The 2025–26 UC Riverside Highlanders men's basketball team represented the University of California, Riverside during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Highlanders, led by first-year head coach Gus Argenal, played their home games at the SRC Arena in Riverside, California as members of the Big West Conference. They finished the season 10–22, 5–15 in Big West play to finish in 11th place. They failed to qualify for the Big West tournament.
Previous season The Highlanders finished the 2024–25 season 21–13, 14–6 in Big West play to finish in a tie for third place. As the No. 3 seed in the Big West tournament, they were upset by Cal Poly in the quarterfinals. They received an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament. There they lost to Santa Clara in the first round.
On March 29, 2025, head coach Mike Magpayo left the team to take the head coaching position at Fordham. On May 1, the school announced that Cal State San Bernardino head coach Gus Argenal would be the team's new head coach.
Preseason On October 16, 2025, the Big West Conference released their preseason coaches poll. UC Riverside was picked to finish ninth in the conference.
Preseason rankings +Big West Preseason Poll Place Team Points 1 98 (8) 2 93 (3) 3 76 4 69 5 63 6 58 7 54 8 31 9 UC Riverside 26 10 20 11 17
Source:
Preseason All-Big West Team No players were named the Preseason All-Big West Team.
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season
Sources:
References