On the morning of March 30, UC San Diego men’s basketball then-associate head coach Clint Allard received a call. Only one week prior, Allard was on the sidelines in Denver for the Tritons’ first-ever March Madness appearance, sitting next to the man on the phone: then-UCSD head coach Eric Olen.
“He called me first,” Allard said. “He called to let me know that he had taken the [New Mexico] job.”
“Kind of, like, prepare for your week to get crazy,” Allard recalls Olen telling him.
Over the preceding weeks, as the Tritons racked up wins, Olen had received interest from a myriad of schools. After New Mexico head coach Richard Pitino’s departure, the Lobos worked quickly to secure Olen’s signature.
Within an hour of Olen’s decision to leave, UCSD Director of Athletics Earl Edwards called Allard: He would be the 13th head coach of UCSD men’s basketball.
“I’m honored,” Allard said. “[I] feel very fortunate to be in this position and taking over a program that I’m so passionate about.”
Allard has deep connections to UCSD. Upon graduating from Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, he played four years of Division-II basketball in Triton blue and gold. Even two decades later, he still remembers his college years in meticulous detail.
“We had the practice slot from 5 to 8 [p.m.] freshman year, which was kind of brutal,” Allard said. “If I wanted to make it before the dining hall closed, I had to hop on my bike and book it and hope to make it before I had to do the late night options.”
His favorite dining hall, by the way, was Ocean View Terrace. When asked about his go-to orders, his face lit up.
“OVT, at the time, had really good breakfast all-day options,” he said, smiling. “Either the OVT breakfast burrito or a sandwich called the Bobcat, which was like a breakfast sandwich and it was really good.”
Although OVT’s all-day breakfast menu items have since been removed, Allard remains at UCSD. Allard has been on the Triton sidelines since he graduated in 2008, apart from a brief two-season stint at Cal Poly Pomona. Allard believes that this familiarity with the campus will help him in his new role.
“I’ve been here so long I’ve gotten to do all parts of meeting people across campus, getting familiar with different people in academics and administration, knowing the admissions requirements, knowing where our guys have lived off campus, what the college system looks like, what different majors have different requirements,” he said. “All these things are a little second nature to me, and having that familiarity with how it works and how the community is and everything like that is a great advantage.”
Allard even remembers the exact dorm he lived in his first year.
“I was in Revelle College,” Allard recalled. “I was in Beagle 250, which I’m not even sure is still there.”
It is indeed still there.
Two decades after he first suited up for the Tritons, Allard is now tasked with stewarding his alma mater basketball team into a new era, despite beginning with nearly no coaching staff. Triton assistant coaches Tom Tankelewicz, Sam Stapleton, and Mikey Howell followed Olen to New Mexico, leaving only assistant coach Steven Aldridge with Allard.
The exodus of the vast majority of the coaching staff did present difficulties in recruiting, as many potential recruits had connections with the departing coaches. However, Allard still believes that the Tritons were well placed to make a splash in the portal.
“We’re in a great position at UC San Diego right now,” he said. “As far as our name recognition, when I’m talking to recruits or anything like that, they have much more familiarity with UC San Diego as a school and as a basketball program. They saw us play on TV and know about [the] success that we had this year.”
In the next few days, junior forward Nordin Kapic and junior guard Chris Howell, along with several other Tritons, entered the transfer portal. Kapic and Howell would commit to South Carolina and New Mexico, respectively.
Senior guards Tyler McGhie and Hayden Gray, out of eligibility, also entered the portal. Both are attempting to appeal to receive an extra year. Allard seemed skeptical that they would be able to return for another season.
“We’ve talked about that a decent amount,” he said. “I think they are just hopeful that they can continue to play and are sending out a Hail Mary a little bit. My most recent conversations with them are probably a little more focusing on what’s coming next after college basketball.”
After a slow start, the end of April saw a flurry of new transfers commit to UCSD — most notably, senior guard Tyson Dunn from Buffalo, sophomore forward Bol Dengdit from Portland, and freshman guard Alex Chaikin from Lafayette.
“It feels like it happened so fast,” Allard said. “You can go a couple of days where you miss on a couple of players you’re hoping to get and think, ‘Oh, this is not going the way I want.’ And then, we had a Monday where I think we had three players commit, and I was like, ‘Oh this is really exciting.’ There can be some ups and downs in the shortened recruiting cycle that we’re in right now.”
During this period, Allard could often be found at Ridgewalk Social, grabbing lunch and chatting with potential coaches and recruits.
“They have my order down for sure,” he laughed. “We’re lucky to have a great restaurant right here next to the arena where we can have some lunch. I wouldn’t be able to ballpark a number that we’ve spent, but I’ve spent a lot of days there.”
Even with a transformed roster, Allard is confident that the Tritons have a promising season ahead.
“The expectation is definitely to be competitive,” he said. “With so many new pieces that we will bring into the fold, there’s gonna be a learning curve. It’s really just how quickly we can get to our best basketball that will determine our ceiling and determine what success looks like.”
Allard also emphasized that he remains close to his former colleagues and turns to them for coaching help.
“We continue to help each other out,” Allard said. “I’ve called on Olen and coach Sam and coach Mikey for things here and there. ‘Can you send me this document you did? Can you give me this contact that you were talking to?’ All those guys are super helpful and we’re always rooting for each other.”
One late-night phone call with Olen was particularly meaningful to Allard.
“Two nights into me having the job, we talked one night, pretty late after long days at work,” Allard said. “He signed off with basically, ‘Hey, I like our new head-coach-to-head-coach dynamic,’ of being able to talk to each other about experiences that I’m having and experiences that he’s having. It’s kind of just a new step for our relationship.”
As for what’s next for UCSD men’s basketball? While Allard doesn’t want to make any promises, he feels that the Tritons are definitely on the right path.
“This place is going to continue to have upward trajectory — that is part of what drew me here,” Allard said. “When I first got here as a student, [I] just [thought], ‘Man, look at what this place could be in the future.’ We’ve seen the consistent upward trajectory of becoming a really good Division-II team and a little bit of an extension into Division I. So, what the future holds, I don’t know. My plan is to continue us on the path that this school deserves, of that upward trajectory of what UC San Diego looks like.”
