My Conversation with Mike Magpayo, Head Coach of UC Riverside.
Photo Credit: UC Riverside
Here’s my conversation with UC Riverside head coach, Michael Magpayo, in preparation for his team’s visit to Provo, UT, and a matchup with Kevin Young’s BYU basketball team.
Coach Magpayo oversees a fascinating basketball team—one that is hoping to compete for a Big West title this season and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The road won’t be easy, but the challenge may peak with this clash against BYU.
This is the uncut, unedited call that we shared.
Interview Questions - Michael Magpayo, UC Riverside
UC Riverside was picked to finish 4th in the Big West Coaches’ Preseason Poll, what are your goals for the season?
“I think we’re really fortunate we had four starters return and last year we started two freshman and two sophomores and were a team that finished really strong down the stretch. We went 8-3 down the stretch. Finished just under .500 overall and .500 in league [play]. It took us a while to figure it out and gel, but I think that the strength of the four returning starters and eight overall players has given us a lot of continuity and a chance to compete for a championship.
“I think our backcourt is really strong and all four of those guys scored double digits in our first game at Oregon. It’s really cool to put the product on the floor, we just had a bad little stretch there in the first half. They surprise-pressed us, it’s something that I took for granted thinking that we were going to handle it pretty soundly, and we didn’t do a good job there. We had 6 turnovers in the last five minutes. I think they were the most talented team we’ll play this year other than BYU, if I’m being honest.
“Oregon is very good, they took Stanford’s best player and Villanova’s best player. Other than those 5 minutes, I thought we played really well, we played pretty much even, and we were weapon for weapon. We were able to battle, but during that stretch, it was incredibly disappointing. Using that press, they were able to hurt us a little bit.
“We brought it within 7 several times, and we had open shots and cut it to four so we were right there it’s just we get to four, five, and call timeouts to settle our team, but we couldn’t quite knock down the big shot or get the big stop. I think the story of the game was getting crushed on the boards. And that’s just not something that in my four years as head coach we’ve been as high as 5th in the country and the lowest we’ve been is 37th in defensive rebounding, so that’s something that we’ve gotta get done against this length and athleticism tomorrow night somehow.”
You’re not shying away from a challenge, as you’ve scheduled non-conference games against Oregon, BYU, Santa Clara, Colorado State, and UNLV. What’s your message to your team when facing tough competition this early into the season?
“We’ve gotta stay process-oriented. We always play a tough non-conference schedule for a variety of reasons–fundraising being one of them–but in the end, it’s about playing your best basketball in February and March and I think we’ve done that for the last 3 years actually, and we’ve been very strong down the stretch, which is always the goal.
“So these prepare you, and what ends up happening is only the tough teams will pay you, so to speak, as your program gets better and better. And these are two tough teams that we play but last year we also played North Carolina, Utah–they were a top 30 team when we played them—Washington State was a tournament team, UCLA, so we’ve grown accustomed to these types of non-conference, they just aren’t usually our first 5 or six on the road. But these two are back-to-back serious challenges at Oregon and BYU. We’ll have our work cut out for us, but we found a way to compete, and we’ll see if we can hang tough and put some tension in the game tomorrow night.”
Calvin: “It’s a bad habit that many fans of power conference programs believe that their teams are untouchable by the UC Riversides of the world”
“Let me tell you what, BYU looked untouchable the other night! They were good. We played a Creighton team that was number 8 in the country a couple of years ago, and I thought Utah was ridiculously talented, and Washington State, I put this BYU team up there with any of those guys just as far as talent across the board.”
Barrington Hargress, last year’s Big West freshman of the year, had a strong performance in your first game against Oregon. What makes him so dangerous? Why was he picked to the Preseason All-Big West team as a sophomore?
“Yeah, I mean number one, he’s a true point guard and he’s a two-way player. He’ll defend, rebound, and he was one of the best at taking care of the ball last year. He had a 3.5 to 1 assist-to-turnover average, had over 12 points a game, and just had some really dynamic moments throughout conference [play]. I think where he’s really grown this offseason is his shooting ability and that was on display against Oregon.
“Unfortunately in that second half, he was cramping. That’s why after he had 15 in the first half, he only ended up with 20. But hopefully, we can get him ready to go tomorrow night. He’s fast with the basketball, he can make all the reads, he can make all the passes. He shot great, and he already has a lot of belief in himself, but I think that as he made a big jump, it’ll be different against this length.
“Oregon wasn’t small by any means, but the length of BYU, we’ll see where he can get his shot off and find opportunities there. But the thing I always talk about is that he’s a two-way player. He’ll take the challenge of being one of our best defenders and he’ll have his hands full tomorrow night, but he’ll take the challenge head-on.
“He’s fun to watch, man, he’s a really good player. I know Demin’s gonna be in the NBA, one day, I won’t be surprised if we find Barrington Hargress there somehow. He doesn’t have the measurables, but he plays strong and he’s good. He’s very good.”
