University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Women's Basketball
Brown, Honey
Honey Brown
- Title:
- Head Coach
Honey Brown is entering her fourth season as the Head Coach of the Bulldogs in 2023-24. During her third seasons leading the Bulldogs, Brown has guided Asheville to a record of 42-75.
Asheville won 11 games and four in the Big South Conference in Brown's fourth season in 2023-24. She coached McKinley Brooks-Sumpter, who was an All-Conference Second Team selection while Millie Brown was the team's All-Academic Team selection.
In her third season at the helm, Asheville posted an 11-19 record including a 7-11 mark in Big South Conference play. Some highlights of the season included a three-game win streak to start the month of February with wins over High Point, Radford and USC Upstate. The Bulldogs also pulled off a miraculous comeback in the first round of the Big South Conference Tournament, erasing a 17-point deficit to stun Winthrop 59-58. McKinley Brooks-Sumpter was named to the All-Conference Honorable Mention squad, as well as the All-Academic Team. In addition, the Bulldogs ranked second in the conference and 34th nationally in three-point shooting defense, holding teams to 27.7 percent from beyond the arc.
In her second season leading the Bulldogs, Brown coached Asheville to a 10-22 overall record and a 3-15 mark in Big South play. Highlighting the season for Brown was Asheville’s back-to-back upset victories in the Big South Tournament over North Carolina A&T and USC Upstate. Brown also coached Nadiria Evans to All-Big South Second Team and All-Tournament Team honors. Evans also broke several program records during her fifth and final season as a Bulldog.
During her first season at the helm, Brown helped guide Asheville to a record of 10-15 overall and 9-10 in Big South play. Brown quickly picked up her first collegiate head coaching victory with a 70-59 win over Western Carolina in the season opener. She also helped lead Asheville to a road victory at eventual league champion High Point and series sweeps over Longwood and Winthrop during the regular season.
Nadiria Evans (First Team), Kai Carter (Second Team), and Tamiah Lewis (All-Academic) all garnered All-Big South honors during Coach Brown’s first season leading the program. Brown also coached Evans (Player), Amaryah Corpening (Player) and Abigail Wilson (Freshman) to weekly Big South honors, while also helping Evans become the 22nd player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau.
Brown became the 11th head coach in program history and the seventh since the program moved to Division I in the 1986-87 season on April 7, 2020. She has spent the
past eight seasons as an assistant for the Bulldogs under former Head Coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick Brown. After six seasons, she was elevated to associate head coach prior to the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
“I am honored to be the next Head Women’s Basketball Coach at UNC Asheville,” Brown said. “I am thankful to Chancellor Cable and Janet Cone for this opportunity. Asheville has been a wonderful place on and off the court for me the past eight years and I look forward to many more years to come.
“I am grateful to Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick Brown for all the hard work and love she put into UNC Asheville. Together we built something very special and I am excited to now lead this program.”
Prior to her time on the Bulldogs’ bench, Brown spent four seasons as an assistant at Saint Louis working primarily with SLU’s point guards. Before her time with the Billikens, Brown served as director and head trainer at Performance Training, Inc., in Orlando, Fla. While there, she managed all aspects of the company, including staffing, schedules and marketing.
Brown also spent four years as an assistant at Ohio University and a season as an assistant at Central Florida. She got her start in coaching as an assistant with Lenoir City High School in Lenoir City, Tenn. While with LCHS, she helped lead the Panthers to a state tournament appearance in 1998.
A 1994 graduate of Maryville College, she was third in the nation in three-point percentage for Division III her junior year, while serving as a team captain her final two seasons. The Scots made four consecutive appearances in the NCAA III Tournament during her career at Maryville, including two trips to the round of 16.
“On behalf of the entire UNC Asheville community, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Coach Mock Kirkpatrick Brown for her expertise, leadership and outstanding record leading our women to victory as a team and as individuals,” said UNC Asheville Chancellor Nancy J. Cable. “I stand ready to support Coach Honey Brown and each and every one of our talented and high-energy players as they pursue success both on and off the court.”
