University of California - Riverside Women's Basketball

Brad Langston enters his sixth season on staff in 2025-26 and third as head coach after leading UC Riverside to a 12-game turnaround in his first year - the best in program history - and its first postseason appearance since 2015-16.  The Highlanders have earned four All-Big West honors with Langston on the sidelines, most recently finishing third in Big West play last season after being picked 10th.  In his first year at UCR, Langston helped Jordan Webster earn the program's second Big West All-Freshman honor in three years. He also helped Keilanei Cooper earn UCR's 14th all-conference selection since 2014-15. Langston helped guide Webster to a second All-Big West honor in 2022-23.  In the 2024-25 season, Langston saw Shelley Duchemin earn Second Team All-Big West Honors, Makayla Rose earn conference defensive player of the year and Hannah Wickstrom selected to the conference all freshman team. Prior to UCR, Langston and former Highlander assistant Taylor High helped guide six student-athletes to All-WAC team honors at Grand Canyon, including a WAC Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Prior to coaching under Nicole Powell at GCU, Langston coached in the Big West at Hawai'i, where he worked on player development, scouting and both offensive and defensive strategies. At Hawai'i, the team maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.42 while Langston developed a First Team All-Big West student-athlete and landed another on the Big West All-Freshman Team. Prior to Hawai'i, Langston coached five seasons at West Campus High School in Sacramento, where the Warriors won five consecutive league titles and reached the state tournament three times. He is the founder of the Evolution Skills Academy and helped develop two student-athletes ranked on the ESPNW Top 100 prospects list.  

Natasha Smith enters her second year on staff for the Highlanders in 2025-26 and her first as Associate Head Coach. She comes to UC Riverside with an extensive coaching history, most recently as the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at San Francisco State University. Smith led the San Francisco State program for six seasons and worked to rebuild a program that had only two winning seasons in 33 seasons prior to her arrival. During her tenure, she guided the program to the post season for the first time in over a decade and developed 10 CCAA All-Conference players. Prior taking over at San Francisco State, Smith spent two years as the Top Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at the University of San Francisco, assisting the program to consecutive winning seasons in 2016-17 and 2017-18. In 2015-16, Smith was an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Oregon University where the program accomplished a historic season. That season, Southern Oregon won the most single-season (33) games in program history en route to the Cascade Conference Regular Season Championship, Cascade Conference Tournament Championship, and NAIA Division II Tournament National Runner-Up finish. From 2013 to 2015, Smith was an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach under Molly Goodenbour, who she also coached under at San Francisco, at Cal State-Dominguez Hills. Smith helped lead the program to one CCAA Regular Season Championship, as well as consecutive CCAA Tournament Championships and NCAA Tournament berths. Smith began her coaching career at her alma mater Chico State where she served as an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach for the 2012-13 season, assisting the program to the CCAA Tournament Championship and an NCAA Tournament berth. A 2013 graduate of Chico State, Smith was a four-year standout on the basketball team and ended her career as the school's all-time leader in games played and helped lead the program to three NCAA Tournament berths. She also ranked seventh all-time in career points, fourth in career assists, fifth in career steals, and fifth in free throws made. A native of Sacramento, Calif., Smith attended Sheldon High School where she was a two-time All-Delta League selection.

Jewelyn Huth enters her third year on staff in 2025-26.  In her first year with UC Riverside, Huth helped lead the Highlanders to their best single-season turnaround in program history and second best in the Big West in 10 years, as well as their first postseason appearance since 2016-17.  Huth comes to UCR from Washington, where she served as the program's video coordinator.  The Paramount, Calif., native was a two-time Big West Defensive Player of the Year, two-time All-Big West Honorable Mention and two-time Big West Player of the Week at Long Beach State. 

