| Sport: | basketball |
| Year: | 2023–24 |
| Prev Year: | 2022–23 |
| Team: | UC Irvine Anteaters |
| Conference: | Big West Conference |
| Short Conf: | Big West |
| Record: | 24–10 |
| Conf Record: | 17–3 |
| Head Coach: | Russell Turner |
| Hc Year: | 14th |
| Asst Coach1: | Ryan Badrtalei |
| Ac1 Year: | 15th |
| Asst Coach2: | Michael Wilder |
| Ac2 Year: | 8th |
| Asst Coach3: | Alex Young |
| Ac3 Year: | 4th |
| Arena: | Bren Events Center (Capacity: 5,000) |
| Champion: | Big West regular season champions 2023 William Jones Cup champions Ball Dawgs Classic champions |
| Tourney: | NIT |
| Tourney Result: | First Round |
The 2023–24 UC Irvine Anteaters men's basketball team represented the University of California, Irvine in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. They played their home games at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, California as a member of the Big West Conference. The Anteaters were led by 14th-year head coach Russell Turner.
See also: 2022–23 UC Irvine Anteaters men's basketball team.
Despite being picked to finish fourth in the Big West Pre-Season Poll, The Anteaters finished the 2022–23 season 23–12, 15–5 to finish in a tie for 1st in Big West play, holding the tie-breaker over UC Santa Barbara. During the regular season, the Anteaters defeated then #21 Oregon 69–56 in Eugene on November 22, 2022, for the program's first victory over a ranked opponent during the regular season since 2005 when they defeated #15 Stanford. The Anteaters would lose to then-ranked #24 San Diego State 69–72 in San Diego holding the lead into the final minutes of the game. After defeating Cal State Bakersfield in the quarterfinals, they lost to Cal State Fullerton in the semifinals of the Big West tournament. The team also won the 2022 Las Vegas Holiday Classic Invite. The team won the Big West auto-bid for the 2023 NIT where the matched with Oregon again and were defeated 58–84. Russell Turner won his 250th game on December 31, 2022, vs Cal State Bakersfield. In that game, the Anteaters broke the school record for attempted free-throws making 30-51 attempts. The team recorded its 13th 20 win season, 8th under Turner.[1]
Irvine lost its top two scorers from the 2022–23 season, Dawson Baker (15.3 points per game) and DJ Davis (15.0 ppg), to the NCAA transfer portal in the spring of 2023. Baker transferred to BYU and Davis transferred to Butler.[2] [3] Junior forward Chazz Hutchison also entered the portal and senior forward JC Butler graduated. Emilus Buktus was with the team in the summer playing in the Jack Jones Cup, but left the team prior to the regular season.
| Name | Number | Pos. | Height | Weight | Year | Hometown | Reason for departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | F | 6'5" | 195 | Senior | Graduated | ||
| 1 | G | 6'4" | 190 | Junior | Transferred to BYU[4] | ||
| 5 | F | 6'9" | 215 | Junior | Transferred to Southern Utah[5] | ||
| 22 | G | 6'1" | 170 | Junior | Transferred to Butler[6] | ||
Dylan Thoerner, a graduate guard from Tufts and Irvine native, transferred to the program, ultimately bringing UC Irvine's transfer portal turnover to a net loss of two.[7]
Irvine's first commitment of the 2023 class came three years prior from 6-foot-10 forward Carter Welling, the brother of Anteaters forward Hayden Welling. He graduated high school in 2021 and went on a two-year LDS mission before beginning at UC Irvine.[8] On May 2, 2023, 6-foot-4 guard Ben Egbo committed to UCI as a walk-on.[9] On May 11, nationally-ranked guard prospect Jurian Dixon committed to the team.[10] UCI rounded out its recruiting class with a June 13 commitment from Derin Saran, a guard originally from Turkey.[11]
Source[12]
|-!colspan=12 style=""| 2023 William Jones Cup|-!colspan=12 style=| Exhibition|-!colspan=12 style=| Non-conference regular season|-!colspan=12 style=| Big West regular season|-!colspan=12 style=| Big West tournament|-!colspan=12 style=| National Invitation TournamentSource[13]