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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.

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ST. BONAVENTURE — “When we can put two or three phases together, we’re a tough team to beat.”

Those were the words of St. Bonaventure baseball head coach Jason Rathbun after his team’s series finale victory over George Washington on April 4. In that game, they put behind them the defensive struggles that had plagued them throughout the year, came up with the big hits when they needed to and got a resounding effort on the mound.

In a mid-week fixture against Big 4 rival Canisius, the Bonnies stayed hot. They, once again, put all three phases of the game together and collected an 11-2 victory.

Following the series win over the Revolutionaries, Rathbun acknowledged that defense has been his team’s Achilles’ heel all season. But in that series finale there were signs of turning a corner. They had a clean outing with no errors in a 5-3 win — which solidified their first A10 series win of the season. That trend continued against the Golden Griffins as they put together yet another mistake-free performance.

“I’ve always believed in the talent, we just haven’t played great,” Rathbun said. “I think when we play defense, it helps our pitching, which we already feel really strong and confident in. It was a great defensive effort today. Again, it’s great to be playing at home. I think playing at home on our own field is a big advantage to us. … I think there’s definitely a difference when we play at home, and the defense showed up. The offense put a lot of runs on the board which allowed our pitchers to attack the zone and get the win today.”

St. Bonaventure’s Derek Duval (99) delivers a pitch against Canisius. Duval struck out two batters in three innings of work in the win. (Hunter O. Lyle)

Bona worked through a number of pitchers on the day and aside from the two runs conceded in the top of the fourth, they were a thorn in the side of the Golden Griffins. The Bonnies’ pitching rotation combined to strand 11 runners, an  example of the resilience and depth within the rotation.

“There’s a couple guys that pitched today that normally pitch on the weekends for us,” Rathbun said. “Duval, who started it, has been a really good arm out of the bullpen for us. Joey Calabretti has been a really good arm out of the bullpen for us. We wanted to kind of bookend them, … so it was really about filling those middle innings. Those guys that are filling the middle have pitched a lot. Mark Holm has pitched a lot, but they’ve been short stints. Kucy is a one-inning guy. Giblin is still young and learning, this was only his third outing. So, we were able to bridge it to Joey from Derek with those three guys. The plan worked out really well.”

The hosts’ offense hummed as well, lightening the load of the defense and pitching unit. Joey Bruno had a multi-hit day, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run. Antonio Cordeiro tallied two RBI as well, going 1-for-5 with a run. But leading the way was Anthony Fernandez. After hitting the game-winning home run against GW last time out, Fernandez highlighted a nine-hit day for Bona, going 3-for-5 with three runs and an RBI.

“Honestly, it’s tough to like him any more, I mean, I love that kid,” Rathbun said. “We have a great relationship. I love talking to him. We had a conversation in the dugout, I didn’t think in his first and second at-bats that he had real good swings. I thought he put the ball in play, but I didn’t think they were real aggressive hacks. We talked about it a little bit, and then he roped one. He’s just very easy to talk to. He’s very coachable. I love coaching him. He’s a super sweet kid and everything that you look for in a student athlete.”

St. Bonaventure’s Chris Hoalcraft (2) looks to turn a double-play. (Hunter O. Lyle)

Canisius responded to the Bonnies’ two runs in the bottom of the third with two of their own in the top of the fourth. But the response failed to disrupt the flow Bona found itself in as, much to the satisfaction of Rathbun, kept its foot on the gas.

“We’ve played a lot of close games, and we’ve been looking for that breakout hit to continue to pile runs on in a game,” Rathbun said. “We haven’t done a great job of that this year. We’ve been better the last four or five games of doing that. I thought today was another one of those cases where we got runners on and we were able to manufacture some runs and put multiple runs up in multiple innings. That’s what you need to do to win.”

St. Bonaventure has now won four of its last five games and will carry that momentum into its upcoming series at Davidson, set to begin on April 10 at 5 p.m.

