By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team has their next head coach in Mike MacDonald.
MacDonald, who comes with 29 years’ worth of experience as a men’s college basketball head coach, is set to make it official with the Bonnies on March 31 after having been at Div. II Daemen University since the 2014-15 season.
The Bonnies were intrigued by the idea of a Div. II hire following the recent successes of former Div. II coaches Josh Shertz, who just signed an extension at Saint Louis after leading the Billikens to an A10 regular season title and the NCAA Tournament, and Ben McCollum, who reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament with Iowa this year.
MacDonald, a ‘88 Bona alumnus, was one of the winningest head coaches in Div. II, amassing a 61-3 record over the last two seasons, but he led Daemen to the second-best win percentage of any NCAA basketball team over the last two years (95.3%). Only Div. II Nova Southeastern has a better percentage. Duke sits just behind Daemen in the category.
Since the portal/NIL era began (2021-22), MacDonald amassed a record of 126-29, an 81.3% win rate. He is also the only coach in history to have recorded 100+ wins at every level (Div. I, II, III).
There is no current set date or time for a press conference, but one will be set in the coming days, per sources.
More stats on MacDonald:
– 522-312 (62.7%) in 29 years of coaching.
– 12 straight seasons of 19+ wins (excluding COVID year)
– 9 straight seasons of 20+ wins
– Retained 13 of 14 eligible players from Daemen’s 2024-25 team (28-1, 16-0 in conference) en route to another unbeaten conference season and East Regional Championship this season.
– In 2024-25 Daemen spent 3 weeks at No. 1 in the AP Poll
– Since 24-25, MacDonald is 7-1 vs. ranked opponents, 18-3 vs. NCAA Tournament teams and 4-2 in the NCAA Tournament.
– Has coached three ECC Player of the Year winners, one of which (Andrew Sischo) being a three-time winner and an All-American.
– Top 5 nationally in points per possession allowed (0.92)
– Top 21 in points per possession (last two seasons)
– Top 70 in assists rate (three straight years.
– 149-73 at Div. III Medaille College (2006-2014) where he was a 4x CoY led the turnaround of the program into a consistent contender
– 108-153 at Div. I Canisius College (1997-2006) where he is top three in program history in wins and was named BCANY Co-CoY after a 20-win season in 2000-01
