For the first time in his 11-stop men’s basketball coaching career, Gus Argenal didn’t need to move houses.
The former Arkansas assistant coach, who resided in Fayetteville from 2021-23 under former coach Eric Musselman, was accepting a position just about 20 minutes away from his previous post.
Argenal led Division II California State-San Bernardino to the Final Four and second round in 2023. He was announced as California-Riverside’s new lead man May 1.
Upon reaching his Division I dream, Argenal looked out on his introductory press conference and saw Musselman, who worked with at Nevada and Arkansas, there to support him.
“You can tell that he’s still a mentor to me,” Argenal said. “He’s just a huge part of my development, my career….I always say that he’s a mad scientist, so I try to take pieces of that.”
Argenal is appreciative of his time on The Hill, still keeping up with the Razorbacks and what happens in Fayetteville.
His stint in Arkansas was a formative time, allowing him to work, compete and win at the highest level in college basketball.
“I can’t look back at a place more fondly than I do to work at the University of Arkansas,” Argenal said. “I loved every moment of it. It was huge for me and my family.”
The Razorbacks found consistent postseason success when he and Musselman were at Bud Walton Arena, which is what Argenal hopes to build at UC Riverside.
“He is a proven winner, and he will have great success at UCR,” Musselman said in a news release when Argenal’s hiring was announced. “He will bring an exciting style of play and will do an excellent job cultivating the community, both on and off the floor. He is one of the best coaches I have ever been around whether it is in college or even at the NBA level.”
The Highlanders have won 20 games twice in the past three seasons and have had their best period in their Division I history. Coach Mike Magpayo departed for Fordham, which led UC Riverside to CSU-San Bernardino just down the road.
Argenal prepared for his move back into head coaching — he previously led Cal State East Bay from 2013-17 — by scouting, preparing for and working with some of the nation’s best players and teams.
Developing game plans in the SEC and working with future NBA players such as Anthony Black, Nick Smith, Jordan Walsh and others helped him to prepare for his return to head coaching.
“Coach Gus is such a great basketball mind and a great leader,” Black said in the news release. “He pushes everyone he works with to be a better player, and more than that, he will make you a better man. He holds his players accountable and while supporting them at the same time.”
CSU San Bernardino advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round despite losing two of its top players midway through the season.
Argenal credited his team’s ability to get through that to his time with the Razorbacks during the 2021-22 season, his first in Fayetteville, in which they dealt with injuries and overcame a 0-3 start to SEC play to eventually advance to the Elite Eight.
“When things go bad, sometimes you have to stir the pot a bit,” he said. “I really learned that. Trying different lineups, style of play a little bit changing at times, the ability to adjust and adapt to your team each year, handle injuries and sickness throughout a season, it’s a skill to do that. My time at Arkansas allowed me to develop that and see that at the highest level.”
There is precedent for former Division II coaches to make the jump and have success.
Former Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum made the Division I jump with Drake this past season. The Bulldogs finished 31-4 with a Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament title and defeated Missouri at the NCAA Tournament. He is now at Iowa.
Omaha coach Chris Crutchfield, who is also a former Musselman assistant at Arkansas, led the Mavericks to their first Division I NCAA Tournament appearance after winning the Summit League Tournament. He previously coached in the Division II ranks with East Central in Oklahoma.
Other prominent examples include Tobin Anderson going from St. Thomas Aquinas (NY) to Fairleigh Dickinson and upsetting top-seeded Purdue in the 2023 NCAA Tournament and Bruce Pearl winning a Division II national title at Southern Indiana and bringing Tennessee and Auburn to prominence.
“The coaches at this level are phenomenal,” Argenal said. “I’m excited to have that, a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, to be able to prove myself at the next level, even though I’ve done it and coached at the highest level being at Arkansas and Nevada and all that.
“Now, you get your opportunity to show, ‘Hey, this is something that really worked for us at San Bernardino and other places, and now we’re going to show that it works on the biggest stage.’”
Argenal now gets that opportunity with UC Riverside in the Big West, a conference that saw UC San Diego and UC Irvine each win over 30 games.
“You better be ready to compete every night,” he said.
Now in his 11th coaching stop, Argenal gets his opportunity to lead a Division I program and holds the lessons he learned at Arkansas near as he builds the next chapter of his career.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be a Division I head coach,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it unless I worked for Eric Musselman. I wouldn’t be able to be here right now if I hadn’t worked at Arkansas. The school, the community there, everybody that impacted me there at Arkansas, it was such a great experience for our family.”
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