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ST. BONAVENTURE — There was one statement that Mike MacDonald repeated throughout his introductory press conference as the new St. Bonaventure men’s basketball head coach:

“Because, it’s Bonaventure.”

It was a statement that encapsulated what he sees as his approach to recruiting, retaining and building upon the legacy of the program.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-conference game in December, on the road or at home, people care,” MacDonald said. “If it’s a coaching search, people care. And that’s what makes this place special. There are a lot of people who care about St. Bonaventure, who want to see St. Bonaventure succeed. I understand that and we will work very hard to make this place successful.”

Perhaps the biggest draw to MacDonald for the search committee was his track record of retaining players in the current era of college basketball.

The portal rules all and money talks in this day and age, and yet MacDonald was able to maintain a strong foundation and build a perennial Div. II power at Daemen University. The key to doing that at the Div. I level, he believes is to lean into what makes the University, and the men’s basketball program itself, great.

“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.”

Four players from this past year’s Bona team have entered the portal, testing whether or not MacDonald’s analogy rings true. MacDonald reflected on the complexity of the portal at the mid-major level, noting that not only is it difficult to keep players who do well, but also the ones who don’t.

“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.”

St. Bonaventure Vice President and Director of Athletics Bob Beretta noted that he and the rest of the search committee had compiled a list of traits that they took with them into each and every meeting they had with prospective coaches — a shortlist which he said surpassed 20 candidates. MacDonald was the only one checked off every box. 

“(We wanted) someone that would create that environment where our young men want to come to the gym and get better every day and just eat, live and drink basketball around their academics,” Beretta said. “Whether it’s a student, a student-athlete, a staff member, a member of the faculty, a member of our administration, those that want to be here, flourish here. We knew that Coach Mac had a tough decision because he was living in an incredible situation at Daemen. But we also knew that he would embrace this opportunity.”

St. Bonaventure men’s basketball head coach Mike MacDonald (right) and St. Bonaventure Vice President and Director of Athletics Bob Beretta (left) field questions from the media during MacDonald’s introductory press conference on April 8. (Hunter O. Lyle)

MacDonald is the only coach in the nation to have over 100 wins at each level of collegiate athletics. He’s experienced it all over the course of his coaching career, which began locally at Olean High School. The lessons he’s learned since then have stuck with him and he intends to put them to use in his return to the Div. I level.

“I’ve kind of coached backwards in some ways,” MacDonald said. “I was a Division I head coach at 30, and I was let go when I was 40. Then, all of a sudden I went down to Division III and people would say it was going down, but I thought it was great for me because I could work on coaching. I think you become a better coach by coaching. … At Division III and Division II, you don’t have all the bells and whistles. I saw the locker room here and almost fell over. That’s bigger than all the locker rooms I’ve been in combined in the last 15, 20 years. But, you have to take what you have and you have to work with it. You can’t worry about what you don’t have, what’s missing, and that’s what we’ve been good at, focussing on what you have. That’s what we’re going to try to do here.”

An ‘88 alumnus of St. Bonaventure, MacDonald has roots in Western New York. Between Olean, Canisius, Medaille and Daemen, MacDonald knows the basketball landscape of the area. The community, which he praised numerous times throughout his press conference, was a big draw for him.

“I still have lifelong friends here, I mentioned Jeff Anastasia, Joe Guenther, people like that who I have known for years and I’ve always stayed in touch with,” MacDonald said. “Olean’s a special place, it was a big part of my development as a coach and it got me my first start in coaching at the high school level. So, for me, this is like a homecoming, coming back to where I went to school, but also coming back home.”

The decision to leave Daemen was not an easy one according to MacDonald. He gave pause, taking a moment to quell some emotions, before ultimately thanking the several members of the Daemen Athletic Department that helped him throughout his tenure with the Wildcats.

