‘It’s a dream come true’: Sacramento State’s new coach only works if he sticks around
David Patrick doesn’t want to live out of a suitcase any more. He does not want to be a vagabond coach, bouncing here and there, near and far.
He’s ready to settle in and sink his chops into the biggest challenge of his basketball life. And Patrick has lived a good hoops life, in this state and across the globe.
Patrick is Sacramento State’s new men’s basketball coach who has proven he can capture the attention of his team or that of a packed news conference. He was introduced to the media Tuesday afternoon, and to a lot of people on campus that day as well. He does not embrace idle. This is a man in motion.
His voice was already hoarse because when Patrick speaks, he gets into it, working himself into a lather. He hit the ground running upon his official hiring last week. He has made a ton of calls. He has made recruiting trips. He has sent out emails — anything to sell the good merits of his new home and the Hornets brand. That includes how cool it could be for a player to study and play Division I ball in the state capitol, a location close enough to the shores of Lake Tahoe or the Bay Area that you can catch a whiff of it if the wind is just right.
Patrick said all the right things here in his first Sac State public moment. He was engaging and funny. He didn’t bore anyone with the tired verbiage of “changing the culture” or “trusting the process.” The front row of the news conference included his favorite all-time team of wife Cassie and daughters Bailee (16 years old) and Madison (11), and he reminded that he has a fondness for Northern California since this is where his girls were born. The second row of this overflow setting in the aptly named “Welcome Center” included several Sac State student-athletes, each of them riveted to every word of their new leader.
Dressed in a black suit, white shirt and striking Hornets-green tie, the radiant 46-year-old Patrick stressed that Sac State isn’t some quick stopover. He wants this to be the region for his girls to finish high school. He wants to make lifelong relationships with his Hornets players, to “attend their weddings.” But let’s be clear. This marriage between coach and campus works here if the coach sticks around awhile.
Hornets athletic director Mark Orr pounced on the chance to land Patrick, reminding that this opening garnered “significant interest across the country, and, frankly, the world. The name that kept coming up was David Patrick.”
The Patricks are house shopping and aim to make their new digs something a bit more permanent. This is Patrick’s ninth basketball post since 2006 when he was an associate head coach at Saint Mary’s in the Bay Area for five seasons, and where he worked regularly with Orr when Orr was in administration on the Moraga campus. Since 2018, Patrick worked as the head coach at UC Riverside, leading that program to its most successful run in D-I, and the associate head coach at big-time programs Arkansas and Oklahoma.
‘We’ll win games here. I promise you that’
So why Sac State now?
“People have asked me that: why leave a Power 5 school like Oklahoma for this?” Patrick said. “This is a dream come true. I see so much potential here. I’ve kind of moved around a lot, but it’s not what we’re about. We want to stay. We haven’t found a house yet but it’s a little more expensive than Oklahoma, I know that!”
He added, “I’ve been around the world and back with basketball. We can win the Big Sky Conference here. We can do big things. We’ll win games here. I promise you that. We’ll guard you on defense, play hard, play fast. It’ll be a fun brand to watch.”
About those challenges to confront and conquer? There are plenty. Sac State just completed its 30th season of Division I basketball play, but for all of the glimpses of promise, there have been a lot of speed bumps and rough patches. There have been just two winning seasons in the D-I era, with one 15-15 campaign and a few seasons just shy of finishing .500. Sac State’s last conference championship was in 1977 under coach Jack Heron.
Fortunately, the Hornets do not have a culture problem with the basketball program, a credit to previous coaches Brian Katz and Brandon Laird. Players competed and they graduated under the Katz/Laird era, and those coaches gave Sac State its best D-I seasons. Patrick said he is inheriting a good group of “high-character kids” who understand the value of education.
“My first texts to these players haven’t been about basketball but about academics,” Patrick said. “I’ve been in their shoes. I didn’t think I needed a diploma. You do.”
‘The gym doesn’t matter. The people do’
Patrick is a native of Bermuda and grew up in Australia. He didn’t arrive in this country until his senior year of high school in Louisiana. He played at Syracuse, a taste of the big time. As a longtime assistant coach, Patrick’s people skills helped land 11 recruits that landed in the NBA, including four first-round selections, He has coached 28 players that have gone on to play professionally somewhere, including 19 in the NBA.
Sac State players dream big, too. Quite a few have made good money playing ball overseas. The current Hornets want to tap into Patrick’s resources. Zach Chappell will be a returning senior guard, a local product from Capital Christian High School, and he’s already hooked on the new coach.
“He’s a great guy; you can tell right away,” Chappell said. “That’s what caught my eye. I know people who have known him and they all say the same thing. We’re close to being really good here, and we’re putting our trust in coach to help us. We know this next season can be a big year, right away.”
The biggest challenge for Patrick is the lack of a bona fide Division I arena. “The Nest” seats about 1,000, and it can be cozy, cool, noisy and fun, but it’s not sustainable. Sac State understands that it badly needs a new arena to elevate the program. It’s been discussed for decades. It’ll happen at some point, but Patrick isn’t stressing it.
“It’s not an issue,” Patrick said. “The gym doesn’t matter. The people do. If you have good trust and a good relationship with your players, that’s what you need.”
A moment later, Patrick ribbed his new boss, Orr, with, “If we can get a bigger place, Mr. Orr!”
Everyone laughed. Day 1 was a rousing success for the new coach ready to shepherd a new era.