David Patrick became the Head Men's Basketball Coach at UC Riverside in March of 2018 following successful assistant coaching stints at TCU and LSU. He enters his second season (2019-20) at the helm of the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team following an inaugural campaign (2018-19) which saw the Highlanders break several program records including 279 three-point shots culminating in a .379 three-point shooting percentage which was the best in the Big West Conference and top 30 (28th) in the nation.
A Melbourne, Australia native, Patrick is credited with recruiting Ben Simmons (who would go on to become the number one overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft) to LSU. He also coached NBA champions and Australian National Team guards Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova during their collegiate careers at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California.
"David knows Division I business," stated UC Riverside’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Tamica Smith-Jones, at the time of Coach Patrick’s hiring. "He can relate to the game both from an amateur and a professional perspective. He has a long history of success and he will bring to UCR Men's Basketball a winning attitude that can take us to the top of the Big West Conference."
In his first season at TCU (2016-17), Patrick made an immediate impact, playing a significant role in the second-largest turnaround in program history. The Horned Frogs went 24-15, good for a 12-game improvement over the previous year. The final win of the season came in the championship game of the NIT (National Invitation Tournament), an 88-56 thrashing of Georgia Tech that gave TCU its first ever postseason championship. The 24 wins were also the second-most in school history. The following season (2017-18), TCU went 21-12 and the Horned Frogs qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years, earning a number six seed.
Patrick's reputation as a savvy and experienced recruiter is attributed to his ability to attract top talent. Before helping bring in a top-25 recruiting class at TCU, he was integral in landing the nation's number five and number three ranked recruiting classes of 2013 and 2015, respectively. Besides the nation's top recruit in Ben Simmons, the 2015 recruiting class for LSU also included number 15, Antonio Blakeney, and number 39, Brandon Simpson. Two years prior to that, Patrick helped bring in future NBA draft picks Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey.
Before his time at LSU, Patrick served as a personnel scout for the Houston Rockets and spent four years assistant coaching at Saint Mary's. While with the Gaels, he was a part of the school record-setting 2008 and 2010 teams, which both finished with 28-win seasons. The 2010 team made it to the NCAA Sweet 16.
Patrick was born in Bermuda and grew up in Australia. He played one season at Syracuse, with his team reaching the 1996 NCAA Championship game, and then was a point guard at Louisiana-Lafayette from 1997-2000. He also played four years professionally in Australia, England and Spain and spent one year on the staff at Nicholls State.
Following a stint playing with the Australian Junior National Team, Patrick came to the United States in 1994. As a high schooler, he was selected as the Louisiana Player of the Year after leading Trafton to the state quarterfinals. That same year, he was named the district's MVP, earned a First Team All-Parish selection, and was chosen to participate in the Louisiana State High School All-Star Game. Patrick is married and has two daughters.