Admittedly, coaching at his alma mater was not something he ever anticipated. But now that the opportunity has presented itself to him, he intends on making the most of it.

“It’s very humbling,” MacDonald said. “This is something I never thought would happen in all my life. But by the grace of God, things kind of work out and this has been a whirlwind for the last 10 days, but it’s a whirlwind that I’m very appreciative of and very lucky and very thankful for.”

MacDonald is the 20th head coach in the history of the men’s basketball program at St. Bonaventure.

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ST. BONAVENTURE — In the bottom of the eighth inning, St. Bonaventure center fielder Anthony Fernandez stared down a full count with two outs on the board and his team trailing in a series rubber match against George Washington.

Chris Hoalcraft and Manuel Castro had put pressure on the Revolutionaries’ relief pitcher, drawing a walk and reaching base on an error, respectively.

The pressure was mounting. The Bonnies had failed to record a series win against Atlantic 10 opposition this season and their chances to do so in their first series on the newly renovated Handler Park were dwindling. Even Mother Nature seemed to be against the hosts as a strong wind, wanting to keep everything in play, kicked up in the latter innings.

But Fernandez had the coolest head in the ball park as he blasted the pay-off pitch to deep right field for a three-run home run.

Bona’s lone relief pitcher on the day, Tristan Ciampa proceeded to slam the door shut in the ninth, securing a 5-3 victory and a first A10 series win of the season.

“We’ve been playing close games all year,” Bona head coach Jason Rathbun said. “We’ve lost 13 games by three runs or less. So, we’ve been in these moments a lot this year. It’s great when you’re home and you get that last at-bat. We haven’t had a lot of home games, so it’s good to have that opportunity to cash in late, when the game’s tight.

“Anthony’s been one of our best players all year. He had a rough weekend. But great hitters have ups and downs. It’s how you approach each at-bat, and I think Anthony did a good job really digging in there, coming up with that clutch hit. It was huge for our guys. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into our next series.”

But Fernandez was not the only member of the Bonnies to leave the yard. Alex Hebenstreit got the team’s scoring underway in the third inning after punishing a hanging pitch over the left field wall. Hebenstreit had been out of the lineup over the last few games, getting just one pinch-hit at-bat over the span of the team’s last three games. When presented with an opportunity in the starting lineup in a critical series finale, he did not let it go untaken.

“We believe in Alex’s talent,” Rathbun said. “He’s played a lot of games for us this year. We’re starting guys back that were injured early. His opportunity kind of changed a little bit this weekend, but we found a spot for him today, and he went in there and got the first run on the board for us, which is something that we know he’s capable of.”

The Bonnies were fighting from behind for a grand majority of the contest after George Washington capitalized early on some aggressive, small-ball action. The Revs put up two runs in the top of the first, but starting pitcher Enger Paulino did well to settle back in and put zeros up on the scoreboard over the next five innings. A third conceded run in the sixth saw him replaced, but all-in-all, Rathbun was pleased with what he got from his starter who finished with two strikeouts, three walks and allowed six hits on the day. He was just as happy with the 3.2 frames he got out of Ciampa, who struck out four, allowed just two hits and did not walk a batter in crunch time.

“The runs they got off Enger early were just some tough breaks,” Rathbun said. “A bunt that stayed fair on the line, a couple five-hole infield hits, just a tough situation in the first inning. But he was able to keep it to a minimum, only allowed two runs where it could have been a bigger inning. So that was big on his part. He was able to put up some zeros after that. … Tristan’s awesome. He’s an experienced guy out of the pen. He throws strikes. He’s a competitor. … We always feel confident with him late in the game.”

St. Bonaventure’s Enger Paulino (23) delivers a pitch against George Washington. Paulino stuck out two and walked three batters in 5.1 innings against the Revolutionaries. (Spencer Bates)

Defense has been Bona’s kryptonite this season. In fact, Rathbun noted that if it were not for his team’s defensive lapses in game two against the Revs, they could have claimed the series then. Bona committed six errors in their 4-3 loss in game two. In the series finale, they had none.

