Mike Magpayo was named head men’s basketball coach at Fordham University in March of 2025. Magpayo, the 2023 Big West Coach of the Year, served as the head coach at the University of California, Riverside for the past five years.
“What an exciting time to bring my wife, whom I met in New York City 12 years ago, and family back to the greatest City in the World at one of the premier universities in the country in Fordham University,” said Magpayo. “The excitement for this thrilling opportunity to lead Fordham Basketball is through the roof. I believe there is great potential in this program and I intend to maximize all of it going forward. The combination of New York City attitude and academic excellence will be on full display when talking about Fordham Basketball going forward.”
“Thank you to President Tetlow and AD Guthrie for entrusting me with this honor,” continued Magpayo. “Thank you to the Fordham Family and Supporters I have met along this process. I can feel the bubbling eagerness and excitement to build a great program. I am here to serve all of you!! Let’s get after it!”
Charles Guthrie, Fordham’s athletic director, and Magpayo will continue to build upon Fordham Athletics’ strategic mission—a mission that goes beyond the quest for men’s basketball championships, to elevating nationally the profile of the entire athletic department and its student-athletes. Fordham University boasts a total of 22 men’s and women’s varsity sports teams, totaling 286 male student-athletes and 237 female student-athletes, and 16 club sports.
“We’re delighted to welcome Coach Magpayo to Fordham. In his five years at UC Riverside, he transformed the Highlanders, building a record of steady achievement on and off the court,” said Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham. “He brings to the table high standards and a winning culture—he was a successful CEO before coming to coaching—with a genuine care for his players and their families. It’s a very Fordham combination of traits. We welcome Mike and his wife to the Ramily."
“Mike Magpayo is one of the top coaches in college basketball and we’re excited that he will be joining us at Fordham," said Fordham Director of Athletics Charles Guthrie. “Mike has a passion for nurturing student-athletes and his data-driven analytics makes him the perfect fit for Fordham. His strategic approach to coaching and recruiting has been proven to be successful. We can’t wait for Mike and his family to get to Rose Hill."
Over the past five years at UC Riverside, Magpayo set a new standard for Highlander men's basketball. He led the teams to two 20-win seasons, including a 21-13 slate this year, 14-6 in the Big West, as UC Riverside finished in a tie for third in the league standings and received a bid to the 2025 NIT.
Over his five years at UCR, Magpayo led the Highlanders to a record of 89-63 (.586). In the 20 years prior to his taking over, UCR had gone 205-386 (.347) as a Division I program.
Magpayo was named the first Big West Coach of the Year in UC Riverside program history in 2022-23 after leading UCR to a program-record 22 wins - including 10 in Big West play. For his efforts, Magpayo was named a finalist for the 2023 Hugh Durham Award, presented by CollegeInsider to the top mid-major head coach in Division I men’s college basketball.
A 2021-22 recipient of the Rising Coaches Trailblazer Award, an award presented to individuals who have blazed the way for diversity, equity and inclusion through the coaching and sports industry, Magpayo led the 2021-22 squad to 16-12 season with wins over previously-unbeaten Hawaii and Cal State Fullerton as well as a buzzer-beating victory at Arizona State during the season's opening weekend.
Following his first year at the helm, Magpayo led the program to new heights in 2020-21 with its highest Big West Tournament seed in program history (three) and the first Big West Tournament win in 10 years.
In his first season as head coach, Magpayo led UCR to a win over Washington which marked a number of firsts for Magpayo, including his first over a signature Power-5 opponent. It was his first win as a head coach, his first game coached on the sideline, and further, the first win for a team coached by a Division I head coach of Asian American descent. For his efforts, Magpayo was named the 2021 Joe B. Hall Award recipient, given annually to the top first-year head coach in Division I college basketball.
Magpayo arrived at UC Riverside in 2017, serving as an assistant coach with the program from 2017-20 and being promoted to associate head coach in 2019-20.
Prior to arriving in Riverside, Magpayo spent a year as the men's basketball director of operations at the University of San Francisco on the staff of his coaching mentor, Kyle Smith. The Dons finished the season with 22 wins, a fourth-place finish in the West Coast Conference and an appearance in the CBI Championship.
Magpayo also spent three years at Campbell University in the Big South Conference, where he served as the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. In 2016-17, he helped put together one of the best seasons in school history, as the Camels advanced to the conference championship game and made their first postseason appearance since 1992.
A Hacienda Heights, Calif. native, Magpayo served as director of operations, assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Columbia University during the most successful four-year run in school history from 2010-14. He was a member of head coach Kyle Smith’s (currently the head coach at Stanford) staff, along with Todd Golden (currently head coach at Florida) and Kevin Hovde, who was just named head coach at Columbia.
A 2001 graduate of UC Santa Barbara where he earned a degree in business economics, Magpayo was a Southern California High School basketball coach from 2001-2010 before starting his college coaching career.
