Erik DeRoo - Associate Coach - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Erik DeRoo

Title:
Associate Coach

After serving as the Lady Raiders' Director of Player Development in his first two seasons, Erik DeRoo was promoted to an assistant coach and will assist with the Lady Raiders recruiting operations during the 2023-24 season. He will begin his fifth season with the Lady Raiders in 2025-26.

In the 2024-25 season, DeRoo 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. DeRoo 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, DeRoo 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, DeRoo 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, DeRoo 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, DeRoohelped 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).

Last summer, DeRoo helped Gerlich and the Lady Raider program sign one of the strongest transfer recruiting classes in the Big 12 that included former five-star Jordyn Merritt, First Team All-CUSA selection Jazion Jackson as well as CUSA Defensive Player of the Year Elina Arike.

Entering year three at Texas Tech, DeRoo arrived at Tech after spending five season as an assistant coach and creative recruiting coordinator for the Abilene Christian University women’s basketball program.

As part of his original role, DeRoo assisted and helped the Lady Raider’s social media platforms gain the most followers of all Big 12 programs, while also leading the conference in followers on TikTok.

DeRoo has also added a presence within the program from a Sport Psychology element as he has created a year-long plan that addresses team building, mental health and personal development for the entire program.

During his time at ACU, the Wildcats won the 2016-17 Southland Regular-Season championship before advancing to the second round of the WNIT, after a victory over Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State. He was also a part of the 2019 Southland Conference Tournament championship, which led ACU to their first-ever DI NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. At the conclusion of the 2019-20 campaign, he was named to the WBCA 30 Under 30 list and was also a finalist for the 2019-20 DI Assistant Coach of the Year.

DeRoo’s responsibilities at ACU included point guard development, where he oversaw the development of the 2019 Southland Tournament MVP and 2019-20 Southland Conference Player of the Year, Brea Wright. He also led all junior college recruiting efforts, where he signed the first two NJCAA All-Americans in ACU’s DI history. Other responsibilities included traditional high school recruiting, scouting reports, creating all recruiting mail-outs and directed the male scout team players. Most importantly for his new role at Texas Tech, he oversaw all elements of ACU women’s basketball social media efforts including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. He helped grow the program’s brand from the 12^th-most-followed program in the Southland to the most-followed on Twitter alone by a significant margin. He also has demonstrated the ability to build a personal brand as he currently has over 69,000 followers on TikTok, which makes him one of the most-followed coaches in women’s basketball on the platform.

Prior to his time at ACU, DeRoo spent two seasons as a graduate assistant for the Fresno State women’s basketball team. The Bulldogs advanced to the 2nd Round of the WNIT during his two seasons in Fresno and posted consecutive top-three showings within the Mountain West standings. Fresno State was 23-10 overall and placed third in its league in 2014-15 and went on to finish second in the Mountain West in 2015-16 with a 22-12 overall record and a 15-3 mark in conference play.

DeRoo played collegiate basketball at the University of Texas at Tyler and then McPherson College (KS), which is where he received his bachelor's degree in health and physical education in 2014. He also earned his master's in Kinesiology with an emphasis in sport psychology in 2016 from Fresno State.

He and his wife, Kim, were married during the summer of 2017, and have one daughter, Tatum, who was born in April 2019.