“When we can put two or three phases together, we’re a tough team to beat,” Rathbun said. “Our pitching has been really good all year. Our defense has not, but when the defense has played good, we’ve been in those ball games. So, we just got to continue to improve. We got a lot of new guys in the starting lineup, seven new position players out there this year, and we’re just trying to find our groove.”

Rathbun is hoping this series win marks a turning point. With series against two of the top three teams in the conference already behind them, he is hopeful his team can take advantage of the momentum as the season progresses.

“We played a couple of the top teams early,” Rathbun said. “George Mason is third in the conference, VCU is second. Those are two early series that we had this year where the series was close. Those games were within a run or two, and we competed. It’ll be good to maybe get on a run here of teams that are more in the middle of the pack or in the lower part of the A10, so we can hopefully win some series like we did this weekend.”

Up next for St. Bonaventure is a mid-week fixture at home against Canisius on April 7 at 3 p.m.

AT ST. BONAVENTURE

George Washington 200 001 000 R:3 H:8 E:2

St. Bonaventure 001 001 03X R:5 H:5 E:0

GW: Wywoda (3 SO, 2 BB), Miller (0 SO, 1 BB), Lebel (1 SO, 2 BB) and Lavey

Bona: Paulino (2 SO, 3 BB), Ciampa (4 SO, 0 BB) and Cordeiro

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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.

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ST. BONAVENTURE — St. Bonaventure Vice President and Director of Athletics Bob Beretta officially announced that Mike MacDonald will join the men’s basketball program as the 20th head coach in its history.

News first broke of MacDonald’s imminent appointment on March 30 via ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Further background on MacDonald and what he brings to the  Bonnies can be found here.

“We are extremely excited to bring Mike back to St. Bonaventure,” Beretta said via a release. “As we set out to identify the next leader of our men’s basketball program, we developed a list of more than 20 characteristics that we would look for in the person who would succeed Mark Schmidt as head coach. Mike checked every box. First and foremost, we searched for an individual who could maintain the championship pedigree of our men’s basketball program and build on the legacy of success authored most recently by Mark, and head coaches such as Eddie Donovan, Larry Weise, Jim Satalin, Jim O’Brien and Jim Baron before him.”

MacDonald joins the Bonnies after having led Div. II Daemen University to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament this past season. His Wildcats amassed a 61-3 record (32-0 in-conference) over the past two seasons.

A big part of what drew the Bona search committee to MacDonald was his ability to retain players and build in the NIL/portal era.

“I have complete confidence that Mike can build upon the foundation that Mark built here,” University President Dr. Jeff Gingerich said via a release. “In this transient era of college athletics, to be able to keep a team together and scale the heights that Daemen did really speaks to his ability to create an environment that players want to be a part of. I don’t care what level you’re coaching at — you’re coaching against peer programs. To achieve what Mike has at Daemen is remarkable.”

A news conference to introduce MacDonald will be held on April 8 in the Reilly Center. The time of the event is TBD.

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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

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MURFREESBORO, TN — By just about every margin, this season for the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team was an incredible triumph.

As the campaign neared its end, the team hit milestone after milestone, capturing success that has been vacant from the program for a decade.

The Bonnies recorded their first winning season, made their first postseason appearance and tallied their first postseason win since that 2015-16 season, 10 years ago. They finished above the bottom three in the Atlantic 10 standings for the first time since 2016-17 and were inches away from winning their first Atlantic 10 conference tournament game since 2013-14.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end at some point, and for the Bonnies, this season drew to a close at the hands of Middle Tennessee State, who delivered them a 69-50 defeat in the second round of the WNIT.

Bona, after earning an overtime victory over Drexel in the first round of the WNIT, travelled south to take on the Blue Raiders, who had received a bye in the first round. And although they had been stewing without a game for 11 days prior to tip-off, the rest did them well and they held no punches.

