By embracing the process, Teneisia Brown has forged her own path

“I’d helped [Tee] get her agent, and we talked throughout the year, and met a couple times, and she was going to go overseas … even through February, she just wanted to go overseas, she didn’t want to use her last year of college,” Brown’s head coach at FDU, Stephanie Gaitley, told The IX Basketball.

“And then when I heard what the possibilities of finances were [to play in college], I brought Tee in, and I called her agent. I said, ‘She needs to go into the [transfer] portal,’ because it was life-changing money for her and her mom and her family.”

Starting in the 2025-26 academic year, colleges can now pay their athletes directly, ushering in a new era of college athletics. The opportunity to get paid handsomely while playing closer to home at Providence College — Brown, originally from Jamaica, played high school ball in New York and Rhode Island — was too good a chance to pass up for Brown and her family.

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At the same time, Providence head coach Erin Batth, now in her third season leading the program, was looking to rebuild her own roster. The Friars bid farewell to a whopping 10 graduating players this offseason, many of whom were veterans who preceded the Erin Batth era. Batth prioritized bringing in a talented big who could replace the lost production left by 6’3 Olivia Olsen, last season’s second-leading scorer (11.1 ppg) and rebounder (8.3 rpg) for the Friars.

While speaking to media at Madison Square Garden during BIG EAST media day in October, Batth beamed about Brown, who quietly listened to her new head coach describe her game.

“She’s so athletic, and she’s a leaper — she can leap out of the gym,” Batth told reporters. “She’s very aggressive. … She’s got a midrange shot. She can drive it from the three-point line. She’s a good passer. She’s experienced. … She has led her team to a [conference] championship. She has led her team to the first NCAA appearance. … You can’t teach that.”

Batth has much to offer Brown following her own noteworthy college career as an all-conference post player. She played college basketball at Clemson and graduated in 2001, earning Second-Team Defensive All-America honors and All-ACC Second Team honors during her career. As a senior, she averaged 12.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. She led the Tigers to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and helped Clemson advance to the Sweet 16 in 1999.

When it was her turn to speak to the media, the “quiet by nature” Brown kept it short and sweet when describing what attracted her to Coach Batth’s program.

“Her passion, her energy, and she’s a post — that’s a plus,” Brown said with a smile.

A winding journey

Brown started playing basketball as a sophomore in high school, competing for Mount Vernon High School in New York and St. Andrews Prep in Barrington, R.I. She began her college basketball journey in the 2020-21 season at Merrimack, where she saw action in 38 games over two seasons.

After not playing in the 2022-23 season, she headed to FDU in New Jersey prior to the 2023-24 season. Her development as the anchor of the FDU program was, in Coach Gaitley’s words, “a process.”

“It’s been a journey for Tee. When she came to us, even on the first Zoom call, she had a hood on, and she was just very closed off,” Gaitley told The IX Basketball. “It took some time breaking down the barriers, just doing some individual meetings. … I challenged her, and I said that I would rather lose a game than lose my point. Like, if you’re going to act this way, you’re going to sit, you know?

“And so we had conversations like that, and then to see her mature over the first year to the second year, and then to see her maturity as she moved on to Providence. To me, that’s my favorite part of coaching.”

The hard work and discipline paid off, because Brown transformed into a dominant two-way force last season at FDU, starting all 33 games and leading the Knights with 15.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Her 9.7 boards and 17 double-doubles topped all NEC players, and she paced the conference with an efficient 52.6% shooting from the field. She was last season’s Northeast Conference (NEC) Defensive Player of the Year and NEC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, guiding FDU to its first NCAA Tournament appearance.

“She came in the first year to us, that summer, out of shape. Not really ready for Division I-level basketball, after sitting out a year,” Gaitley said. “And then the next summer, completely different — came in shape, came focused, came like, ‘okay, I have a mission.'”

“When everything happened with Providence, I just think that validated her — like, ‘Okay, I am good, and I am capable of playing at a high level.’ And I think that as that emerged, her leadership emerged. I think with her confidence came leadership skills.”

Thinking back on her time at FDU, Brown credits Gaitley with her development both as a player and a person.

“She just basically taught me the little details, and that really changed my game — just focusing on the details and just being ready … [She]’s a mentor when I have bad games, good games, practice, whenever she can. She sees anything that I need to fix or change, to make me a better person, better player for the future. She was that person for me,” Brown told The IX Basketball.

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Now, in her final season of collegiate basketball, Brown intends to make a difference on and off the court in Providence. Through the Friars’ first 12 games, Coach Batth has seen Brown do exactly what she was recruited to do — be an example for a young team that includes nine newcomers, including five freshmen.

“She has done a really good job of getting out of her shell and really using her voice, because the players really look up to her, because she’s got a lot of experience, and that’s why she’s here,” Batth told reporters following a Dec. 10 game against in-state rival Rhode Island.

“I love seeing her do that, and I expect her to do that even more because [there’s] a lot more basketball to play. But I’m very happy, very pleased, for [her] growing in that area, because we have a lot of freshmen and they look up to her, and she’s got a lot on her shoulders, but she’s been doing a really, really good job with that.”

To start the season, Brown has averaged 10.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. She’s at the top of the scout for opposing coaches, including Rhode Island’s two-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year Tammi Reiss.

“That’s their enforcer, that’s their paint scorer,” Reiss told reporters on Dec. 10. “I think she does a great job of owning the paint, getting low block position. She also has a sweet little 10-to-12-foot jumper, so you have to respect her.”

“That’s a double-double kid, it really is, and she’s a beast. … That’s a great pulse player — really, really good pickup for [Providence], and does some really nice things in the paint for them.”

With the Friars set to resume conference play next week against Georgetown and close the calendar year against 2025 national runner-up South Carolina (Dec. 28) and reigning champion UConn (Dec. 31), what should fans unfamiliar with Teneisia Brown’s game expect to see?

“There is a beast inside of her … there’s someone there that wants to prove herself, that is angry when she doesn’t finish, is angry when she misses a block out, or what have you,” Gaitley said. “She’s somebody that’s extremely competitive and wants to prove herself, and so even though she’s quiet by nature, there’s that fire inside of her that you may not see — but it’s certainly, certainly there.”