Mike DePaoli, who is in his eleventh season year at Rose Hill in 2020-2021, was named interim head coach on January 26, 2021.
 
Prior to the 2020-2021 season DePaoli was elevated to associate head coach after serving as an assistant coach for six years. He served as the Director of Basketball Operations in 2015-2016 and also held the same position from 2010-2014.
 
Over the last two years DePaoli has been in charge of the Fordham defense. Last year, the team finished 64th in the country on kenpom index (highest rating since kenpom started in 1997), 39th in the country in over-all defense on synergy sports, and held teams to the lowest PPG average (61.7 ppg) that the Rams recorded in 36 years, ranking first in the Atlantic 10 and tenth in the NCAA.
 
In the summer of 2021, DePaoli joined with some of his Atlantic 10 coaches to found "A10 Connecting for Change,” a group formed within the conference to help use their platform to fight for social justice. The group is designed to bring in speakers to every campus to educate them on the topic, as well as set up internships for minority student athletes across the A-10. 

DePaoli, who has extensive recruiting ties in the Metropolitan New York and New England areas, has been a part of a Fordham staff that saw tremendous improvement over the past five years. In 2015-2016, the Rams went 17-14 overall, 8-10 in the Atlantic 10, and made an appearance in the 2016 CollegeInsiders.com Tournament (CIT), Fordham's first postseason appearance since 1992. The 17 overall wins and eight conference wins were the most since 2006-2007. The Rams went 14-5 in the Rose Hill Gym, the most home wins ever in school history.
 
In 2016-2017, Fordham tied a school record with five Atlantic 10 road wins and finished among the top five in the nation in steals and turnovers forced.
 
?DePaoli was charged with working with the perimeter players during his tenure. These have included 2015 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Eric Paschall. He has also worked with Mandell Thomas, who graduated 13th on the Fordham all-time scoring list and among the all-time leaders in three-pointers made and steals, and Branden Frazier, who finished his career ninth on the Fordham career scoring list, second on the all-time assists list and sixth on the career three-pointers made list.

Besides his coaching duties, DePaoli oversees Fordham basketball’s community outreach programs, including its involvement with “Team Impact,” which helps ill children experience college athletics, and “Stay in it to win It,” which is designed to help inner city children stay in school. DePaoli also sits on the Westchester County Con-Ed Committee and assists with the Katie McBride Foundation, a charity that works to raise important funds and awareness of the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island and the family support services it provides.
 
Besides the community service projects, DePaoli also oversees academic advising for the team, which compiled a 3.1 team GPA in the fall of 2016 and saw two student-athletes, Joseph Chartouny and Christian Sengfelder, named to the Academic All-Atlantic 10 team.

Over the previous four years as the Operations Director, DePaoli oversaw all aspects of Fordham basketball on campus, including travel arrangements, academics, housing, scheduling, facilities, player development and community relations and serving as the director of the Tom Pecora Basketball Camps.

Prior to arriving at Fordham, DePaoli served for two seasons as a graduate assistant at Hofstra where he was responsible for working with all perimeter players on player development. That included working with current Golden State Warrior, Charles Jenkins, Hofstra’s all-time leading scorer and a two-time Haggerty Award winner, and Chaz Williams, who was named All-Atlantic 10 at Massachusetts last year. He also supervised all academic issues for the Pride as the men’s basketball student-athletes recorded a team GPA of 3.00. Hofstra won 22 games his first year in Hempstead and 19 in his second.

Prior to his stint at Hofstra, DePaoli was a graduate assistant at Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y. in 2007-08, where his duties included recruiting, creating scouting reports, organizing film exchange and video editing.

DePaoli has worked at numerous camps both during and after college. Most recently he serves as a camp director for the Tom Pecora Basketball Camp. He also served as an instructor at the Duke University Basketball Camp and Five Star Camp in 2007.

A 2007 graduate of The College of Saint Rose with a degree in Adolescent Education, DePaoli was a four-year letter winner with the men’s basketball program at St. Rose, helping the Golden Knights qualify for two NCAA Division II Tournaments (2005, 2007), and served as a team captain his senior year (2007).

DePaoli attended North Salem High School where he was a three-time All-New York State selection and graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,767 points.

DePaoli resides on Babylon, N.Y., with his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Liliana.