Rod Palmer

Biography

Rod Palmer enters his eighth season as an assistant coach at UCLA in 2026-27. Palmer has helped guide the Bruins to a record of 162-76 over the past seven seasons (2019-20 through 2025-26). He joined the Bruins’ program in May of 2019 after having spent his previous 12 seasons coaching at Long Beach State and San Diego State. Palmer has coached in the Southern California region for the past 33 years, both at the high school and college levels. He has spent the previous seven seasons at UCLA, and he coached at San Diego State in 2018-19. Prior to his time at UCLA and SDSU, 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 seven seasons at UCLA, Palmer has played a major role in guiding the Bruins to five NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four trip in 2021. After advancing from the First Four to the Final Four in 2021, UCLA made back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in 2022 and 2023. The Bruins advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2025 and 2026. In addition, UCLA won the Pac-12 regular-season title in 2023, marking the program’s first regular-season league title since 2013. The Bruins finished in second place in the Pac-12 standings in 2019-20 and 2021-22. Head coach Mick Cronin was honored as the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2023. In addition, UCLA has tallied a record of 44-26 in games decided by five points or fewer, including any game that extended into ove

Career Path