On July 7, 2018, Brown was appointed to Associate Head Coach for the 2018-19 campaign. Prior to the upcoming season, Brown was the Assistant Coach for the previous six seasons for the women’s basketball program.
Through the first six years that Brown has been on head coach Brenda Kirkpatrick’s staff in Asheville, they have taken the program to new heights and set a new standard. That includes going from winning nine games in 2014-15 to winning 62 games in just three campaigns while capturing back-to-back Big South Conference Tournament crowns, two NCAA Tournament berths, three consecutive postseason berths and one Big South Conference regular-season title.
During Brown’s six years in Asheville, nine Bulldogs earned All-Big South Conference honorees, including 2015-16 league Player of the Year Chatori Major. Additionally, six players earned Big South Championship All-Tournament honors with Major and Sonora Dengokl being named Most Valuable Player in 2016 and 2017.
In the 2017-18 season, UNC Asheville women’s basketball raced through Big South Conference play, which was highlighted by handing Liberty its first league loss of the year. The Bulldogs’ season was capped off by playing in their third straight postseason tournament. UNC Asheville hosted Furman in the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI), which was the first time the program has hosted a postseason tournament.
Also during the 2017-18 season, Bronaza Fitzgerald broke the UNC Asheville Division I record for single-season rebounds with 319. Khaila Webb also etched her name into the record book, as she finished her career with 1,109 points (13th-most all-time), and Jessica Wall also broke the program record for the most made three-pointers in a season (90).
While the 2016-17 campaign proved special, it also brought about its own unique challenges. The Bulldogs finished the year with a 19-15 record that included an impressive finish and UNC Asheville’s second-straight Big South Conference Championship crown and NCAA Tournament berth. The 19-15 record marked just the seventh time in program history that UNC Asheville women’s basketball finished with a positive record.
Tabbed as the league’s preseason favorite to claim the regular-season crown, the Bulldogs started the season well enough, winning four of their first five games. As the calendar turned to conference play, the Bulldogs lost key players to injury, forcing the staff to make changes to personnel and game strategies while asking players to expand their rolls. Despite going 9-9 in Big South play during the regular season, the changes and growth paid off in spades as the Bulldogs closed out the 2016-17 campaign winning eight of their last 10 games. Included in that stretch were two wins to wrap up the regular season and then four wins in four days to claim the Big South Conference Championship title. It was the first time in league history that a team had won four games over four days to take home the title.
During the Big South Conference Championships stretch, the seventh-seeded Bulldogs won their first-round game over No. 10 seed Longwood and turned around the next day to knock of second-seeded Campbell in the quarterfinal round. During the semifinal round, Asheville defeated sixth-seeded Presbyterian and the Bulldogs then wrapped up the incredible stretch by toppling top-seeded Radford in the championship game, earning the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season. In doing so, the Bulldogs became the first seven-seed to ever win the Big South Women’s Basketball Championships. Major and Dengokl were both recognized following the tournament with All-Tournament honors and Dengokl was awarded the program’s second-straight MVP award.
UNC Asheville closed out the season as the 16-seed in the Stockton (Ca.) Regional of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Bulldogs played top-seeded South Carolina in the first round of the tournament and despite a strong start, ultimately bowed out.
Major and fellow senior KJ Weaver were both named to the Big South All-Conference teams with Major picking up her second-straight first-team honor. Major became just the fourth UNC Asheville women’s basketball player to earn multiple Big South first-team plaudits. Major was also named to the conference’s All-Academic Team.
During the season several players permanently etched their names in the UNC Asheville record book. Senior guards Tianna Knuckles and Chatori Major became the 105th and 106th women’s basketball players in conference history to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark. Knuckles ended her playing career with 1,129 career points, the 10th-most all-time in program history and sixth-most in Asheville’s NCAA Division I era. Major ended her career with 1,116 career points, the 12th-most by a Bulldog all-time and eighth-most in the Division I era. As a junior during the 2015-16 season, Knuckles set the school record for most three-pointers in a single season with 73. It was a mark that had stood for over 25 years. During the 2016-17 campaign, Major then broke the record and set a new standard with 78 three-pointers.