Bona got off to a slow start and head coach Jim Crowley was forced into calling a timeout after his side failed to score before MTSU had compiled an 11-0 advantage through nearly four minutes of game time. Mind you, the largest deficit Bona had faced in their eventual win over Drexel in the first round was 10 points.

But, just like they had done against the Dragons, the Bonnies responded. Gradually, they chipped away at their deficit and, thanks much in part to a few 3-pointers from Kaylee Krysztof and a couple buckets from Aaliyah Parker, they brought themselves back to level pegging at 20-20.

However, all their hard work in climbing out of the hole they were in was upended as MTSU punched back with a 17-2 run over the 4.5 minutes that followed the scores being evened up.

Similar stretches of time came and went over the remainder of the game, but the closest Bona managed to bring the scores after that blow was five points in the third quarter. MTSU reestablished a double-figure lead at the free throw line after that Bona attempt at clawing back.

St. Bonaventure’s Aaliyah Parker (5) lines up a free throw. Parker netted eight points for the Bonnies in their loss to the Blue Raiders. (Spencer Bates)

Crowley made his return to St. Bonaventure in March of 2023. His main goal upon reclaiming the spot at the head of the Bona bench: get the program back to where it was when he initially left to take the head coaching gig at Providence. His first two seasons yielded a combined 10 wins. So, while this season wound up ending with a rather lopsided defeat, he was able to acknowledge the significant step that was taken in this, his third year back.

“It takes a lot, it takes a commitment from the administration, it takes players committed to it and willing to go through some tough stuff, and that’s a little harder to come by these days,” Crowley said. “We made great strides, we certainly can celebrate a little bit, but we gotta understand what we gotta do to keep it moving forward.”

The players were, of course, the nucleus of the entire operation. From Laycee Drake transferring in from UAlbany to connect with the coach that grew up just down the road from her hometown, to Aaliyah Parker making the switch from the purple of Niagara to the Brown and White, and every player in between, accomplishing what they did and continuing to extend the season at every chance they could, to Crowley, was tremendous.

Speaking frankly, Crowley knew that there had not been a ton of desire to see the team play over recent years, but in spite of that, they kept rattling off results. Winning is one thing, changing the entire image of a program is another entirely.

“It showed them what they’re capable of,” Crowley said. “To be perfectly honest, we had a program not many people cared about, and they made people care. That’s really hard. Now we got to keep it going, and that’s even harder. But the seniors, in particular, helped start that in a huge way. Now, it’s the responsibility of whoever comes back in the program to build on it.”

The Bonnies lost all but two players to the transfer portal following the conclusion of last season. Mackenzie Pettinelli and Gabby Robinson were the only ones who chose to stay put, the latter of whom noted before the season that the decision to return was a “no-brainer.”

St. Bonaventure’s Gabby Robinson (14) goes through contact for a layup against Middle Tennessee State. (Spencer Bates)

The leadership exuded by those two, in conjunction with the graduate students, Drake and Parker, has Crowley wishing they had more eligibility as Pettinelli will be the only player not graduating.

“We had a pretty big exodus last year, and Gabby chose to stick around. Then, Laycee and Aaliyah came in and, I mean, they became Bonnies right away,” Crowley said. “I think we were fortunate that we got to see the real benefits of it. I would love to coach those kids for a few more years, but getting that year energized our program and energized me, and I’m really thankful that they believed in us.”

The level of belief this group showed in one another is part of what made it so special to Crowley. In this day and age when one bad season could set a program back years, how quickly this squad developed relationships and trust within one another was a spectacle in his eyes.

“They wanted to be there and they wanted to play for one another, again, a unique thing, to so quickly commit to one another, and to care and to trust,” Crowley said. “I mean, those are hard things to do, and they were willing to do it.”

