Isaiah Wilkins is in his first season as an assistant coach for the California men’s basketball program. Wilkins, a former Virginia standout and the 2018 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, joined Mark Madsen’s staff ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
Wilkins got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2021 and held that position for two seasons before he was promoted to assistant coach prior to the 2023-24 season. Virginia won 20-plus games three times and played in the NCAA tournament twice with Wilkins on staff.
Wilkins helped the Cavaliers win two ACC regular-season titles and one ACC Tournament title in addition to making four NCAA tournament appearances and post a 113-26 record during his four seasons played from 2015-18. He was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 and was a two-time All-ACC Defensive team honoree. Wilkins averaged 4.9 points and 4.8 rebounds in 132 career games for the Cavaliers and ranks fifth on the program’s career blocked shots list with 141.
He went on to play three years professionally, including stints with Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany’s top league, the BBL, in 2020-21, Polpharma Starogard Gdanski in the Polish Basketball League in 2019-20, Canterbury of the NBL (New Zealand) in 2019 – he was the NBL Defensive Player of the Year – and the Greensboro Storm of the NBA G League in 2018-19.
Wilkins is a double graduate of Virginia, having earned his undergraduate degree in African American and African studies in 2018 and a master’s degree in higher education in 2023.
Wilkins is married to Catalina Pinto.
LAST UPDATED: April 21, 2025