The 2015-16 season saw the Bulldogs post the biggest turnaround season in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, finishing the year with an overall record of 26-7 following a 9-22 season the year before.
Asheville hosted many decorated Bulldogs as a part of the 2015-16 campaign that paved the way to Asheville’s success on and off the court. Chatori Major earned Big South Conference Player of the Year and Conference Tournament MVP honors, along with teammate Tianna Knuckles, who received Big South Second Team All-Conference honors as well as being named an All-Tournament team selection. Paige Love earned Big South All-Academic team honors and was recognized as the first student-athlete to receive the University’s William and Ida Friday Award for Service to Community.
The 2015-16 season was a record-breaking year for the Bulldogs in many ways. After being picked to finish eighth of ten teams in the league’s preseason poll, they began the year by matching the best start in school history (9-1) on their way to program-high regular season wins (26) and conference wins (16). Brown also helped lead the Bulldogs to the program’s first ever Big South Conference Regular Season Title, a Big South Conference Tournament Championship and an NCAA first round appearance.
In 2014-15, the Bulldogs finished 9-22 but saw 10 of those losses come by a single-digit margin, including six coming by just three points or less.
In 2013-2014 the Bulldogs finished with 11 wins, the most for the program in four seasons. Asheville had landmark non-conference victories over Furman and Eastern Kentucky. In addition, the Bulldogs downed Liberty, giving the Blue & White its first home win over the Lady Flames in 17 years. Asheville earned a 43-42 win over Radford in the first round of the Big South Conference Tournament. The win was the Bulldogs first tournament win in seven years.
Asheville won 11 games and four in the Big South Conference in Brown's fourth season in 2023-24. She coached McKinley Brooks-Sumpter, who was an All-Conference Second Team selection while Millie Brown was the team's All-Academic Team selection.
In her third season at the helm, Asheville posted an 11-19 record including a 7-11 mark in Big South Conference play. Some highlights of the season included a three-game win streak to start the month of February with wins over High Point, Radford and USC Upstate. The Bulldogs also pulled off a miraculous comeback in the first round of the Big South Conference Tournament, erasing a 17-point deficit to stun Winthrop 59-58. McKinley Brooks-Sumpter was named to the All-Conference Honorable Mention squad, as well as the All-Academic Team. In addition, the Bulldogs ranked second in the conference and 34th nationally in three-point shooting defense, holding teams to 27.7 percent from beyond the arc.
In her second season leading the Bulldogs, Brown coached Asheville to a 10-22 overall record and a 3-15 mark in Big South play. Highlighting the season for Brown was Asheville’s back-to-back upset victories in the Big South Tournament over North Carolina A&T and USC Upstate. Brown also coached Nadiria Evans to All-Big South Second Team and All-Tournament Team honors. Evans also broke several program records during her fifth and final season as a Bulldog.
During her first season at the helm, Brown helped guide Asheville to a record of 10-15 overall and 9-10 in Big South play. Brown quickly picked up her first collegiate head coaching victory with a 70-59 win over Western Carolina in the season opener. She also helped lead Asheville to a road victory at eventual league champion High Point and series sweeps over Longwood and Winthrop during the regular season.
Nadiria Evans (First Team), Kai Carter (Second Team), and Tamiah Lewis (All-Academic) all garnered All-Big South honors during Coach Brown’s first season leading the program. Brown also coached Evans (Player), Amaryah Corpening (Player) and Abigail Wilson (Freshman) to weekly Big South honors, while also helping Evans become the 22nd player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau.