And that’s the whole point at the end of the day. Crowley joked about his age and noted that, to him, it is all about the relationships and the bond built amongst a team. It is also about growth and while this team started out the year on a tear, winning seven of its first nine games, including five in a row to start, the development amongst its more inexperienced players shines through as a true testament as to how impactful this year has been for the program.

“I’m old. I like relationships, and I like people to grow, and I like to see that,” Crowley said. “That’s the most rewarding part of this whole thing. Seeing that out of folks this year was outstanding. We’d love for them all to come back. Those are discussions we’ll have. But, yeah, that’s the goal. Ultimately, we want to keep growing it with the folks who believe in it.”

This was a historic season for the program, but the hope amongst the staff is that this was just the first of many steps towards sustained success.

St. Bonaventure officially finished the 2025-26 season with a 17-16 record.

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ST. BONAVENTURE — For the longest time, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team just wasn’t able to get over the hump.

Following a rough stretch of minutes in the first half in which offense was scarce and the defense was porous, the Bonnies found themselves chasing down Drexel in their WNIT First Round matchup.

What resulted in a 69-67 overtime victory over the Bonnies began as a cat-and-mouse affair.

Their deficit ballooned to as many at 10 points early in the second quarter.

As the game progressed, Bona was able to string together some solid possessions, but as soon as it got a glimpse of daylight, Drexel slammed the door shut. That was exactly what happened early in the fourth quarter as the Dragons responded to a 7-2 run from the Bonnies with a quick 5-0 burst of their own, putting the hosts behind by 10 points with just under 5.5 minutes left to  play.

“We would have a breakdown, but credit to us that we didn’t let it get away,” Bona head coach Jim Crowley said. “We hung on. (The deficit) got to 10, but we wouldn’t let it get away. For most of the fourth quarter, we stopped letting them get layups. We stopped letting them get run-outs, because our offense got better. And then we stopped letting them get to the rim, and we did so without fouling. That was really solid defense.”

Time was of the essence and the window of opportunity was shutting. But, embodying the theme of their season, the Bonnies found a way.

Over the final 5:20 of action, they went on a 10-0 run, their largest scoring run of the game, and tied the affair up at 59-59, forcing overtime.

According to Laycee Drake, who led Bona with a game-high 24 points to go along with a full stat line of eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks, what fueled the team’s late charge was the knowledge that this could be the end.

“I knew that this would be our last chance, in the A10 tournament, we knew maybe we’d have a second chance, the loss obviously hurt, we wanted to go further than that, but playing tonight, it was obviously our last game if we lose. So we just played with that in mind.”

St. Bonaventure’s Laycee Drake (24) looks to drive against Drexel. Drake recorded a game-high 24 points for the Bonnies in their win over the Dragons. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)

In OT, there was little separation. Critically, freshman Elyse MacDonough was responsible for keeping Bona in the contest with perhaps the two biggest 3-pointers of her life.

Prior to the game, Crowley acknowledged the growth he has seen from MacDonough over the course of this season, specifically on the defensive side — which she put on display by drawing a massive charge at the very end of regulation. The importance of her nine points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals was not lost on Crowley, Drake or Parker, who all raved about the impact she had on the night.

“She’s probably one of the hardest workers I know,” Parker said. “She’s in the gym every day. So, she’s steady, but just to hit those two big shots shows her work has paid off.”

But still, with 14 seconds to play the scores were level at 67-67. The hosts had possession and the chance to walk off the game in front of a boisterous crowd, and for his final play, Crowley went to one of his most trusted players in Aaliyah Parker.

At the intermission, Parker was scoreless. She was 0-for-7 from the field and had just four rebounds and an assist to her name. But her confidence never wavered.

“(The mindset was) just to keep going,” Parker said. “I mean, I was getting the shots that I wanted, they just weren’t falling. I just had to keep it up, get to my spots and hope they’ll fall, which they did, thank God.”

