2002 and her Master of Liberal Arts the following summer, Porter became the women's basketball head coach at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas. In her only year with the program, she led the team to the playoffs for the first time in five years and finished as the runner-up for District Coach of the Year honors.
Porter accumulated a number of honors as a Lady Frog. She helped TCU earn its first bid to the NCAA Championship in 2001, the same season she led TCU to its first conference tournament crown. Porter was subsequently named the Western Athletic Conference Tournament MVP after tallying 26 points against Hawai'i in the title game. She also was named TCU's Player of the Year in 2002 and earned the Janice Dziuk Award in 2003.
No stranger to success in the classroom, Porter was named to the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll in 2003 for maintaining at least a 3.0 grade point average. She also snagged a Commissioner's Academic Medal the same year for attaining at least a 3.75 GPA for the academic year. Porter earned the team's Academic Award in 2003 as well.
Tyler, a high school baseball coach and TCU grad, and Tricia reside in Fort Worth.
 Josh Keister | |
Keister joined TCU's staff on May 15 after spending the last three seasons as head women's basketball coach at Missouri Western, where he compiled an overall record of 69-23. During the 2006-07 season, Keister guided the Griffons to a 30-4 record and No. 9 ranking in the final WBCA NCAA Division II top-25 poll. Competing in one of the top Division II conferences in the country, Keister led Missouri Western to a conference title with a 16-2 mark in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA).
Last season, Keister helped Missouri Western to 30 victories for just the second time in school history, en route to guiding the Griffons to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time since 2004. On the year, the Griffons were ranked in every WBCA national ranking but one and were ranked as high as No. 2 at one point during the season. Keister's success in 2006-07 helped earn him the title of WBCA Region 6 Coach of the Year.
A native of Waterloo, Iowa, Keister coached five First Team All-MIAA selections during his tenure at Missouri Western, including senior center Inga Buzoka and junior guard Ashleigh Curry this season. In addition to being the MIAA MVP, Buzoka was also selected to the Division II Kodak/WBCA All-America Team and to the Daktronics All-South Central Region First Team.
Keister received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Mount Mercy (Iowa) College in 1996, where he was a two-year letterwinner. He also holds a master's degree in higher education from UMKC (University of Missouri-Kansas City).
