California Basketball: 7 candidates to replace Mark Fox as head coach

Mike Magpayo

We’ve got the market covered on young mid-major head coaches who could make the jump to a Cal program that isn’t exactly in a great position. This next coach is another one who’s sort of burst onto the scene these last few years. Magpayo is not only a native of Los Angeles who’s been a part of winning basketball, but he’s also the first D1 head coach of full Asian heritage, which makes his accomplishments even more impressive.

After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, he spent nearly a decade as a high school coach before joining current Washington State coach Kyle Smith’s staff at Columbia. After time on staff there, at Campbell, and at San Francisco (again under Smith), he joined the staff at UC Riverside in 2018. Magpayo was promoted to head coach in 2020 and is 51-31 in these last three seasons. He was named Big West Coach of the Year this season and has this program in remarkable shape for the future.

This is another California native who’s been winning games in the state. The issue with Magpayo is that he’s never worked at a power conference team, though that might not prevent the Golden Bears from being interested in him. If he leads UC Riverside to national prominence this season, then Cal might be fighting with other teams for his services either now or when they’re inevitably engaging in another head coaching search.