Brandon Laird enters his first season as a member of the UC Davis coaching staff in 2022-23.
"Brandon has an excellent basketball mind and we are fortunate to have him on our staff," Les said. "He is also a hard working and high character person who will be an outstanding mentor to our student-athletes."
Laird's return to UC Davis serves as a homecoming on numerous fronts for the former Aggie.
He spent four seasons from 1997-01 playing at the Pavilion, appearing in 85 games over his career and was a member of UC Davis' 1998 NCAA Division II national championship team with current UC Davis associate head coach Kevin Nosek. Laird got his coaching start as a member of the Aggies' staff for the 2002-03 season and served as an assistant coach from 2009-11, just prior to Les' arrival.
Most recently, Laird was the interim head coach at Sacramento State where he took over four days before the start of the 2021-22 season. Laird led the Hornets to 11 wins, the most by a first-year head coach in the program's Division I era. Sacramento State won five its final seven games, including its first round game at the Big Sky Conference Tournament.
Prior to that, Laird spent nine seasons as an associate head coach under Brian Katz at Sacramento State and one as an assistant coach.
He also spent three seasons from 2003-06 as an assistant coach at Menlo College and three more from 2006-09 as the head coach at Menlo College.