“I don’t know if this is a good comp, but he reminds me of a Jamal Shead who’s now playing well with Toronto.”
“Barrington is big and strong for 6’0” as well.”
You’re entering a hostile environment in the Marriott Center, how do you expect your team to react to the crowd?
“We have some new guys that are gonna have to figure it out and in my time with this team, I just think that our guys thrive in those environments, and I think it gets our guys up. All four of those starters and some of the guys coming off the bench, the Avery turners, have played great at North Carolina, for instance, so we’ve experienced environments like that. You know, I coached at the University of San Francisco before I came here, and we had a brutal loss at BYU. We were up 3 with under a minute to go and we ended up losing that game.”
“Yeah, I remember that one.”
Yeah, it was 7 years ago, but it was a great game. We thought we had one—we were going to sneak away with one. But I mentioned it to the guys; they may not be able to hear me, they’ll need to communicate out there, so I threw that out. The good thing is Oregon gave them a little taste, a little warmup. You know, we’ve played at Oregon 3 times in the last 4 years, and I thought this was the best crowd they had. I think our guys are going to be ready and I think our guys usually shine the brightest when the lights are on.”
Which players from BYU do you expect to challenge your game plan? Which player matchups are you looking forward to?
“I think that BYU plays a bunch of different defenses. Just from what I can tell, he’s not afraid to try a couple different things. He started with one defense and had to make a couple different adjustments that worked against Central Arkansas. Just being long, and you know, the good news is we had a very similar team in Oregon that played a straight man-to-man and played two different types of presses.
“But when you have good guard play like we do, knock on wood, like Barrington Hargress and Isaiah Moses and Nate Pickens, it gives you the chance to attack and play, and they’re playing 30 minutes a game each. Including our starting 4 man Caleb Smith, so hopefully they’ll be able to adjust–they’re gonna have to adjust–and just play basketball.
“Their style of play is what we’re going to count on—these guys to play ball. Just play ball. We can’t worry about what defense they’re in. [We’ll need to] try to penetrate either by throwing it in the post, or we tend to settle on a ball screen, so we’ll hope that works in getting some penetration against that length. We’ll have to figure out how to get some 3s off against this length and get some great shots at the rim as well.
“But I’ve got a lot of respect for—I have a lot of friends who are close with Kevin Young and I know what a good coach he is. But [his system is] not super complicated, but it is because they’ve got an amazing point guard who makes all the reads.
“So, they’ve got some simple sets they put out there, but he’s gonna read where all four guys are, where his teammates are out on the floor and he just seems to make the right decision every single time, so we’re gonna have to try, try to make him uncomfortable, so that’ll be a big focus of ours. Try to get back in transition, it seems like they’re playing pretty fast, getting up, getting down, so those will be the keys. Try to make them a half-court team. We like to play fast too but make them play against our set defense. We’re gonna have to see if we can bother and disrupt Demin in any way.
“We’ve got Australians on the team calling [Demin] Josh Giddey already. When I was with the staff I was calling him Doncic or Penny Hardaway. I had to get on my scheduling coach, because gosh dang, man, this kid is good. We’ll be up to the challenge and we’ll try to figure it out as we go.”
You’ll meet Dawson Baker, a former UC Irvine Anteater, for the first time in a few years. He’s been struggling with injury for the past year and hasn’t seen the floor much for BYU yet. Can you share a bit about having to play against him in the past?
“I heard he played well in their exhibition. He’s gonna do really good–scorer, shooter, and he’s not just a shooter, he’s tough. He lays it on the line out there and plays extremely hard. He was a very good scorer at the Big West level. I think at the very least he’s a great shooter, but again he’s more than that. He’s a relentless competitor, he gave us fits. He aws a big part of the game plans at UC Irvine. I don’t think we beat Dawson during his time at Irvine. He’s a really good player. Strong, and now he’s even older than he was back then, so I’d image he’d be like a sixth man type guy who’s gonna be impactful for them on both ends of the floor. He can get the crowd going, motivating his team, with just a relentless effort. He’ll just keep getting better, too. He’s just a worker.”
Finally, can you share one thing that makes your program special, whether it’s players, university, culture–anything!
“I think we’re just a high academic, one of the best public institutions in the world in the UC system. I’m a product, i graduated from UC santa barbara, but I think what’s really telling about our program, as we build this over the last… I’ve been head coach going on my fifth year, we’ve had four straight winning seasons before last year, but we’ve had one undergraduate transfer in my time as head coach. So these guys stick for whatever reason.
“They really believe and buy in, and that’s how we’ve been able to build this thing. So, something we’re really proud of and I think the guys have a lot of pride in it. We wanna make some magic happen at a place that hadn’t had that before we got here. Six years ago, one winning season in 18 years, but these guys stick around because they want to make the big dance, and there’s something really rewarding about building it from the ground up. I think that tells you a lot about hte guys we have in this program and the pride over the last four years that I’ve been head coach in the program.”