Brown became the 11th head coach in program history and the seventh since the program moved to Division I in the 1986-87 season on April 7, 2020. She has spent the
past eight seasons as an assistant for the Bulldogs under former Head Coach Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick Brown. After six seasons, she was elevated to associate head coach prior to the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
“I am honored to be the next Head Women’s Basketball Coach at UNC Asheville,” Brown said. “I am thankful to Chancellor Cable and Janet Cone for this opportunity. Asheville has been a wonderful place on and off the court for me the past eight years and I look forward to many more years to come.
“I am grateful to Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick Brown for all the hard work and love she put into UNC Asheville. Together we built something very special and I am excited to now lead this program.”
Prior to her time on the Bulldogs’ bench, Brown spent four seasons as an assistant at Saint Louis working primarily with SLU’s point guards. Before her time with the Billikens, Brown served as director and head trainer at Performance Training, Inc., in Orlando, Fla. While there, she managed all aspects of the company, including staffing, schedules and marketing.
Brown also spent four years as an assistant at Ohio University and a season as an assistant at Central Florida. She got her start in coaching as an assistant with Lenoir City High School in Lenoir City, Tenn. While with LCHS, she helped lead the Panthers to a state tournament appearance in 1998.
A 1994 graduate of Maryville College, she was third in the nation in three-point percentage for Division III her junior year, while serving as a team captain her final two seasons. The Scots made four consecutive appearances in the NCAA III Tournament during her career at Maryville, including two trips to the round of 16.
“On behalf of the entire UNC Asheville community, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Coach Mock Kirkpatrick Brown for her expertise, leadership and outstanding record leading our women to victory as a team and as individuals,” said UNC Asheville Chancellor Nancy J. Cable. “I stand ready to support Coach Honey Brown and each and every one of our talented and high-energy players as they pursue success both on and off the court.”
On July 7, 2018, Brown was appointed to Associate Head Coach for the 2018-19 campaign. Prior to the upcoming season, Brown was the Assistant Coach for the previous six seasons for the women’s basketball program.
Through the first six years that Brown has been on head coach Brenda Kirkpatrick’s staff in Asheville, they have taken the program to new heights and set a new standard. That includes going from winning nine games in 2014-15 to winning 62 games in just three campaigns while capturing back-to-back Big South Conference Tournament crowns, two NCAA Tournament berths, three consecutive postseason berths and one Big South Conference regular-season title.
During Brown’s six years in Asheville, nine Bulldogs earned All-Big South Conference honorees, including 2015-16 league Player of the Year Chatori Major. Additionally, six players earned Big South Championship All-Tournament honors with Major and Sonora Dengokl being named Most Valuable Player in 2016 and 2017.
In the 2017-18 season, UNC Asheville women’s basketball raced through Big South Conference play, which was highlighted by handing Liberty its first league loss of the year. The Bulldogs’ season was capped off by playing in their third straight postseason tournament. UNC Asheville hosted Furman in the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI), which was the first time the program has hosted a postseason tournament.
Also during the 2017-18 season, Bronaza Fitzgerald broke the UNC Asheville Division I record for single-season rebounds with 319. Khaila Webb also etched her name into the record book, as she finished her career with 1,109 points (13th-most all-time), and Jessica Wall also broke the program record for the most made three-pointers in a season (90).
While the 2016-17 campaign proved special, it also brought about its own unique challenges. The Bulldogs finished the year with a 19-15 record that included an impressive finish and UNC Asheville’s second-straight Big South Conference Championship crown and NCAA Tournament berth. The 19-15 record marked just the seventh time in program history that UNC Asheville women’s basketball finished with a positive record.
Tabbed as the league’s preseason favorite to claim the regular-season crown, the Bulldogs started the season well enough, winning four of their first five games. As the calendar turned to conference play, the Bulldogs lost key players to injury, forcing the staff to make changes to personnel and game strategies while asking players to expand their rolls. Despite going 9-9 in Big South play during the regular season, the changes and growth paid off in spades as the Bulldogs closed out the 2016-17 campaign winning eight of their last 10 games. Included in that stretch were two wins to wrap up the regular season and then four wins in four days to claim the Big South Conference Championship title. It was the first time in league history that a team had won four games over four days to take home the title.
