Florida A&M

Update: June 2024

Florida A&M's Vice President & Director of Athletics Tiffani-Dawn Sykes named Bridgette Gordon as the women's basketball head coach, announced Friday, July 28, 2023. Former Lady Vols legend and 2007 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee Gordon becomes the eighth women's basketball head coach in Florida A&M history.

In Gordon’s first season with the Rattlers, she led the team to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Tournament for the first time in program history after finishing the season with a 9-21, 8-10 record. Gordon also coached starting point guard Ahriahna Grizzle, who was named the SWAC Player of the Year and was on the All-SWAC First Team after averaging 18.4 points per game and 2.97 assists per game. Coach Gordon won her first game, 59-54, versus Jacksonville on November 25, 2023.
 
Gordon has built quite the basketball resume throughout her illustrious career as a player and coach. She attended the University of Tennessee from 1985-89, where she played under the late great Pat Summitt. During that span, Gordon went to four consecutive Final Fours, won two national championships (1987, 1989), a Final Four MVP (1989), SEC Female Athlete of the Year and SEC Player of the Year (1989), Four Time All-SEC First Team selection, 1986 SEC Freshman of the Year, two SEC Tournament MVP's (1988, 1989), two-time Kodak and Naismith All-American, she won a gold medal for Team USA at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. She was eventually named to the NCAA 25th anniversary Team and Team of the Decade in the 1980s.
 
After wrapping up her career at Tennessee, Gordon played professional ball in the Italian and Turkish leagues overseas, where she won two FIBA European Cups (1994, 1995). She also played in the WNBA for the Sacramento Monarchs from 1997-98 before ending her playing career in 2000. In 2001, Gordon was rightfully inducted into the University of Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame and later into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2007) and State of Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (2012).
 
Gordan began her coaching career in 2004, where she spent two years as an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, before leaving to become a WNBA regional scout in 2006.
 
In 2007, Gordon returned to coaching Division I when she accepted a position at Georgia State to work under then-head coach Robert Murphy. She spent the next three seasons as an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator for the Panthers before leaving in 2010 to work at Wichita State, where she would work under fellow former Lady Vol, Jody Adams.
 
Together, the pair would completely transform the Shocker program, leading them to unprecedented success in their seven years together. From 2010-17, the Shockers posted a 139-88 overall record, leading to five straight postseason appearances from 2010-15, which included three-straight MVC regular season and tournament titles from 2013-15, resulting in three NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
Adams and Gordon produced nine First Team All-MVC honorees, including 2015 MVC Player of the Year Alex Harden, who eventually went on to get drafted to the WNBA when the Phoenix Mercury selected her in the second round of the 2015 WNBA Draft. 
 
After her time in Wichita was concluded, Gordon went on to coach at her alma mater Tennessee as an assistant under head coach Holly Warlick, where she helped the Volunteers to two NCAA Tournament appearances (2018, 2019) in her two years with the program.
 
In 2019, she left Tennessee to become an assistant at SMU, where she worked for one season before her second season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Gordon spent the 2021-22 season at Kansas State, where she helped the team to a 20-13 overall record, leading them to their first NCAA Tournament victory since 2016, when they beat Washington State in the first round.
 
After one season in Manhattan, Gordon went on to coach at Cincinnati, where she was an assistant for the 2022-23 season.
 
Gordon had a short stint at New Mexico State on Jody Adams' staff, joining the team in June 2023.

GORDON'S COACHING CAREER
• Florida A&M | 2023-Present | Head Coach
• New Mexico State | 2023 | Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator 
• Cincinnati | 2022-23 | Assistant Coach
• Kansas State | 2021-22 | Director of Recruiting Operations
• SMU | 2019-21 | Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
• Tennessee | 2017-19 | Assistant Coach
• Wichita State | 2010-17 | Assistant Coach
• Georgia State | 2007-10 | Assistant Coach
• WNBA | 2006-07 | Regional Scout
• Stetson | 2004-06 | Assistant Coach
 
GORDON'S PLAYING CAREER
• Tennessee | 1985-89
• USWNT | 1988 Olympics
• Sacramento Monarchs | 1997-98
• Italian & Turkish Professional Leagues | 1989-2000
 
GORDON'S TROPHY CASE
• Seven NCAA Tournament Appearances as a coach (Wichita State (3), Tennessee (2), Stetson (1), Kansas State (1))
• Coached six players to the WNBA (Alex Harden, Jamie Nard, Mercedes Russell, Rennia Davis, Evina Westbrook, Rae Burrell)
• 2012 Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame inductee
• 2007 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee
• 2002 DeLand (Fla.) High School Hall of Fame inductee
• 2001 UT Athletics Hall of Fame inductee
• 1988 US Olympic gold medalist
• Two-time Kodak and Naismith All-American
• Two-time NCAA champion (Tennessee, 1987 & 1989) 
• Four Consecutive NCAA Final Four appearances
• Four-time All-SEC First Team selection
• 1989 NCAA Final Four MVP, SEC Female Athlete of the Year, and SEC Player of the Year
• 1986 SEC Freshman of the Year
• Two-time SEC Tournament MVP (1988 & 1989)
• Named to NCAA 25th Anniversary Team and Team of the Decade (1980s)