By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — This era of college basketball is ruled by fearmongers.
Armchair GMs, Couch Coaches, etc.
No one decision that will ever be made will get the full approval of a fanbase.
In the immediate aftermath of legendary former St. Bonaventure men’s basketball head coach Mark Schmidt announcing his ‘retirement’, Mike MacDonald’s name nestled itself amongst rumor and speculation. Being a ‘88 graduate of St. Bonaventure and taking the wild amount of success he’s had at Div. II Daemen University as of late into consideration, there’s no wonder his name was one of the first to be thrown around in relation to the open position.
And a candidate he was. Relatively early in the search process, sources confirmed that his name was one that appeared on the shortlist the decision-makers had. But, MacDonald was unable to give the Bona speculation his full attention, given that he was leading Daemen on yet another historic postseason run.
Over the past two seasons, the Wildcats amassed a 61-3 overall record with not one loss coming in conference play. In 2024-25, Daemen got off to a 28-1 start and spent three weeks as the No. 1 team in the AP poll. This past season, they finished 33-2, were named East Coast Conference (ECC) Champions and were the East Regional Champions after reaching the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.
The biggest challenge facing those within the St. Bonaventure athletic department is how to win in this current era in which money does all the talking. With one of the lowest NIL budget and revenue shares in all of the Atlantic 10, Bona needed a head coach with recent, proven success that could be sustainable in the cannibalistic transfer portal era.
MacDonald checks those boxes.
But what has made him an immediate target for critics is his rocky track record at the Div. I level.
From 1997-2006, MacDonald was the head coach at Canisius College. In those nine years, he had a record of 108-153 with one 20-win season (2000-01), a year in which he was named the Basketball Coaches Association of New York (BCANY) Co-Coach of the Year. He left his post as the head coach of the Golden Griffins after the 05-06 campaign, and while he transitioned into a successful head coach at Div. III Medaille College, doubters of his ability to lead the Bonnies forward have clung onto the struggles he had at Canisius.
What people must remember is that winning in this current ‘Wild West’ era of college hoops, means winning NOW.
Frankly, it is unfair to judge whether or not MacDonald will be a success at St. Bonaventure based on anything prior to what he has done since the NIL/portal era began (2021-22).
The landscape of the game has completely shifted since the late 90s, when the prospect of paying a player would have seen you thrown in an asylum. Since the 2021-22 season, MacDonald has proven himself with a 126-29 overall record, a 72-10 ECC record and has gone 11-10 vs. ranked opponents. Notably, he was able to retain 13 of 14 eligible players from Daemen’s 2024-25 team, keeping the core of the team intact, something that caught the eyes of those on the search committee, considering the Bonnies have been rocked in back-to-back years by a mass exodus of players.
Consistency and player retention is harder to find today than it was in the early 2000s, and MacDonald has proven he can do both at the very top of the Div. II level. St. Bonaventure University President Dr. Jeff Gingerich noted in the official press release on MacDonald’s hire that his ability to retain talent and build enamored the committee.
Of course, he was able to do that in Div. II, and people have made clear their doubt of whether or not it will translate to Div. I. The incredible recent success of Iowa men’s basketball head coach Ben McCollum, who made the jump from Northwest Missouri State (Div. II) to Drake (Div. I) just a few years back, might be the best case study on what works at the lower levels does translate.
It’s not like they’re playing a different game after all.
“The same thing wins,” McCollum said during his introductory press conference at Iowa. “It’s the connectivity of your group, it’s toughness, it’s all those things. We didn’t win a lot of warm-up contests … but we were the most connected group out there, we were the toughest group and we were able to win basketball games. So, I learned quite a bit and a lot of it was just me understanding that that still does happen at these levels. Yeah, you need talent, but it doesn’t need to be Earth-shattering … you need connectivity, toughness and great kids.”
The other main critique people have had of MacDonald is his relationship to Men’s Basketball General Manager Adrian Wojnarowski. A concept that is simply lost on me.
Many have attached the confusion surrounding Schmidt’s departure from the Bona program to Wojnarowski and the athletic department as a whole. That, alongside the fact that the Bona faithful have only known what a Schmidt-run program looks like for the last 19 years, has fans questioning the decisions being made every step of the way.
To a certain degree, it is understandable. Change is scary, especially when the person that just left the position has the stature and track record of Schmidt.
But the fact of the matter is that since NIL and the portal shifted the power in college sports from the coaches to the players, St. Bonaventure has been above .500 in the Atlantic 10 just once. Schmidt was a master developer of talent, there’s no denying that. But he had gone on record saying how much he despised recruiting and what money has done to the game. So, for his replacement, Bona went with a guy that has had recent success, and it just so happens he has a previously established relationship with the team’s GM.
I am lost on where Woj having strong ties to MacDonald is an issue. My best guess would be preexisting disapproval.
Again to a certain degree I can understand why people are shaky on the hire of MacDonald. Do I have reservations about the hire? Sure. But can I also see why the leadership at St. Bonaventure went with MacDonald? Yes.
Established relationships with those in the athletic department aside, MacDonald has earned himself the chance at a shot back at the Div. I level. Sustainability might be the rarest characteristic in this hollowed out era of collegiate sports we find ourselves in, and he has managed to find that.
