RIVERSIDE, Calif. – UC Riverside's Men's Basketball team will travel to Australia on August 28 for an international tour where the Highlanders will play four games and enjoy cultural and educational tours and experiences before returning to the States on September 8. Updates and highlights from the tour will be posted on UCR Athletics' social media channels throughout the course of the tour.
As Head Coach Mike Magpayo enters his third year at the helm, the success the Highlanders have achieved over the past two seasons is rooted in his leadership style along with the revitalized culture that he has established for the team and how he has developed his coaching staff. This collective unit of coaches has successfully recruited and developed student-athletes from California, the rest of the United States and the world. But the success UCR has had in creating opportunities for student-athletes from Australia and New Zealand is impressive, both on the court and on the bench.
UCR Men's Basketball has successfully recruited nine student-athletes from the region since Magpayo arrived as an assistant before the 2018-19 season, including returning guard Flynn Cameron (who this summer won a bronze medal with the New Zealand National Team – Tall Blacks) at the FIBA Asia Cup in Indonesia. In addition, former UCR head coach head coach, David Patrick, and former assistant coach, Mike Czepil, also hail from Australia. And currently, there are five members of the team from Australia or New Zealand who have made the trek across the Pacific Ocean to play for UCR.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mike Magpayo is one of the best young coaches in the country and I like our chances every time we take the court with Mike leading the way," said UC Riverside Director of Athletics Wes Mallette. "He is an outstanding recruiter, leader, and developer of student-athletes and coaches, and he does things the right way. He has a great approach and feel for the game and I am excited about where we are headed under his leadership."
Several of the coaches and staff members who worked under Mike over the past three years have gone on to excel at the next level of their craft, including (but not limited to) former assistant coach Wayne Hunter (who is now at Washington State), former director of operations Jordan Lee (now the head coach at Ohlone College), former lead assistant, Mike Czepil (who is now at Sacramento State), and former assistant, Rob Jones (who is now at Hawaii). In addition, several former Highlander student-athletes have gone on to play professionally overseas, including Jock Perry, Ollie Hayes-Brown, Dikymbe Martin and JP Moorman II.
Academically, Highlander Basketball continues to excel and since Magpayo's promotion to interim head coach ahead of the 2020-21 season, various Highlanders have also gone on to further their education with a graduate degree from UCR, including Dominick Pickett, the program's new all-time leader in games played who recently earned his MBA.
Magpayo remains a trailblazer in and out of his basketball shoes. "Success breeds success" is an all-too-common sports cliché, but it's a frequent reminder that Magpayo (who is also the president and founder of the Asian Coaches Association) is both a pioneer and a basketball coach. A trailblazer in his own right, Magpayo was the first Asian American head coach to win an NCAA Division I Men's Basketball game when the Highlanders defeated Washington in the early stages of the historic 2020-21 season. He won the Joe B. Hall Award that year for the top first-year mid-major head coach, and one year later, was named a recipient of the Rising Coaches DEI Alliance Trailblazer Award for the empowerment of his fellow Asian American coaches across the game. All this has allowed Magpayo to put his student-athletes and his coaching peers - both on and off his own bench - in positions to succeed.
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