Cal to Hire Richard Midgley as Men's Basketball GM

Midgley, who played for Cal, will handle the increasing administrative demands of D1 basketball as the Bears' general manager

Mark Madsen | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Former Cal basketball standout Richard Midgley has been hired as Cal basketball's general manager, according to a source close to the situation. It's unclear whether Midgley will work alone as the general manager.

Midgley was a starting guard for Cal in all four of his seasons with the Bears under head coach Ben Braun, from 2002-2003 to 2005-2006. He started 99 games for the Bears and had a career scoring average of 10.2 points. His best season was 2024-2005, when he averaged 12.9 points.

He hit a game-winning three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in overtime in Cal's 76-74 win over North Carolina State in the 2003 NCAA tournament.

Midgley is from England and has been working as a scout for the Brooklyn Nets since 2019, and worked in a similar capacity for the Atlanta Hawks before that. His experience as a scout should help him identify talent Cal can pursue.

Before working with the NBA teams, Midgley had been the head coach at Modesto Christian High School, his alma mater.

He will have his work cut out for him in the newly created position of men's basketball general manager.

Many prominent Division I basketball programs have added a general manager to handle the many new demands involved with the transfer portal, NIL opportunities and payments, revenue-sharing with players, fund raising and recruiting that have developed in recent years.

Madsen has been asking that a general manager be hired for Cal basketball because of those increased demands, and Midgley will fill that multifaceted role, which has become nearly a necessity to compete at the highest level.

Cal's football program has both a general manager (Ron Rivera) and an assistant general manager (Marshall Cherrington), and Midgley will be asked to handle similar responsibilities for Cal's men's basketball program. It's unclear whether Cal will hire another person to share the general manager role with Midgley.

Madsen's attempt to build a solid program has been difficult because he has had to start virtually from scratch each season because of the vast turnover from the transfer program. That requires a lot of a head coach's time and paperwork besides the organization and preparation of the team itself.

The Bears went 22-12 this past season and played in the National Invitation Tournament, Cal's first postseason berth since 2017. However, his two best players, Dai Dai Ames and Justin Pippen, transferred out, and two other starters ran out of eligibility, forcing Madsen to bring in five transfers to rebuild the roster for the 2026-27 season.

Midgley will work with transfer acquisition and retention while helping to administrate payments for current and incoming players, both from the transfer portal and incoming freshmen. Fund-raising will also be part of Midgley's wide-ranging responsibilities to basically oversee the men's basketball program.