Taliek Brown - Assistant Coach - Staff Directory - St. John's University Athletics

Staff Directory

Taliek Brown

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
Phone:
2543

An NCAA national champion with a decade of professional playing experience, Taliek Brown joined the Red Storm staff in April 2023 as an assistant coach.

In three seasons at St. John’s, Brown has been instrumental in turning around the trajectory of the Red Storm men’s basketball program. Inheriting a team that had won 20 games just four times in the previous 20 seasons, Brown has helped St. John’s go 81-25 over the past three seasons, highlighted by consecutive 30-win seasons, back-to-back outright BIG EAST Regular Season Championships and back-to-back BIG EAST Tournament titles. In 2024-25, the Red Storm matched a program record with 31 wins, earning a no. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and winning the Red Storm’s first game in The Big Dance since 2000. This past season, the Johnnies won 30 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.

Brown has seen two of his St. John’s student-athletes earn BIG EAST Player of the Year honors, as RJ Luis Jr. took home the award in 2025 before Zuby Ejiofor unanimously won the accolade this past spring. Ejiofor was also named the BIG EAST Defensive Player and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the first player in the conference to win all three awards since Brown’s teammate Emeka Okafor did so in 2004.

Before coming home to Queens, Brown helped Iona post a 27-8 overall record in 2022-23, including a 17-3 mark in MAAC play, and earn a bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Before his one year as an assistant coach in New Rochelle, the Corona native spent three years as Director of Player Development at his alma mater, UConn.

Brown was the captain of UConn’s 2004 NCAA National Championship team and remains the program’s all-time assists leader. A four-year letterwinner under Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, Brown owns both the Huskies’ career and single-season assist records, dishing out 722 helpers during his tenure, 253 of which came during the run to the 2004 national championship. Brown led the BIG EAST and ranked 11th nationally that season with 6.5 assists per game. Brown is the only player in UConn men’s basketball history to score at least 1,000 points (1,039) and dish out at least 700 assists (722).

During his time as Director of Player Development for the Huskies from 2019-2022, Brown mentored UConn’s student-athletes, building strong personal relationships while initiating and participating in off-court activities that taught and developed life skills. He was also responsible for managing the program’s graduate assistants.

Brown earned his degree from the University of Connecticut in political science in 2013 following a 10-year career playing in the CBA, USBL and multiple foreign professional leagues. A McDonald’s All-American out of St. John’s Prep, Brown spent time as an assistant coach at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City and as head coach at August Martin High School in Jamaica, Queens. He also oversaw the TeamFootprintz basketball training program.