BATON ROUGE:Sacramento State head coach David Patrick is returning to Baton Rouge to become an associate head coach for the Tigers, LSU men’s basketball head coach Matt McMahon said on Wednesday.After spending two years as the head men’s coach at Sacramento State, Patrick—a seasoned collegiate and international coach with almost 20 years of experience—joins LSU.
Coach McMahon said, “I am immensely thrilled to welcome David Patrick and his family to our LSU coaching staff.” “He is a superb basketball coach and a top recruiter who has contributed to success at every location along his path. Coach Patrick is a huge asset to our program because of his success and experience. In addition to coaching in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 stages of the NCAA Tournament, he has served as head coach of a Division I school and assistant coach of the Australian National Team, which won a bronze medal in the 2021 Olympics.
“I adore Coach Patrick’s dedication to relationship-building and player development. Throughout his tenure, he has recruited and assisted in the development of several NBA Draft choices. I’m excited about the fresh perspectives, solutions, and enthusiasm he’ll bring to our program. We are eager to begin work this summer.The previous two seasons, Sacramento State finished in the top 25 teams in the country and led the Big Sky Conference in rebound margins. His 2023–24 squad qualified for the conference tournament semifinals, marking the first time since the team’s 1996 league entry that they had won two games in the postseason.
Known as a top recruiter, Patrick was instrumental in helping LSU place in the top 5 recruiting classes in both 2013 and 2015. Ben Simmons, the top-ranked high school player in the class of 2015, currently plays for the Brooklyn Nets; Antonio Blakeney, ranked No. 15, is a star in the Chinese Basketball League; and Brandon Sampson, ranked No. 39, has carved out a successful professional career and is currently a member of the Canadian league.
The 48-year-old Patrick has coached 28 players who have gone on to play professionally, including 19 in the NBA, and he has recruited 11 players who have played in the NBA, including seven first-round selection picks.
After spending time playing for the Australian Junior National Team, Patrick, a native of Bermuda who emigrated to Australia at the age of ten, decided to immigrate to the United States in 1994. After moving to Baton Rouge, he played basketball for Chapel Trafton in his last year of high school, leading the team to the state quarterfinals and winning the title of Louisiana Player of the Year.
In addition to being chosen for the First Team All-Parish and the Louisiana State High School All-Star Game, he was named the MVP of the district. In addition, he played for Australia’s junior national teams and was selected as an All-Australian player from 1992 to 1994.
After J. P. Piper was hired head coach of Nicholls State in the 2005–06 season, he would begin his career as a college coach working with Piper, his high school coach in Trafton.
Following his high school graduation, Patrick played one season as a part of Syracuse University’s 1996 NCAA Final Four national runner-up squad. After that, he moved to play for three seasons at UL-Lafayette.
He spent one season as the associate head coach at Saint Mary’s after leaving Nicholls, a position he held for four years (2006–10). The squad set a school record with 28 victories in his final year there and won the West Coast Conference tournament, sending them to the 2010 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. The group
He worked as a player personnel scout for the Houston Rockets for two seasons following his graduation from Saint Mary’s before agreeing to join Coach Jones’ staff.He spent two seasons at TCU after leaving LSU, where he won an NIT championship in 2017, before spending two years as the head coach of UC Riverside (2018–20). He was a finalist in 2020 for the Hugh Durham Award, which honors the nation’s best mid-major coach.He was an associate head coach at Oklahoma and Arkansas for one season each before coming to Sacrament State. While the Oklahoma team from 2022 went to the NIT Second Round, the Arkansas club from 2021 completed 25-7 and made it to the NCAA Tournament Elite 8.
He has been the Australian National Team’s assistant coach since 2019. The Boomers earned Australia’s first men’s basketball Olympic medal in 2021 when they took home a bronze medal. The squad advanced to the FIBA World Cup Final Four in 2019, where they defeated the United States for the first time ever.Patrick also enjoyed a successful four-year professional playing career abroad, including stints in Spain, England, and Australia. He was the Canberra Cannons’ 2000 NBL Rookie of the Year.Madison and Bailee are the two daughters of Patrick and his wife Cassie..
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