Watch more News on iWantTFC

The energy at the UC Riverside Student Recreation Center continues to get more powerful.

In three seasons since becoming the first Filipino American US NCAA Division 1 men's head basketball coach, Mike Magpayo has turned a perennial sub-500 team into a contender for the the Big West Conference.

On Monday, he was named the Big West Coach of the Year.

The Highlanders finished their regular season with a 14-6 conference record and 3rd overall in the Big West. They are entering the Big West Tournament in Nevada as the #3 seed with hopes of making it to the NCAA Tournament.

"There’s a lot of support and pride right now and credit to the guys for building that and generating that over the last 4/5 years and to see it come to fruition, it’s great," Magpayo said.

The rise to the top nearly did not happen. From 2020 to 2021, the university considered cutting its athletic programs. But eventually, they decided to keep them and even extended the contract of Magpayo, the winner of the 2021 Joe B. Hall Award, for five years. Since then, the Highlanders have continued improving their record.

"I think this is exactly where I thought we would be, when you have as good as players, as you do that stay the course, guys like Zyon Pullin, Flynn Cameron, the continuity and we built a culture. We’re three years in and this is where I expected us to be and I think our expectation is to find a way to win it in the end," Magpayo said.

Magpayo, who recently racked up his 50th victory, credits his success to the players who’ve stuck with him since he first took over in 2020. Some of them were recently honored on Senior Night, where despite the loss to UC Irvine, the school’s Filipino organization Katipunan put on a tinkling halftime show. The Highlanders bounced back with a win on Saturday against Cal Poly.

Now with the regular season over, Magpayo and the Highlanders are hoping to pull off a big tournament win, and bring the Inland Empire pride to the biggest collegiate tournament later this month.