She may have missed all her attempts in the first half, but with the game on the line, Parker — who finished with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double — nailed the most important shot of the game with a trademark tough, driving layup to hand Bona the victory.

The Bonnies had not played for two full weeks ahead of facing the Dragons. The ‘rest vs. rust’ debate certainly had its place in the game. It would have been easy for a team that far removed from its most recent game of the season to fold in the latter minutes of a tightly contested high-stakes contest. But they never did, and for that, Crowley gave his players their flowers.

“The way I’ve chosen to run our program is you invest in each other and you kind of lay it out there,” Crowley said. “That’s really hard to do in the short term because you got to trust. And trust takes time. These guys did it right away. That’s not an easy thing, and I regularly compliment them on that and make sure that they know I appreciate it. … I tell the story that at our last practice before the A10 tournament, there was a couple of freshmen out shooting, and it was Laycee and Aaliyah rebounding for them. I got emotional down at the A10 tournament to be very honest, because it’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s been hard to get a group to do it.”

Drexel won all but one of the critical ‘points from’ categories at the bottom of the stat sheet. They won points off turnovers 11-5, fast break points 12-4, bench points 26-19 and doubled up Bona in the paint 40-20. The latter of those statistics elicited a chuckle out of Crowley when he saw it.

“I kept saying, for the last two days, ‘win the paint, win the game.’ So that tells you all the stuff I know,” Crowley joked. “They were getting some in transition, and we kind of knew they were sneaky good in transition. … They just read screens, they pass really, really well. I mean, they had 20 assists and some of that stuff’s fun for our kids to see. … We took that away late, we didn’t let them get any of that. So, now they got a late clock. Now they had to attack off the dribble, which is not as much of a strength, and we were able to be in better position for that.”

St. Bonaventure’s Elyse MacDonough (30) dishes a pass inside. MacDonough hit two important 3-pointers to keep the Bonnies in the game in overtime  against Drexel. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)

The well-documented, tight bond that exists within this year’s Bona team certainly played a role in seeing the result over the line. But the boost the home court advantage provided could not be overlooked and was emphasized by the team after the win.

“I told (the team) that today at shootaround that there are going to be people here,” Crowley said. “I told folks in recruiting, ‘It matters here. It matters to the community. It matters to the administration. People care about you here, and they will be here if you give them hard-playing good basketball.’ … Just seeing the Hall of Fame room full of people who just genuinely care, that’s why I love being here, it’s a genuine thing. These guys deserve to feel that.”

Drake echoed Crowley’s enjoyment and noted how much it meant to be able to give the community something to be proud of.

“It was funny, (Mackenzie Pettinelli) was talking in the locker room about how there was one point where she genuinely couldn’t hear anything,” Drake said. “It’s fun to play in an atmosphere like that. It was a fun environment.

“St. Bonaventure’s a basketball place, so it’s fun to be able to give them something to cheer for.”

St. Bonaventure now moves on to the second round of the WNIT where they will face Middle Tennessee State away from home on March 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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ST. BONAVENTURE — This season has been one for the books for the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team.

Just to name a few accolades, it was its first season with a winning record in a decade, the first time it had finished above the bottom three in the Atlantic 10 standings since 2016-17, and its 10-win improvement upon last year’s tally is one of the most significant positive shifts in all of Div. I basketball.

Now, the Bonnies are set to add two more achievements to the ever-growing list. They earned a bid to the WNIT, marking the first postseason appearance for the team since 2015-16, and are set to host Drexel in their first-round game, signifying the return of postseason women’s basketball in the RC for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

After the regular season had come to a conclusion, head coach Jim Crowley was hesitant to speak to the upward trajectory of the program after a number of difficult years and what this season could mean for future seasons. Granted, he did admit that this kind of year can only help.

He shared a similar view of this postseason bid ahead of his team’s matchup against the Dragons.

