ROD PALMER Assistant Coach

Rod Palmer will enter his third season as an assistant coach at UCLA in 2021-22. He joined the Bruins’ program in May of 2019 after having spent the previous 12 seasons coaching at Long Beach State and San Diego State.

Palmer has coached in the Southern California region for the past 28 years, both at the high school and college levels. He spent the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons at UCLA and the 2018-19 season at San Diego State. Prior to those three seasons, Palmer spent 11 years as an assistant coach at Long Beach State, including the final four seasons as the program’s associate head coach.

Through two seasons at UCLA, Palmer has played a major role in helping the Bruins compile a 41-22 overall record, including a trip to the NCAA Final Four in 2021. UCLA finished second in the Pac-12 in 2019-20 and fourth in 2020-21, logging a 25-11 two-year league record.

In 2020-21, UCLA went 22-10 overall and 13-6 in Pac-12 play. The Bruins opened their season with 13 wins in the first 16 games and registered their best start in conference action (with an 8-0 record) since beginning the 1982-83 season with a 9-0 Pac-10 record.

UCLA finished fourth in the Pac-12, behind a trio of NCAA Tournament-bound teams (Oregon, USC and Colorado). UCLA was one of five Pac-12 teams to advance to the NCAA Tournament and one of four, along with Oregon, USC and Oregon State, to advance to the Sweet 16.

UCLA’s program had three selections to the year-end All-Pac-12 team in 2020-21, including Tyger Campbell (first team), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (second team) and Johnny Juzang (second team).