Brandon Barnes enters his seventh season as an assistant coach for the CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team in Fall of 2025.
In Barnes' five years as an assistant in Bakersfield, the `Runners have produced six All-Conference honorees (Taze Moore 2021, Justin Edler-Davis 2021, Justin McCall 2022, Antavion Collum 2023, Kaleb Higgins 2024, Jemel Jones 2025), including a First Team nod in 2021 (Taze Moore). In the classroom, the `Runners have also enjoyed nine Academic All-Conference nods in Barnes tenure.
A familiar face around Bakersfield’s program, Barnes made his return to CSUB after spending the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets’ NBA G-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Barnes helped the squad win the 2019 G-League Championship as the Vipers defeated the Long Island Nets in Game 3 of the Finals, 129-112.
Rio Grande Valley helped four G-League players earn call-ups to the NBA in 2018-19 including Gary Payton II, Bruno Caboclo, Michael Frazier II, and Brandon Sampson. Barnes worked closely with the G-League's Most Improved Player, Michael Frazier, as well as Rockets assignee and G-League Finals MVP Isaiah Hartenstein, who played 28 games with the Rockets last year.
As the defensive coordinator for the Vipers, Barnes helped Rio Grande Valley move from ranking near the bottom of the G-League in nearly every category to at least Top 10 in defensive rebounds, steals (3rd), Blocks (2nd), opponent FG% (5th), and turnovers forced (5th). With Barnes' father and CSU Bakersfield's Head Coach, Rod Barnes, being a defensive-minded coach, Barnes' roots run deep into a defensive culture and he imparted that on the Vipers, who posted their highest Defensive Efficiency Rating since the 2012-13 season.
Prior to his time with the NBA G-League, Barnes was a member of the CSUB men’s basketball coaching staff, serving as the Director of Basketball Operations for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. During Barnes’ first stint with the `Runners, he helped the team win its first Western Athletic Conference regular-season title and guided CSUB through a historic run to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden.
Before joining the CSUB coaching staff, Barnes was a two-year letterwinner for the `Runners. After transferring to Bakersfield from Lipscomb University, Barnes was a member of the last CSUB squad that competed as an NCAA Division I independent (2012-13) and the first for the school to compete in the WAC (2013-14). As a `Runner, Barnes averaged 11 points and five rebounds a game while shooting 44-percent from the field and 31-percent from three-point range.
After graduating from CSUB in 2014 with a business administration degree (marketing concentration), Barnes began his coaching career at Costa Mesa High School in Costa Mesa, Calif. He was the head coach of the frosh/soph team in 2014-15 before being named head coach of the Perris High School boys’ varsity team, where he led the Panthers to an 18-6 record and an 8-2 mark in league play. The Panthers also appeared in the Division 2AA CIF semifinals, where they fell to eventual champion Ayala.
Barnes and his wife Erika have four children: Andrew, Soraya, Ethan, and Brandon II.
