Russell Turner - Men's Basketball Coach (2024)

Russell Turner, the winningest coach in UCI history,concluded his 13th season at the helm in 2022-23. Turner has guided the Anteaters to 265 wins, averaging over 20 wins a season.

Turner who enters his 14th season as head coach at UC Irvine in 2023-24, has led the 'Eaters to seven postseason appearances (2013 CIT, 2014 NIT, 2015 NCAA, 2016 CIT, 2017 NIT, 2019 NCAA, and 2023 NIT).

Turner became the only coach in UCI history to amass 200 wins.He has been named the Big West Coach of the Year four times in his career and has led the 'Eaters to Big West regular season titles in six of the last nine seasons.

On the national stage, Turner has been named a finalist for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year award in 2017 & 2020, and the Hugh Durham Award in 2019 & 2020. Bracketbusters.com also named him one of the Top-10 Big West Coaches of the Century.

In 2022-23, Turner guided the Anteaters back to the top of the Big West standings for his sixth regular season title and an automatic birth to his seventh postseason appearance at UCI. He earned his first regular season ranked win at No. 21 Oregon, 69-56, before claiming the Las Vegas Holiday Classic Invitational Crown at the end of November. Turner earned his 250th career win to place himfourth all-time on the Big West career wins list

UCI's 2020-21 team was the second youngest in the country, and Turner led the Anteaters to a Big West Tournament final for the fourth-consecutive season. He is one of only seven coaches in Big West history to reach over 200 wins.

In 2019-20, Turner led the Anteaters to their second-straight Big West regular season outright title, marking the first time in UCI history the 'Eaters won back-to-back outright titles. UCI entered the Big West Tournament as the No. 1 seed before its cancelation.

He led UCI to a record-breaking 2018-19 season as the Anteaters broke school records in overall wins (31), longest winning streak (17 games) and tied a program best 15-1 mark in Big West play. Turner guided the Anteaters to their second Big West Conference Tournament title and second NCAA Tournament appearance. UCI won its first-ever NCAA Tournament game defeating fourth-seeded Kansas State 70-64. He also helped Jonathan Galloway become the Big West's first-ever three time Defensive Player of the Year recipient. Turner was named the Big West Coach of the Year.

In 2017-18, he guided the Anteaters to their sixth-straight winning season with an 18-17 overall record and second-straight Big West Tournament final. He upped his career win total to 157 becoming the third coach in UC Irvine history to eclipse 150 wins in a career.

He was named Big West Conference Coach of the Year in 2017 after leading the Anteaters to their third regular-season league title in the last four years.

In 2016, Turner led UCI to a 28-10 record, which at the time, set school records for overall victories, non-conference wins (15), and road victories (13).

In 2015, he led UCI to the program’s first NCAA Division I Tournament berth as the Anteaters won the Big West Conference Tournament for the first time in school history. UCI took three-time national champion Louisville to the wire in the NCAA Second round, falling 57-55.

Turner was named 2014 Big West Conference Coach of the Year and NABC District 9 Coach of the Year after leading the Anteaters to their first league regular-season title in 12 years and a second consecutive 20-win season.

He guided the ‘Eaters to a 23-12 overall record in 2013-14 and a 13-3 mark in Big West play. Five of his players received Big West postseason recognition.

Turner was named UC Irvine's head coach April 9, 2010, after serving the previous six seasons as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association following positions at Stanford University and Wake Forest University.

Turner also served as a coach for the Warriors' summer-league entry in Las Vegas for five seasons. He has been an active participant in the NBA's international outreach camps, including Basketball without Borders, representing the league in Turkey, China and Lithuania. BWB is a program that uses basketball to create positive social change in education, health and wellness.

Turner was a member of Mike Montgomery's Stanford University staff from 2000-04 when the Cardinal had a combined overall record of 105-24 (.814), including 59-13 (.819) in Pac-10 play. Stanford won Pac-10 regular-season titles in 2001 and 2004, was ranked No. 1 in the polls both seasons, and advanced to the NCAA tournament each of Turner's four years, including the West Regional final in 2001.

The list of players he worked with at Stanford includes All-Americans Josh Childress, Casey Jacobsen, Jarron Collins and Jason Collins.

Prior to Stanford, Turned worked under Dave Odom as an assistant at Wake Forest University from 1994-2000.

The Demon Deacons won 161 games in those six seasons, advancing to the NCAA tournament three times, including the Midwest Regional final in 1996. Tim Duncan was a three-time All-American during Turner's tenure at Wake Forest.

Turner's first coaching position was as an assistant at his alma mater, Hampden-Sydney (Va.) College in 1993-94.

As a player at Hampden-Sydney, Turner was a two-time All-American (1991 & 1992) and set the school's career scoring record of 2,272 points. He was a member of Hampden-Sydney's first two NCAA tournament teams and was inducted into Hampden-Sydney's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

He graduated magna cum laude in 1992 with a B.A. in English and economics, and earned numerous academic honors including election into Phi Beta Kappa.

Turner is a native of Roanoke, Va. He and his wife, Elizabeth, a physician, have two children, Devlin and Darius.