Both Jason Hooten and Jody Adams have brought on some help this offseason.
New Mexico State’s men’s and women’s basketball coaches have hired a combined three new assistant coaches. Hooten needed a new assistant after Payne Andrus left for Stephen F. Austin to join coach Matt Braeuer’s staff, while Adams’ staff will have a net addition of one after two assistants were hired to replace departing assistant coach TaQuandra Mike.
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Both of the Aggies’ basketball teams went 10-8 in Conference USA play last season before being eliminated in the CUSA Tournament quarterfinals. NM State’s men’s team finished 17-15 and its women’s team finished 18-16 with a second-round appearance in the WNIT.
Here are more details on the Aggies’ new assistant basketball coaches:
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Nick Matson, Men’s Basketball
NM State officially announced Matson’s hiring on May 5. He spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Texas under former Longhorns coach and Hooten’s longtime friend, Rodney Terry, before Terry was let go after the end of last season.
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Matson was on staff at Texas from 2023-25 seasons, during which UT made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. The 2023-24 Longhorns were one of 11 teams to rank in the top 31 in KenPom in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency that season.
Before Texas, Matson was an assistant at East Carolina in the 2022-23 season and at UTEP from 2018-21. Matson held assistant coach and defensive coordinator titles with the Pirates and helped ECU win 16 games in his lone season with the program, its highest win total since the 2013-14 season. The Pirates also won six conference games, the most they had since joining the American Athletic Conference in the 2014-15 season.
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With the Miners, Matson helped recruit and coach All-CUSA players like Bryson Williams, Souley Boum and Efe Odigie.
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Matson also spent seven seasons at Fresno State from 2011-18, earning an assistant coaching role ahead of the 2017-18 season. He served in roles as a graduate assistant and Director of Basketball Operations for the Bulldogs in the prior six seasons, helping FSU reach the 2017 NIT finals of the 2014 College Basketball Invitational. The Bulldogs also won the 2016 Mountain West Conference Tournament to reach that year’s NCAA Tournament.
Matson also gained coaching experience as an intern at Stanford (2009-10) and a graduate assistant at Murray State (2010-11).
Kayla Tucker, Women’s Basketball
Tucker was announced as an Aggies assistant coach on May 5, having spent the last three seasons in the same role for Division II Southern Nazarene in Oklahoma from 2022-25.
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The Storm won three consecutive Great American Conference regular season championships and the 2023 GAC Tournament title during Tucker’s tenure, which also included three consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament. SNU reached the Central Region finals during the 2024 NCAA D-II Tournament.
Tucker helped Storm players receive eight total All-GAC selections. SNU forward Hannah Giddey won three straight GAC Defensive Player of the Year honors and the 2025 GAC Player of the Year under Tucker’s watch.
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Tucker was an assistant coach at Ouachita Baptist, an Arkansas Division II program, in the 2021-22 season and was a graduate assistant at Texas Tech during the 2020-21 season.
Myron Brown, Women’s Basketball
NM State announced Brown’s hiring on June 2 after serving as Oakland’s Director of Player Development for the past two seasons.
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Brown was last an assistant coach at North Florida during the 2022-23 season. His biography on the Aggies’ athletics website says he contributed to “game planning, skill development, and recruiting efforts” for the Ospreys.
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Brown also brings head coaching experience to Adams’ staff after leading Georgia NAIA program Thomas for five seasons from 2017-22. The Nighthawks went 26-90 under Brown, with NM State writing that he “built a competitive and disciplined program,” and that he contributed to “offensive and defensive game planning, recruiting strategy and player development.”
In addition to the arrivals of Brown and Tucker, fellow Aggies women’s basketball assistant coach Preston Planells will enter his first full season in the role after being promoted to it during the 2024-25 season on Jan. 7. Planells was previously a graduate assistant for NM State in the prior seven months.
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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico State basketball: Meet the incoming assistant coaches