“We’ll reflect on that a little bit more afterwards,” Crowley said. “I think it’s certainly a reward for a group of folks who had to kind of blindly buy-in. We brought in a lot of new people, we had people stick when it might have been a little easier to not do that. So I think that it’s a reward for the work they put in, the belief they put in each other, and the openness they had. When recruiting, when you say, ‘Hey, we played in the postseason.’ That helps a lot as you’re recruiting your own team and recruiting new people. I think those are the big things there.”

This year’s Bona team does not have much postseason experience to draw on.

This is where Crowley’s expertise will be critical. The last time Bona was in the postseason was during Crowley’s first stint with the program. They secured a victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament over Oklahoma State before falling in the second round to Oregon State. His experience and the lessons learned in their loss to Loyola Chicago in the second round of the A10 tournament, he hopes will pay dividends.

“I thought our A10 game really helped us,” Crowley said. “That was a pretty intense environment, and certainly playing someone for the third time, I think that level has prepped us. We’re ready for two things: we’re ready for some nerves, and we’re ready for some heavy breathing, having not played in a minute. (We have to) survive the first five minutes, and then it’s another game against a really good opponent. Thankfully, we’re playing at a place we’re very comfortable at.”

The ‘rest vs. rust’ debate will certainly play a role in the affair. The Bonnies have not played since their conference tournament loss to the Ramblers on March 5. Meanwhile, Drexel’s most recent game will have been just five days ago at tip-off.

That extended period of time off has led to Bona entering the contest with a fully healthy roster. However, whether or not it did more good or harm overall won’t be determined until tip-off. 

“If it goes badly, we were rusty. If it goes well, we were rested,” Crowley joked. “I think this time of the year, rest is a good thing. I think it was Joe Mihalich who always used to say, ‘When in doubt, rest.’ And once you get to February, when in doubt, rest. Certainly there’s some aspects of having played recently that are positive for (Drexel). The way I’ve seen a couple of people move the last couple days, I think rest was positive for us.”

Leading Drexel into battle will be Amaris Baker. She had the second-best points-per-game average of any player in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) this year at 19.1 points per game. She also makes a significant impact on the glass, even with her 5-8 standing, with 4.2 boards per game, and at the free throw line, having attempted 129 shots from the stripe this season.

“She’s a really good scorer with multiple years in their offense so she knows where to get and how to get,” Crowley said. “When she gets going from the perimeter, she’s exceptionally dangerous because she hits them in a row. Our number one goal is keep her off the foul line. If we can make her earn baskets on some of the great reads she does on screens, instead of just going to the wrong place, bumping her and giving her opportunities at the foul line, (that’ll help us). She’s still going to get hers, but I would hope we can keep her in the low double figures instead of the upper 20s. … The secondary thing is we have to limit her transition scores. We certainly can do that by taking care of the ball, but she’s great at getting the rebounding going, and she’s a really competitive kid, so when they need a hoop, she’s getting some good action to go after that basket.”

Laine McGurk and Deja Evans are the other two significant scoring threats for the Dragons. McGurk averages 12.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. And while Evans falls just short of the double-figure mark in her scoring average (9.9 points per game), at 6-2 her presence will be impossible to ignore and will require a committed, physical effort. She leads the Dragons with 6.4 rebounds per game.

“We’ve got to have people physically be able to keep her off the boards,” Crowley said. “We saw her two years ago, when she was a freshman, she came in with Albany, and she had a pretty good game against us then, and she’s certainly gotten better. We can’t give her put-backs, and we can’t let her have dribbles to get comfortable, whether it’s with a back-to-the-basket move or a cross-body move. Obviously, they’re a really good team … they have a lot of kids who can put in the basket. So, it’s going to be a good defensive challenge for us.”

The winner between the Bonnies and the Dragons will face Middle Tennessee State in the second round of the tournament.

St. Bonaventure will look to get its first postseason win in a decade at the expense of Drexel. Tip-off in the Reilly Center is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.