Wherever he has gone, Mike DeGeorge has been a builder of basketball programs.
The Beloit native welcomes a new challenge.
California Polytechnic State University, “Cal Poly” for short, announced Tuesday that DeGeorge has been named the men’s basketball head coach. He arrives in San Luis Obispo, Calif., after six seasons as head coach at Colorado Mesa, where he took the program to five NCAA Division II Tournaments and averaged 23 victories per season.
“We had some great basketball minds that aided Cal Poly through the search, and we appreciate the time and dedication it took from many people to help with this process,” Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman stated on the Cal Poly website. “Coach DeGeorge has a proven track record of building programs from the ground up — he’s done it at every level. President Armstrong and I felt that his years of experience and demonstrated success as a collegiate head coach is exactly what Cal Poly needs at this time. Our fans will love the style of play Coach DeGeorge will be bringing to the Central Coast.”
DeGeorge guided Colorado Mesa to three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season titles and two conference tournament championships in six seasons there.
“I am honored to be selected as the next head men’s basketball coach at Cal Poly,” DeGeorge stated on the website. “My wife Christi and I have been blown away by Cal Poly and the Central Coast, but the people are what convinced us this is an ideal professional fit for me and a personal fit for our family. I have made a career of turning programs around and to be able to do it at the Division I level would be a dream come true. In addition, I believe our system is built to help us maximize our potential and we are excited to put that to the test. Let’s get to work!”\
DeGeorge took a Colorado Mesa program that won 19 games combined in the two seasons prior to his arrival and turned them into a 19-win team in his initial season. In 2020-21, he led the program to its first-ever No. 1 national ranking and the school’s first appearance in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
“Mike DeGeorge’s values and philosophy of coaching is a perfect fit for Cal Poly,” said Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong. “Mike’s demonstrated leadership and his commitment to human growth and development fully align with our university and our athletic department.”
Despite having his best returning player enter the transfer portal and move to Division 1, DeGeorge led Colorado Mesa to a regular season conference title and Sweet 16 of the D-II NCAA Tournament. He earned RMAC Coach of the Year for the second time. Colorado Mesa led the nation in effective field goal percentage, was third in 3-point shots made per game with 11.4 and was 16th in scoring with over 86 points per game.
Colorado Mesa Athletic Director Joan McDermott expects DeGeorge to have success at Cal Poly.
“Having worked with many high-level coaches, I would add Coach DeGeorge to the top of the list,” she said,. “He has an incredible basketball mind and is an excellent teacher of the game. Watch out Big West because he will bring this program around quickly.”
Prior to Colorado Mesa, the Beloit Catholic High School grad was the head coach at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., for eight seasons. He also coached at Eureka College (2000-04) and at Cornell College (2004-09).
DeGeorge started his coaching career in 1993-94 assisting Bill Knapton at Beloit College. He was also an assistant at Lawrence University (1994-99) and Grinnell (1999-2000) before landing his first head coaching position.
DeGeorge played basketball and golfed at Monmouth. He and his wife Christi have four children (Max, Maya, Morgan and Madison) ranging in age from 15-21.
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