Associate Head Coach Vonn Read comes to Las Cruces following a season on staff with the Memphis Tigers of the American Conference. In his lone year with the program, Memphis experienced one of the biggest defensive turnarounds in the country. With Read in charge of the defense, the Tigers' overall defensive efficiency ranking improved from 341st in the nation to 86th in just one season. After ranking 13th in defensive efficiency among American Conference teams the previous season, the Tigers finished the season ranked 5th in the league in 2025-26.
Prior to his time in Bluff City, Read spent three years with the Houston Cougars as the Associate Head Coach. In his first season, the Cougars finished 10-5 in American Conference play, earning the No. 4 seed and reaching the American Conference championship game.
Houston felt Read's presence quickly as the defensive mastermind helped the Cougars become one of the best defensive teams in the nation. The Cougars finished the season as the seventh-best defensive team in the country in defensive efficiency. The team ranked second nationally in steals per game (13.9) and three-point percentage defense (24.4%), while ranking third in turnovers forced per game (24.7).
Before his tenure in Houston, Read served both as an assistant coach and acting head coach at Syracuse University. As an assistant, Read helped develop Syracuse's defensive and offensive systems, predicated on winning the possession battle and maximizing offensive efficiency. During the 2015-16 campaign, Syracuse was the number one team in the country in turnover margin (+10.8), second in both turnovers forced (23.8 per game) and steals (12.6) and fifth in offensive rebounds (17.0). That season, the Orange reached the Final Four for the first time in program history, falling in the National Championship game against UConn. They reached the NCAA Tournament in eight consecutive seasons.
Read served as an assistant coach at Albany from 2008-10 and at Kentucky from 2005-08. In his first season with the Wildcats, the team beat top-ranked Tennessee and advanced to the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
Prior to his collegiate coaching days, Read served as an assistant coach for the United States Basketball League's Dodge City Legend in 2005, winning the league title. He spent the 2004 WNBA season as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Silver Stars under former NBA standout Dee Brown.
Boasting a variety of basketball experiences, Read spent five seasons with the Orlando Magic from 1999 to 2004. He worked in video scouting for the first two seasons and spent his last three years as an advance scout. In 2001, he served as an assistant coach for the team's summer league squad. Read has also held various positions with WNBA teams: in 2003, he was an advance scout for the Charlotte Sting, and he was an assistant coach for the Orlando Miracle in 2002 and Phoenix Mercury in 2000.
The Milwaukee, Wisc., native got his start as a coach as an assistant at Spelman College in Atlanta from 1997-99. In his time at Spelman, he also worked at Turner Sports as a senior archivist and production assistant for NBA telecasts. Prior to entering the coaching ranks, Read served in the United States Army from 1989-93 at Fort Drum, N.Y., and Fort Lee, Va.
A published writer, Read has six basketball playbooks to his name in a series called "The Basketball Encyclopedia." He graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Clark Atlanta in 1997, where he was a member of the tennis team. He and his wife, Cincereru, have two children, Brandon and April.
