By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — In his introductory press conference, new St. Bonaventure men’s basketball head coach Mike MacDonald said all the right things.
He came off charismatic, genuine and honest in his first time fielding questions from the media back at the Div. I level, a place he has not been since the early 2000s. He did not sound as though he was regurgitating prepared statements. Instead, he regaled the crowd with tales and short stories from his long coaching career and was hardly without a smile.
But of course, saying the right things is only part of the job.
At Daemen University, notably since 2021 when NIL and the transfer portal began to establish its grip on collegiate athletics, MacDonald established himself as one of the most consistent winners in all levels of college basketball. Over the past two seasons, he has the fourth-most wins of any head coach (61) and the second-best win percentage at 95.3%. Since 2023-24, he has the third-best win percentage at 88.7%.
However, MacDonald was brought in by St. Bonaventure on the basis that he will not only be able to win, but do so in a sustainable manner: by retaining players and building year after year.
His method to player retention is something that he has been asked about more than once since his unveiling, and according to him, it is all about the environment.
“The grass is not always greener, and I think you have to have a spot where people enjoy playing with each other, playing for your coaching staff, where they feel like they’re getting better and they can realize that they can achieve what they want to achieve by being in your situation,” MacDonald said. “That’s what we’re going to have to do.”
MacDonald earned himself a reputation for roster retention at the Div. II level. The biggest hurdle in front of him at St. Bonaventure is whether or not he can uphold that in Div. I.
While he went on The Extra Point show, hosted by Sal Capaccio on WGR550 Sports Radio noting that the biggest difference between the three levels of college basketball is the size and strength of the athletes, there is no denying that the mentality of players at the Div. I level is different as well. If MacDonald gets himself a player that performs well and a big fish dangles a couple million dollars in front of them to leave, will the environment he creates at Bona be enough for a player to turn that down?
Now, this is not a slight on the athletes who have chosen to take that money. It is a condemnation of the system which allowed college sports to go wild.
In a day and age in which we are seeing programs and players posting graphics online to hype up a return to a program, how will MacDonald establish an environment at St. Bonaventure, which has its geographical and financial challenges, enticing enough to keep successful players around?
On one hand, there is some positivity in teams and players making a big deal about returning to programs, but the problem lies in that this should have never been the case.
The spineless NCAA has allowed NIL and the portal to shift the power completely away from the team and coach and towards the player.
In the face of this, MacDonald is a believer. During his press conference, he noted that there are players out there that still play for the name on the front of the jersey and not the back of it. But life-changing money is just that, and how will he be able to convince a player to turn down that opportunity if it arises.
“We’re in an era where, if you average four or five points, you’re out of here because ‘I didn’t average enough.’ And if you average 15 to 20 points, you’re out because you average too much,” MacDonald said. “It’s a little bit weird, but I think it’s going to change. I think it will come back and people will realize, ‘I have a good situation. I’m in a special place.’ And that’s what we want to show them.”
The other intriguing aspect of this dedication to try and fight against the grain from St. Bonaventure is that it battles with Men’s Basketball General Manager Adrian Wojnarowski’s idea that the program can be a stepping stone for players.
“I think for a lot of kids, it’s easier in a school with 1,900 students than a school with 19,000. And you’ll come to have two great years with us, and then you’ll probably end up at schools with 19,000 or 29,000,” Wojnarowski said in an AP article on June 11 of 2025. “And so you’re selling, for us, we’re your first step on the way to somewhere else, or the other one to me is we’re the place to come when you’ve got to get the basketball right.”
These two ideologies fight against one another. And it is what made MacDonald’s firm statement during his presser, that Woj reports to him, so intriguing.
“Woj is definitely a part of the men’s basketball staff as our general manager, but it’s different in ways, he reports to me,” MacDonald said. “That was one of the first questions I had for (University Vice President and Director of Athletics) Bob (Beretta), ‘what is the chain of command?’ Woj reports to me. He’s part of it. He’s a very valuable tool for us to use. I mean that in a great way. He has connections with agents that I don’t have and like it or not, that’s the new world. Kids have agents. … So, his connection with agents can help us get in the door and in front of somebody.”
Coach Mac presented himself in a jolly way. He was warm and transparent and those are two things that St. Bonaventure needs as a program right now. But only time will tell if that will be enough to fight against the trajectory of college sports.
He has proven he can win. He has proven he can establish and maintain relationships. But will he be able to do it on the biggest stage, with big money and big brands lurking around every corner, looking to poach the brightest stars within programs like St. Bonaventure.
So far, so good for MacDonald but the biggest tests are still ahead.
