SAN MARCOS, Calif. – After three seasons on the Tritons bench, UC San Diego assistant coach Nick Booker has been named the head men's basketball coach at Cal State San Marcos. The announcement came Monday morning on the CSUSM campus.
 
Booker served as an assistant coach for the Tritons since 2020. In his three seasons on the bench, Booker helped the Tritons transition from NCAA Division II to Division I and coordinated the recruiting efforts that helped bring a talented young core to La Jolla. Now, he'll serve as head coach for the Tritons' former CCAA Division II rival in San Marcos, becoming the third head coach in the Cougars' program history.

"I'm so grateful to Eric Olen for giving me the amazing opportunity to coach at UC San Diego," Booker said. "He is a tremendous leader and I have no doubt UCSD will have sustained success. There's so much talent on that roster and on the staff. I'm grateful to have played a small part in building something special in La Jolla and can't wait to see them find their way."
 
"We're so happy for Nick and this well-deserved opportunity to lead Cal State San Marcos," said UC San Diego head coach Eric Olen. "Coach Booker was an integral part of our staff during a transformational time in our program. We look forward to seeing his continued success as a head coach."

While in La Jolla, Booker was also a founding member of Tritons Rise Up (TRU), the department's equity, diversity, and inclusion committee that strategized ways to continue to reinforce the core values of inclusion at UC San Diego.

Prior to UC San Diego, he was the associate head coach at Eastern Washington University from April 2017 through May 2020. Booker was responsible for leading player skill development with emphasis on post players and on-court coaching with defensive emphasis. He also oversaw academic monitoring, recruiting, practice planning, in-season opponent scouting and summer camps.

In three seasons at Eastern Washington, Booker helped the Eagles win 59 games overall, 41 in Big Sky Conference play and a Big Sky championship in 2019-20. He also helped develop a pair of Big Sky Players of the Year: Bogdan Bliznyuk (2017-18) and Mason Pealting (2019-20). As a result of that success, on May 16, 2020, silverwavesmedia.com acknowledged him as one of the top 50 impactful NCAA Division I assistant coaches in the nation, and Booker was also named as the top assistant coach in the Big Sky by Stadium.

In April 2016, Booker returned to his alma mater Davidson College as the director of basketball operations, and before that, he was at UC Irvine as the director of basketball operations from September 2010 to March 2011 before being elevated to assistant coach from April 2011 to March 2016.

Booker spent time at Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo as an assistant coach and interim head coach from July 2007 through August 2010 after his first coaching gig as an assistant at Miramar Community College for the 2006-07 season.

The Davidson grad earned his bachelor's degree in history in 2004. He was a member of the Wildcats team under former Davidson head coach Bob McKillop. He was a starter for the 2002 Southern Conference championship team that competed in the NCAA Tournament against Ohio State. As a senior, Booker led Davidson in blocked shots and steals. In his time playing for the Wildcats, her was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and contributed to back-to-back regular-season conference championships in 2001 and 2002.

Booker earned his master's degree in physical education from Azusa Pacific in 2010.

An Oceanside native, Booker is married to his wife Alayna and has four children: Philip, Kaleb, Ella, and Madisyn.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.