Ashley Odom - Women's Basketball Coach

Ashley Odom

Title:
Assistant Coach & Recruiting Coordinator
Email:
al.crawford@ttu.edu

Ashley Crawford-Odom coached her fifth season on staff at Texas Tech in 2024-25, after being elevated to the position of associate coach.

Crawford-Odom arrived at Tech following seven seasons with Krista Gerlich at UT Arlington. Heavily involved in the recruiting process at Texas Tech, she is responsible for all aspects of recruiting within the Lady Raider program, including organizing visits and knowing and meeting with top players locally and nationally.

In the 2024-25 season, Crawford-Odom 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. Crawford-Odom 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, Crawford-Odom 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, Crawford-Odom's fourth year on staff with the Lady Raiders, she 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, Crawford-Odom 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. This year, Odom helped sign four-star recruit, Kalysta Martin, as well as added six top transfers from the portal in Denae Fritz (Baylor), Jalynn Bristow (Iowa State), Ivana Krajina (Odessa), Adlee Blacklock (Oregon State), Sara Sanogo (Odessa) and Maya Peat (UAPB).

In 2022-23, Crawford-Odom helped the Lady Raiders sign a four-star prospect for the second consecutive season (Loghan Johnson, No. 89 2023 ESPNW Top-100 prospects) and helped retool the 2023-24 roster that was bolstered by the additions of former five-star prospect Jordyn Merritt (Florida) and 2022-23 CUSA Defensive Player of the Year Elina Arike (UTEP).

Johnson’s addition comes after Crawford-Odom helped sign West Texas product and consensus top-60 recruit Bailey Maupin and former JUCO All-American JoJo Nworie. A native of Gruver, Maupin was tabbed the No. 54 prospect in the 2022 class, while Nworie signed with the Lady Raiders after being tabbed the No. 1 Junior College women's basketball prospect.

During her time at UTA, the Lady Mavericks were named the top recruiting class in the conference for the 2013-14 season by Dan Olsen Collegiate Girls Basketball Report (54th in Division I).

Crawford-Odom was integral part of helping the Lady Raiders take the next step in 2022-23, as the coach helped lead Tech to the programs first 20-win season and postseason appearance since the 2012-13 season.

During the 2022-23 season, she played a key role in helping mentor First Team All-Big 12 selection Bre’Amber Scott as well Big 12 All-Freshman team selection Bailey Maupin. Scott was named a Big 12 Player of the Week selection while Maupin and classmate Jasmine Shavers combined to win four Big 12 Freshman of the Week honors.

The 2022-23 season was another key season for Tech, as nearly doubled its win total from the previous season (11-to-20), defeated four NCAA Tournament participants including rival Texas for the third straight season, recorded nearly five more points per game and shot over two percent better from the field. The Lady Raiders finished inside the top-15 in the country in free throws made per game (15.5) and were 33rd in the country in free throws attempted per game (20.5).

Tech’s success in 2022-23 came off the backs of a strong 2021-22 campaign that featured three top-25 wins including the programs first win in Austin since the 2012-13 season and the first top-10 victory since the 2010-11 season.

With the help of Crawford-Odom, Tech guard/forward Vivian Gray cemented her legacy during the 2021-22 season, as the Texan became just the fourth player in the history of the Big 12 Conference to earn four First Team all-conference selections.

Crawford-Odom was key to the Lady Raiders’ success in 2020-21, teaming up with Krista Gerlich to help guide Texas Tech to the most conference wins under a first-year Texas Tech head coach in 14 years, while also helping coach Tech to its highest conference finish under a first-year head coach in the Big 12 era. The season was also highlighted by the program’s first win over in-state rival Texas in eight years, and two Big 12 overtime wins for the first time in program history.

Prior to arriving at Tech, Crawford-Odom helped the Lady Mavs wrap-up the 2019-20 season with a 21-11 overall record (14-4 SBC). 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.

Crawford-Odom 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).

Helping the Lady Mavericks reach the Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals for the first time in 2017 and earning a berth in the Women’s NIT (their first postseason appearance since 2009), Crawford-Odom was named the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches DI Assistant Coach of the Year in 2017.
Among the successful players Crawford-Odom coached during her time at UTA was Cierra Johnson, who was named Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 and Sun Belt Co-
Player of the Year in 2019. Johnson finished her career at UTA with 318 steals, which still ranks first in program history.

Prior to UTA, she was a coach at Lamar under former Texas Tech assistant coach Larry Tidwell, where she helped develop some of the top guards in the Southland Conference. She helped her players rack up five all-conference selections and two conference and conference tournament MVP’s. Among those guards was Kalis Loyd, who became the all time leading scorer at Lamar, was top three in all time rebounding and steals and top 10 in assists. Crawford-Odom played an important role on the 2009-2010 Lamar squad that posted a 26-8 record en route to winning the Southland Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Before coaching, the Mesquite native played for the Lady Cardinals where she overcame a serious knee injury to post two solid seasons. In her final campaign, she started 26 of Lamar’s 34 games, averaging 6.3 points per game while often accepting the role of shutting down the opposition’s top scorer.

In the classroom, Crawford-Odom earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and completed her master’s degree in kinesiology in 2010. She posted a perfect 4.0 GPA in her master’s program during her final season on the court, earning her first-team District 6 All-Academic honors.

Crawford-Odom attended Horn High School, where she earned all-region honors as a senior. She averaged seven points per game at Trinity Valley Community College, where she set the school single-game assist record with 19. She attended UT Arlington for one season before transferring to Lamar.

Prior to her college days, Crawford-Odom was a member of one of the top summer basketball programs in the nation. As a member of the DFW Elite, she was starting back court on the founding team.

Crawford-Odom and her husband Derek have one daughter, Aariel.