Najé Murray enters her second season as an assistant coach for the UC Riverside women’s basketball team during the 2025-26 season. Murray comes to the Highlanders from San Diego State where she was an assistant coach focusing on on-court player development, scouting and recruiting.  Last season, she helped guide the Aztecs to a 23-11 record and their first appearance in the Mountain West Championship Game since 2013. Along the way she had two players selected to the First Team All-Mountain West. She began her playing career for the Aztecs and set the single season record for most three-pointers (81) and was named to the All Mountain West Freshman Team. Murray moved on to Texas Tech and while playing for the Red Raiders she set a single game record hitting eight threes.  After graduating from Texas Tech, Murray attended Syracuse to earn her Master’s and finish her playing career. While competing for the Orange, she was named team captain, started every game and scored her 1,000 career point in December of 2021. Additionally, Murray was named to the All ACC Academic Team and the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. She played professionally overseas in Luxembourg for Amicale Steesel in the LBBL League where she averaged 14 ppg.  Murray attended Saint Mary’s High School in Stockton, Calif., where she was the 30th ranked guard in the state and was a 1,000 point scorer. She started all four years for the Rams and won the CIF Open Division state championship during her tenure. Named team captain her senior year, Murray was also selected to three Cal-Hi Sports Teams during her high school career.  Her younger brother, Nick, played football at the University of San Diego. 

Lorenzo Griffin enters his first year on staff at UC Riverside in the 2025-26 season. Prior to UC Riverside he spent two seasons as an assistant coach for Cal Poly Pomona’s women’s basketball team. Griffin was instrumental in the Broncos' sustained success, helping lead the team to an impressive 45-16 record (.738 winning percentage) over the past two seasons (2023-2025). Under his guidance, Cal Poly Pomona earned NCAA Tournament berths in each of his seasons on staff, continuing the program's tradition of excellence.   Some of Griffin's responsibilities at Cal Poly included: skill development, scouting, academic meetings, Co-Director of the Cal Poly Pomona Women's Basketball Elite Camp and social media. Furthermore during Griffin’s time at Cal Poly Pomona the team had a CCAA Freshman of the Year award winner (2023-2024) and multiple first and second team all-conference nominations (2023-2025).   Prior to Cal Poly Pomona Griffin was at University of La Verne, where he was a graduate assistant on head coach Richard Reed’s men’s staff for 2021-23 seasons. The Leopards are members of the NCAA Division III and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).   Griffin’s responsibilities at La Verne included individual skill development, recruiting, scouting reports, film editing, fundraising, coordination of pregame on-court workouts, travel, camps, and the team’s social media, among others. Apart from his coaching duties with the Leopards, Griffin completed his Master of Science in Leadership and Management (MSLM) in December of 2022 from University of La Verne, with a concentration in organizational development.   He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Marketing from Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa, in May of 2010. Griffin averaged 8.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game as a senior for the Warriors while shooting 90 percent from the free throw line, second nationally in the NAIA Division II.   Nine years prior to his arrival at La Verne, Griffin was a professional player and youth coach in Germany, taking the court for TSV Wasserburg (2012-19) and TV Traunstein Chiemgau Baskets (2019-21). He averaged 23.4 points, 6.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game during his time in Germany, with his 3,851 points a club record for TSV Wasserburg in the Bayernliga. A two-time Bayernliga/Oberliga All-Star in 2018 and 2019, Griffin won five Bayernliga South Division scoring titles (2014-19). He played across Europe in showcase events in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Moldova and Romania.   In 2015 Lorenzo, with the help of Kenan Biberovic and Chris Sardgon, co-founded PLSA (ProLife Sports Academy). PLSA is a basketball skills development organization that has hosted camps and clinics along with individual and group skill session workouts in Germany and Poland.   While abroad, Griffin’s coaching experience involved boy’s and girl’s teams ranging between the ages of eight and 20. His squads won multiple league championships at various age levels from 2013-19.   Born to parents Wanda and Lorenzo Griffin, “Coach Zo” is a Riverside product and 2005 graduate of Riverside Poly High School. He enjoys spending time with family and traveling. Griffin is married to his wife Destinee Griffin and has two boys Makaio (7 years old) and Lorenzo Griffin III (4 months old).