During the Big South Conference Championships stretch, the seventh-seeded Bulldogs won their first-round game over No. 10 seed Longwood and turned around the next day to knock of second-seeded Campbell in the quarterfinal round. During the semifinal round, Asheville defeated sixth-seeded Presbyterian and the Bulldogs then wrapped up the incredible stretch by toppling top-seeded Radford in the championship game, earning the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season. In doing so, the Bulldogs became the first seven-seed to ever win the Big South Women’s Basketball Championships. Major and Dengokl were both recognized following the tournament with All-Tournament honors and Dengokl was awarded the program’s second-straight MVP award.
UNC Asheville closed out the season as the 16-seed in the Stockton (Ca.) Regional of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Bulldogs played top-seeded South Carolina in the first round of the tournament and despite a strong start, ultimately bowed out.
Major and fellow senior KJ Weaver were both named to the Big South All-Conference teams with Major picking up her second-straight first-team honor. Major became just the fourth UNC Asheville women’s basketball player to earn multiple Big South first-team plaudits. Major was also named to the conference’s All-Academic Team.
During the season several players permanently etched their names in the UNC Asheville record book. Senior guards Tianna Knuckles and Chatori Major became the 105th and 106th women’s basketball players in conference history to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark. Knuckles ended her playing career with 1,129 career points, the 10th-most all-time in program history and sixth-most in Asheville’s NCAA Division I era. Major ended her career with 1,116 career points, the 12th-most by a Bulldog all-time and eighth-most in the Division I era. As a junior during the 2015-16 season, Knuckles set the school record for most three-pointers in a single season with 73. It was a mark that had stood for over 25 years. During the 2016-17 campaign, Major then broke the record and set a new standard with 78 three-pointers.
The 2015-16 season saw the Bulldogs post the biggest turnaround season in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, finishing the year with an overall record of 26-7 following a 9-22 season the year before.
Asheville hosted many decorated Bulldogs as a part of the 2015-16 campaign that paved the way to Asheville’s success on and off the court. Chatori Major earned Big South Conference Player of the Year and Conference Tournament MVP honors, along with teammate Tianna Knuckles, who received Big South Second Team All-Conference honors as well as being named an All-Tournament team selection. Paige Love earned Big South All-Academic team honors and was recognized as the first student-athlete to receive the University’s William and Ida Friday Award for Service to Community.
The 2015-16 season was a record-breaking year for the Bulldogs in many ways. After being picked to finish eighth of ten teams in the league’s preseason poll, they began the year by matching the best start in school history (9-1) on their way to program-high regular season wins (26) and conference wins (16). Brown also helped lead the Bulldogs to the program’s first ever Big South Conference Regular Season Title, a Big South Conference Tournament Championship and an NCAA first round appearance.
In 2014-15, the Bulldogs finished 9-22 but saw 10 of those losses come by a single-digit margin, including six coming by just three points or less.
In 2013-2014 the Bulldogs finished with 11 wins, the most for the program in four seasons. Asheville had landmark non-conference victories over Furman and Eastern Kentucky. In addition, the Bulldogs downed Liberty, giving the Blue & White its first home win over the Lady Flames in 17 years. Asheville earned a 43-42 win over Radford in the first round of the Big South Conference Tournament. The win was the Bulldogs first tournament win in seven years.
Highlights || Women's Basketball || #9 UNC Asheville vs #1 High Point (Big South Tournament)
Thursday, March 14
Highlights || Women's Basketball || #9 UNC Asheville vs #8 Gardner-Webb (Big South Tournament)
Thursday, March 14
Highlights || Women's Basketball || UNC Asheville vs Radford
Monday, March 04
Highlights || Women's Basketball || UNC Asheville at Gardner-Webb
Monday, February 26
