Sytia (sit-TEE-uh) Messer enters her fourth season as head coach for the Knights. In just her second year she helped lead the Knights to a record breaking 8-0 start during the 2023-24 season. In her first season at the helm, Messer led UCF to its second-best start, 6-0, since the record 7-0 start during the 1984-85 season.
Messer a 24-year coaching veteran who won a national title and made five other NCAA Elite Eight and 11 overall NCAA Championship appearances as an assistant coach, was named the 13th head women’s basketball coach in UCF history on April 3, 2022.
As a head coach, Messer helped lead the Knights in their inaugural season in the Big 12 conference and landed an All-Big 12 Second Team pick with Big 12 leading scorer, Kaitlin Peterson.
Messer came to UCF after serving as associate head coach at LSU for the 2021-22 season under 2022 Associated Press National Coach of the Year and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey.
As an assistant coach on Mulkey’s staff at Baylor from 2013-14 through 2020-21, Messer helped lead the Bears to a combined record of 260-23 (.918) in eight seasons, winning eight Big 12 Conference regular-season championships, six conference tournament titles, an NCAA title in 2019 and making six NCAA Elite Eight appearances.
With Messer’s help, Baylor won 32 or more games in each of her first six seasons with the Bears—the last of those a 37-1 record in the 2019 NCAA title campaign. In those six years Baylor finished sixth or higher in the final AP poll every season—including first in 2019 and second in 2018. Messer’s eight seasons at Baylor included 23 NCAA Championship victories and at least a tie for the Big 12 regular-season title every year.
During her time at Baylor, Messer oversaw scouting and recruiting, helping the Lady Bears sign the nation’s top recruiting class in both 2016 and 2018 as well as the second-ranked class in 2015. She helped recruit 15 top 50 players and 14 McDonald’s All-Americans. The Lady Bears had nine players selected in the WNBA Draft during that span, including Odyssey Sims, the second overall pick in 2014, and Alexis Jones, the 12th overall selection in 2017.
In addition, Messer recruited Kalani Brown, a first-round (seventh overall) draft pick of the Los Angeles Sparks in 2019, and Lauren Cox, the nation’s top-rated recruit out of Flower Mound High School in Texas and the third overall draft pick by the Indiana Fever in the 2020 WNBA Draft. She also helped develop Didi Richards, the 2020 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year at Baylor, as well as 2022 first-team All-SEC honoree Khayla Pointer at LSU.
In eight years at Baylor, Messer coached Sims (the 2014 Big 12 Player of the Year) and had seven guards named first-team All-Big 12 Conference. She also recruited and signed 2021 Wade Trophy winner and Big 12 Player of the Year NaLyssa Smith. Baylor in Messer’s tenure there produced eight selections on one of the three Associated Press All-America teams—including first-team picks Sims (2014), Nina Davis (2014), Cox (2020) and Smith (2021). Smith claimed first-team honors again in 2022.
After joining the Baylor staff is 2013, Messer’s teams over the next nine years produced 73 All-Big 12 selections, 20 All-America honorees, five Big 12 Players of the Year, 26 Academic All-Big 12 selections and two All-SEC performers.
A head coach for three seasons at Tennessee Tech from 2009-10 to 2011-12, Messer led the Golden Eagles to the 2011 Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship, two postseason appearances (WNIT in 2011, WBI in 2012), back-to-back appearances in the OVC tournament title game--and she was named the 2011 OVC Coach of the Year. Her three-year mark of 54-41 (.568) featured a 23-8 record in 2010-11, a three-year 34-18 OVC mark and 30-12 home record.
Messer got her start in coaching as an assistant coach for two years at Arkansas State in 2000-01 and 2001-02. Other coaching stops for Messer include assistant coaching positions at Memphis (2002-03 and 2003-04) and Georgia Tech twice (2004-05 through 2008-09; 2012-13).
In her second season at Memphis, Messer helped the Tigers to a 21-10 mark and a second-round WNIT appearance. She played a key role on Georgia Tech teams that three straight years won at least 21 games and advanced to NCAA Championships in 2007-08-09.
The Waldo, Arkansas, native was a standout women’s basketball student-athlete at Arkansas, where she helped the Razorbacks reach the NCAA Final Four for the first time in school history in 1998.
Messer finished her 1995-99 career with the Razorbacks ranked in the school’s top 10 for points (1,379) and rebounds (603). She was a two-time captain for Arkansas as a junior and senior and was named to the SEC All-Freshman team in 1996. Messer’s top individual season came when she averaged 12.6 points per game in 1997-98.
She was named the 1998 NCAA Championship West Regional MVP after helping Arkansas to a berth in the Final Four—thanks to regional wins over Kansas (led by Messer’s 24 points) and Duke. Arkansas, seeded ninth in the NCAA bracket that year, became the first unranked team in the the modern era to advance to the Final Four.
Messer also helped Arkansas to the 1999 WNIT championship. She’s a member of the Razorbacks Hall of Honor (inducted in 2018) and was part of the 2012 Class of SEC greats.
Messer played in the summer prior to graduation for the collegiate squad of Athletes in Action. She also played for the post-collegian Athletes in Action touring team.
She is a 2000 graduate of Arkansas, with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology.
She has been an honorary chair of Habitat for Humanity--and she also was a 2012 graduate of the Center for Coaching Excellence.