Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Men's Basketball Head Coach
- Email:
- mbb@calpoly.edu
Directing the Cal Poly men’s basketball program’s ascendance as one of the nation’s top scoring teams, head coach Mike DeGeorge is his second season.
With the Mustangs reaching the Big West Championship semifinals for the first time in 11 years during DeGeorge’s initial 2024-25 season, Cal Poly finished third among 355 NCAA Division I programs with 11.5 three-pointers per game and 19th with 82.1 points per game. The Mustangs set new program single season records for total points, three-pointers and field goals while scoring 90-plus points 11 times.
Averaging 18.4 more points per game than the previous 2023-24 season – the most dramatic scoring reversal in the nation – Cal Poly’s 12-win improvement last year marked the fourth most successful turnaround in Division I.
The winningest first-year Cal Poly head coach in 29 seasons, DeGeorge was nominated as a finalist for the 2025 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Award recognizing the season’s most outstanding first-time Division I head coach.
Entering his 25th season as a collegiate head coach this fall, DeGeorge was named Cal Poly’s 12th head coach (as a four-year program) on March 26, 2024 following a highly successful tenure with Division II Colorado Mesa (Grand Junction, Colo.). In six seasons with the Mavericks, DeGeorge directed Colorado Mesa to the NCAA Tournament in each of his final five years – including Sweet 16 appearances in 2022 and 2024.
A two-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honoree, DeGeorge guided Colorado Mesa to three RMAC regular season titles and two conference tournament championships while finishing with a 141-43 overall record, a 103-26 conference mark and an average of 23 wins per season.
A program builder at each of his five head coaching positions, DeGeorge took a Colorado Mesa program that won 19 combined games during the two seasons prior to his arrival and turned the Mavericks into a 19-win team during his initial 2018-19 season.
During the 2020-21 season, he led Colorado Mesa to its first No. 1 national ranking and the university’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
In his final 2023-24 season with Colorado Mesa, DeGeorge directed the Mavericks to the RMAC regular season title with a 21-1 mark and a program record 29 victories. The Mavericks led the nation in effective field goal percentage while finishing third in three-pointers per game and 16th in points per game.
Prior to Colorado Mesa, DeGeorge served as head coach of Rhodes College (Memphis, Tenn.) where he turned a program with 10 successive losing seasons prior to his arrival into a consistent winner. DeGeorge led Rhodes to its first Southern Athletic Association title in 20 years during just his third season. The Lynx then captured both the 2016-17 SAA regular season and tournament championships to qualify for the program’s first NCAA Division III Tournament in 24 years. Recognizing the program’s success, DeGeorge was named 2017 Southern Athletic Association Coach of the Year.
Before his tenure at Rhodes, DeGeorge was the head coach at Cornell College (2004-09) and Eureka College (2000-04).
During DeGeorge’s final season at Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa), he directed the Rams to a record 21 victories while guiding the program to its first IIAC Tournament Championship in any men’s sport and a spot in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
In his first head coaching role at Eureka (Ill.) College, DeGeorge transformed a Red Devils program that won just twice in the year prior to his arrival into a 17-game winner in his final season.
Prior to accepting his first head coaching position, DeGeorge served as the top assistant at Grinnell (Iowa) College for the 1999-00 season and at Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisc.) from 1994-99. He also assisted Bill Knapton – a 500-game winner and previous president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches – at Beloit (Wisc.) College for the 1993-94 season.
DeGeorge played at Monmouth (Ill.) College where his team won two Midwest Conference and four Southern Division championships while qualifying for the 1989 and 1990 NCAA Division III Tournaments. He was also a member of the Fighting Scots golf team for two years and recorded the team's lowest stroke average during both the 1991 and 1992 seasons.
DeGeorge and his wife, Christi, have four children (Max, Maya, Morgan, and Madison) ranging in age from 16-22.
