As the dust settles on another lackluster season from Sacramento State men’s basketball, a change of scenery looms heading into a question-filled offseason.
The Hornets are on the move, leaving behind their long-inhabited arena of 70 years, The Nest. The Hornet Pavillion in The WELL, Sac State’s recreational athletic center, is undergoing renovations to be the new home for the basketball team.
Sac State President Luke Wood announced renovations are expected to be finished on April 22 via a post on X, in time for the Hornets to debut in the new arena by the start of next season.
Here is where the WELL is at. Done April 22nd. Install of new bleachers on April 4 pic.twitter.com/8FVi5IkhjX
— Dr. Luke Wood (@DrLukeWood) March 14, 2025
This change of scenery could be an opportunity to right the ship for Sac State as they close the door on a forgettable era of basketball.
While other Sac State programs like women’s basketball and volleyball have managed to bring home conference championships in the last three years, men’s basketball has continued to add onto a losing culture.
Since making the transition to Division I in 1991, the Hornets finished with a record over .500 in just two seasons and have never earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Sac State is the only team in the conference without a tournament appearance.
Sac State’s lack of winning isn’t exclusive to the postseason. Their struggles have been apparent in both regular season and tournament play as they are one of three Big Sky Conference teams that have yet to eclipse 120 total wins over the last 10 years.
Their most recent winning season was in the 2019-20 season under former head coach Brian Katz and saw Sac State advance in the conference tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt stop to their run.
Katz retired after the 2020-21 season, starting the head coaching carousel that has plagued the Hornets for the past four seasons.
Sac State has had three different head coaches since Katz’s departure. The longest stint being two seasons with former head coach David Patrick before he left for an associate head coach position at LSU six months before the start of the 2024-25 season.
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Patrick’s departure put former associate head coach Michael Czepil in the interim head coach position for the year, but his tenure was short-lived as the team went 7-25 on the year.
After the single season Czepil era, Sac State immediately filled his position on Monday, March 24 with a bombshell hire: former Sacramento Kings star guard Mike Bibby.
“It feels good,” Bibby said about becoming a Hornet. “I told Mark Orr and Luke Wood that I’m going to turn this team around. We’re gonna have guys that play hard and play for each other.”
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Coaching at Sac State will be Bibby’s first collegiate coaching job, following a stint at Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona, where he led the team to five state championships in six seasons.
Bibby is the first coach in the program’s history to have played in the NBA. His experience, blended with his deep connection to Sacramento, makes this signing a potentially massive step in the direction of achieving basketball competence.
Another head-scratcher for Sac State has been the inability to sign homegrown players in a city with a ton of basketball talent.
Sacramento has proven to be a hub for basketball talent in years past, producing names like former NBA All-Star and former mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson and NBA Champion Bill Cartwright.
In the past year, Sacramento natives Jaylen Wells and Jared McCain were selected in the top 40 picks of the 2024 NBA Draft.
McCain chose to play his lone college season at Duke, which made sense considering he was a consensus 5-star recruit coming out of high school and the number two ranked player in the country from the 2023 class.
Wells, however, was a very realistic option for the Hornets. After being named All-Metro player of the year in 2021, Wells accepted an offer to play DII at Sonoma State, which no longer has a basketball program as of 2025.
Both Wells and McCain have been recognized by the NBA for the hot starts to their careers, with Wells earning a Rising Stars selection and McCain being named Rookie of the Month in November.
Sacramento doesn’t have the appeal of a destination city or a historical collegiate program that attracts top basketball talent, an unacceptable excuse considering Sac State’s other programs have seen real success in recent years.
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With questions surrounding Bibby and player personnel, the Hornets could take the court next season with an entirely new identity.
The Hornets are losing graduating senior guard EJ Neal and All-Conference senior forward Jacob Holt, as well as most of their roster to the transfer portal.
Names in the portal include starters: sophomore guard Emil Skytta, junior guard Julian Vaughs and sophomore guard Bailey Nunn. The Hornets currently have only two remaining players from last season on the roster.
The recent Bibby signing, paired with the loss of four starters, has put Sac State in position for a team-wide overhaul this offseason.
The Hornets look to add onto what has already been a headline-generating offseason and put together a team that will bring relevance to a program that has historically done the opposite.
The transition to Hornet Pavillion is an opportunity for the fresh start that the program has been striving for.
