Damari Mistead joined the LMU Men's Basketball staff in the summer of 2024 ahead of the 2024-25 season. The 2025-26 season will be his second at LMU and first as Director of Basketball Operations.
In 2024-25, Milstead helped lead LMU to two separate win streaks of five games apiece. The Lions closed out non-conference play with five wins in a row and then, for the first time since 1991, won five consecutive wins in conference play.
In November, the LMU Men's Basketball team left foreign soil as MTE Champions. The Lions followed their 2022 Jamaica Classic title with a second in-season tournament title during his tenure leading the Lions. The Lions defeated Belmont in the opening game of the tournament and then overcame a 10-point deficit with less than six minutes to play in the second half to clinch the Championship.
Following the season, Jevon Porter and Caleb Stone-Carrawell were named to the All-WCC Honorable Mention team. For the fourth consecutive, LMU men's basketball had two players selected to the West Coast Conference's All-Academic Team. Rick Issanza and Alex Merkviladze have been voted to the league's All-Academic team with Lamaj Lewis earning Honorable Mention recognition.
Milstead played four seasons of college basketball at three schools. Milstead spent two seasons at Grand Canyon from 2017-19 and played for current LMU Assistant Coach Louis Wilson in his final year with the Lopes. Following his time at GCU, Milstead spend a year in the West Coast Conference at San Francisco in 2020-21 and closed out his playing career with an NCAA Tournament berth in 2022 with Cal State Fullerton.
Milstead played and started in all 32 games his senior year and averaged 12.1 points and 30.8 minutes per game for the BIg West Tournament Champions. Milstead scored 17 points in the conference tournament championship and then led the Titans with 12 points along with five rebounds, three assists and three steals in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Duke.
Over his four-year collegiate career, Milstead shot 41.9 percent from the field and scored over eight points per game.
Prior to college, Milstead was a four-year starter who led Moreau Catholic to a 100-29 mark in his career to be the winningest player in school history. Milstead was The San Francisco Chronicle’s 2016-17 Boys Metro Player of the Year, one of many awards that led to his head coach calling him "one of the most decorated high school players ever (in California)." He accumulated 2,353 points with a career average of 19.4 and helped lead the Mariners lead to three North Coast Section titles in his four years.
