The 2021–22 UC Riverside Highlanders men's basketball team represented the University of California, Riverside in the

2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 9, 2021 and concluded on March 13, 2022. The 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 15 and concluded on April 4 with the c ...

. The Highlanders, led by second-year head coach

Mike Magpayo Mike Magpayo is an American men's college basketball head coach for the UC Riverside Highlanders. In July 2020, Magpayo became the first NCAA Division I men's basketball head coach of full Asian heritage. Early life Magpayo is a native of ...

, played their home games at the on-campus Student Recreation Center Arena in Riverside, California, and competed as members of the Big West Conference.

Previous season

UCR finished 14–8, including an 8–4 record in conference play, during Magpayo's first season at the helm in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

. After finishing third in the regular-season Big West Conference standings, the Highlanders defeated Hawaii in the quarterfinals of the Big West tournament before being eliminated in the semifinals by UC Irvine. Their .636 winning percentage on the season was UCR's best single-season mark since the program transitioned to Division I in 2001.

Preseason

Prior to the season, the future of the men's basketball program was placed into doubt, as UC Riverside's leadership were considering cutting the university's entire athletics department in response to financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in May 2021, the university announced that they had decided against eliminating athletics and would continue competing at the NCAA Division I level in all sports, thus saving the men's basketball program from extinction.

Roster

For the second straight season, over half of UC Riverside's roster consists, curiously, of players who are from either

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

or New Zealand.

Schedule and results

On November 11, the Highlanders upset

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

school Arizona State on the road, 66–65. As time expired in the game, forward J. P. Moorman II sank a

buzzer-beating In basketball and other such timed sports, a buzzer beater is a shot that is taken before the game clock of a quarter, a half (if the half is the second one, then, a game), or an overtime period expires but does not go in the basket until after t ...

three-pointer from past half-court to stun the Sun Devils in what a '' USA Today'' opinion piece called "one of college basketball's shining moments" and "perhaps the shot of the year". , - !colspan=12 style=, Exhibition , - !colspan=12 style=, Non-conference regular season , - !colspan=12 style=, Big West regular season , - !colspan=12 style=, Big West tournament Sources:

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 UC Riverside Highlanders men's basketball team UC Riverside Highlanders men's basketball seasons UC Riverside Highlanders

UC Riverside Highlanders men's basketball UC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''University Challenge'', a popular British quiz programme airing on BBC Two ** '' University Challenge (New Zealand)'', the New Zealand version of the British programme * Universal Century, one of the ti ...