When you step onto the Tarleton State campus, one of the first things you notice is construction. A new health center. New dormitories. New and renovated athletic facilities. The brand new 8,000-seat EECU Center for men’s and women’s basketball games is set to hold a grand opening celebration later this month.
The new buildings and facilities exemplify the construction that’s happening with the Texans’ women’s basketball program.
Just five years into its Division I history, the team is soaring to new heights in just two seasons with head coach Bill Brock.
“It’s always pretty cool and feels good when you have a little bit of success,” Brock said. “I’m very thankful to be here. The trajectory of this program, the athletic program and the academic part of Tarleton State is going straight up. It’s always nice to be on the beginning of something. I want to help build this foundation.”
He inherited a team that won just two conference games and eight total contests in 2023. Tarleton won 11 total games and improved its conference mark to 7-13 in 2024. The Texans won three of their final four regular-season games and carried that momentum into the postseason. As the No. 7 seed in the WAC tournament, they defeated Abilene Christian for their first conference tourney win in Division I.
“That first year we kind of hit a lot of adversity,” Tarleton guard Jakoriah Long said. “It was a lot going on through the program, trying to find our footing. I think we did that pretty well. We couldn’t have done it without Coach Brock and his patience. … One of the biggest things that first year was believing in who was leading and buying into him and his coaching and everything that he’s been through as a coach. We actually proved a lot people wrong that year. That was something that we said all the time: prove them wrong. I think we’re still doing it.”
Year two saw even more improvement. The Texans reached the 20-win plateau with a 20-14 overall record. They finished above .500 in the conference for the first time at the DI level with a 10-6 mark. Tarleton State came in second in the WAC and received an automatic bid to the WNIT.
“It has been an exciting two years most definitely,” Brock said. “The thing is that when I came in here, I just wanted to try to make the program relevant in the league, and I just wanted to try to make sure that at least you had to do a scouting report on Tarleton if you were going to play against us. I had some kids have who brought in pretty quick.”
It wasn’t hard for the players to buy into Brock’s philosophies. Over the course of his 41-year coaching career, he has been a part of more than 1,000 wins. He won three national championships as an assistant at Baylor.
The Durant, Okla., native’s coaching career began at his alma mater Durant High School. From there, he became an assistant at Division-II East Central. He received his first college head coaching opportunity at Grayson College, a junior college in Texas, where he spent 13 seasons and won national coach of year honors in 1996. He is in the school’s hall of fame and has the court named for him.
An opportunity at Division-I level came calling. It was Kim Mulkey on the other end. So, off he went to Baylor. During two different stints with the Bears, he won three national titles and went to four Final Fours. He left for three seasons in the middle of that run to be associate head coach at Texas Tech.
“He’s kind of our cheat code to a championship,” Long said. “You have somebody who’s been there. You have somebody who knows what it takes, and you couldn’t ask for anyone else to lead a team to a championship … He’s been there. He knows what that feels like.”
Long grew up in Waco and attended camps run by Mulkey and Brock. She looked up to the two of them and is now making the most of playing for Brock. The guard received All-WAC Second Team honors last season and led the Texans in scoring during conference play (13.3 points per game).
When Mulkey left Baylor for LSU in 2021, Brock was left with a decision: continue his partnership with the hall-of-famer or remain in Texas. His family (wife, children and grandchildren) kept his heart in the Lone Star State.
Brock became a head coach for the first time in more than 20 years as he assumed the head coaching position at McLennan Community College right in Waco. He guided the team to a 28-5 record and its first berth in the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championships since 1984 in his lone season there. He then moved 80 miles northwest to Stephenville and became a DI head coach for the first time at Tarleton.
For Brock, all the successes he has had are only as special as the people with whom he shares them.
“If you are successful in this business and then when you eventually, if you get to what they call the top, if you don’t have someone to share that experience with, it’s a lost feeling,” he said. “I’ve always had the experience of sharing [the championship feeling] with my family, and that means a lot to me.”
Could the next championship feeling come in 2026 with Tarleton State?
