Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Director of Operations
- Email:
- jordan.vessels@ttu.edu
After spending four seasons with Krista Gerlich at UT Arlington, including two as an assistant coach, Jordan Vessels coached her fifth season as the Director of Basketball Operations at Texas Tech and also assumes assistant coach responsibilities.
Since arriving at Tech, Vessels has played a key role in coordinating all of the Lady Raiders travel operations as well as managing the program budget. Promoted back in July after new NCAA regulations permitted the addition of two additional assistant coach spots, Vessels assumed a key development role this summer helping lead workouts with the 2023-24 Lady Raider roster.
In the 2024-25 season, Vessels coached the Lady Raiders to a 19-win season that saw the team reach the quarterfinals in both the Big 12 Tournament and the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT). Texas Tech earned its 1,000th win in program history after defeating Utah in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament. In doing so, the Lady Raiders would snap a 22-year drought since they last won two games at the conference tournament.
After the team’s run at the Big 12 Tournament, Tech was selected to the WBIT where they defeated 4-seeded Wyoming and overall No. 1 seed Virginia Tech to advance to the quarterfinals. Vessels aided the Lady Raiders to key wins over Washington State, Gonzaga, Colorado and Arkansas – the first time Texas Tech defeated the Razorbacks in Fayetteville in the program’s history. In addition, Vessels coached two All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selections in Jasmine Shavers and Bailey Maupin, who both scored more than 500 points in the season.
In the 2023-24 season, Vessels helped lead the team to back-to-back winning seasons after recording 17 victories on the year. Texas Tech had one of its best starts in program history – winning its first 11 games of the season. The Lady Raiders opened Big 12 play with a victory at Houston (79-71) then welcomed the Kansas Jayhawks to the United Supermarkets Arena for a 73-64 win. The Lady Raiders posted a ranked victory against No. 24 Iowa State, 71-63, a team who would make it to the Big 12 Tournament finals and the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
In the conference tournament, Tech pushed past Houston in dominant fashion – the team’s third victory over the Cougars in the season – to make it to the next round of the championships for the first time since 2018-19. In addition, Vessels coached two sophomore standouts in Bailey Maupin and Jasmine Shavers, who were both named to the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention team, to the 2023-24 Dave Campbell's All-Texas Women's Basketball Awards list and to the CSC Academic All-District Team. Shavers and Maupin led the Lady Raiders offensively as they totaled 15.4 and 14.1 points per game, respectively.Â
While at UT Arlington, she spent two years as the program’s director of operations before being promoted to assistant coach in 2018.
The Lady Mavs wrapped up the 2019-20 season with a 21-11 overall record (14-4 SBC), securing the 11th overall for the Lady Mavs. UTA earned the No. 3 seed in the SBC Tourney and went on to defeat Texas State in the first round before falling to South Alabama in the Quarterfinals. Gerlich and the Lady Mavs were hopeful for a postseason tournament berth, but those hopes were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the 2020 Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Championship, the 2020 NCAA Tournament and the 2020 Postseason WNIT and WBI.
In 2018-19, Vessels helped lead UTA to arguably the most successful season in program history in 2018-19. The Lady Mavs secured the program’s first Sun Belt Regular Season championship, made their sixth postseason tournament appearance (WNIT), which was the second WNIT berth under Gerlich, and won a postseason (excluding conference tournaments) game for the first time in program history with their WNIT First Round triumph over Stephen F. Austin (60-54; Mar. 21).
UTA also finished the season with 24 wins, which tied for the most in a single season with the 2006-07 squad (24-9 overall, Head Coach Donna Capps).
A native of Canyon, Texas, Vessels was a four-year player for West Texas A&M, including three seasons playing under Gerlich from 2010-2012. Vessels served as the Lady Buffs’ graduate assistant for the 2015-16 season.
Vessels graduated from West Texas A&M with her bachelor’s degree in sports and exercise science and had a career that saw her play in 126 games, tied for fourth all-time in WTA&M history.
On the court, she helped the Lady Buffs to back-to-back Lone Star Conference championships in both the regular season and tournament, won back-to-back South Central Region championships and played in the 2014 National Championship Game.
