Matt Houser is entering his sixth season as the head coach of the Columbus State University women's basketball program in 2024-25. After spending the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach for the Lady Cougars, Houser was elevated to his current role.
Rising through the coaching ranks, Houser is a basketball savant with more than two decades worth of experience all across the world. During his first season at the helm in Columbus, Houser nearly led CSU to a 20-win season as the Lady Cougars went 19-9, a three-win improvement from the year prior. Also, he produced two All-Peach Belt Conference performers.
As head coach, Houser has taken the Lady Cougars to the NCAA Tournament twice and has appeared in all five PBC Tournaments, including the championship game in 2023-24. He has coached seven All-Conference players, including two-time honorees Chrisalyn Boston ('2020-21, '2021-22) and Olonna Rawls ('2022-23, '2023-24). Letiya Reeves (2023-24) was Houser's first All-PBC player to be named to the First Team and first Player to be selected to the D2CCA Women's Basketball Southeast All Region Team.
During his time as an assistant, Houser was in charge of a plethora of areas including recruiting, strength and conditioning and implementing scouting reports. The Lady Cougars didn’t disappoint grabbing wins against nationally and regionally ranked opponents, including upsetting second-ranked Carson-Newman University. CSU also reached the Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship game for the fifth time in the past six seasons.
Under Houser’s tutelage, guard Tatiana Wayne was named to both the All-PBC and All-Southeast Region team.Â
Houser originally arrived in Columbus from the west coast after stops at two California universities. He got into the collegiate ranks at Concordia University Irvine helping the Eagles turnaround a program in just one season. After having a losing record before Houser’s arrival, Concordia went 23-7 in 2014-15 and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NAIA National Tournament. Houser then went on to join the staff at Azusa Pacific University for three record-breaking seasons.
From 2015-18, Azusa Pacific posted a 71-23 overall record as the Cougars were a mainstay in the NCAA Division II Coaches’ Poll while making two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Azusa won two PacWest regular season championships and the 2016 PacWest Tournament title. The program also set records for wins in a season (28-4, 2015-16), most points in a game (128, 2017-18) and best 20-game start (18-2, 2017-18).
During his time at Azusa, Houser helped develop eight All-PacWest selections, two D2CACAA All-West Region players and the 2015-16 PacWest Player of the Year. Houser was also in charge of recruiting when the Cougars landed one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, including pulling in two more All-PacWest honorees to Azusa during the 2016 recruiting period. Â
Before his collegiate coaching experience, Houser was one of the top amateur girls' basketball coaches in the state of California. He was the head coach at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. for five seasons. Houser was twice named the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) 3A Coach of the Year (2010 & 2014) and earned the title of Orange County Coach of the Year in 2014. During his time at Santa Margarita, the school won two CIF 3A titles and reached the state regional finals in his last season at the helm.
Houser also founded OC Elite Inc. in 2006, which was constantly ranked inside the top-100 girls' basketball programs in the nation, and one of only 20 to be sponsored by Adidas.
A standout player in his own rights, Houser played professionally for eight seasons internationally. He made stops all across Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain, while earning countless accolades. He was named to the Euro Cup All-Tournament team and earned a spot on the All-Defensive team during his time in Switzerland.
Collegiately, Houser played two seasons each at Chico State (1998-2000) and Irvine Valley College (1996-1998). He led Irvine to a conference championship and was also selected as one of the top-75 junior college players in the state of California.
Houser earned his bachelors of science in business management from the University of Phoenix and his master’s in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia Irvine. He is married to Silvia and has two kids, Logan (11) and Clark (8).
Year-by-Year ResultsÂ
| Season |
Overall Record |
PBC Record |
NCAA Tournament |
| 2019-20 |
19-9 |
13-7 |
--- |
| 2020-21 |
3-5 *COVID-19 |
3-5 |
--- |
| 2021-22 |
17-14 |
9-9 |
First Round |
| 2022-23 |
15-12 |
9-9 |
--- |
| 2023-24 |
19-10 |
13-5 |
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| 2024-25 |
21-9 |
14-4 |
Second Round |
| Overall |
94-59 |
61-39 |
|
