LEWISBURG — Branden McDonald — a former assistant coach at Northern Illinois, Towson, Manhattan and Pittsburgh — is the latest member of the Bucknell males’s basketball teaching workers, coach Nathan Davis introduced.
“I’m excited to welcome Branden to this system and the Bison basketball household,” Davis stated. “Branden brings great expertise from high quality applications in all points of basketball teaching, from recruiting to participant growth to recreation teaching. He involves Bucknell with new and contemporary views, and I do know he’s excited to start working with our staff.”
McDonald spent the 2021-22 season at Northern Illinois after a four-year stint as an assistant coach at Towson underneath head coach Pat Skerry. McDonald helped the Tigers to an 18-win season in 2017-18 and a 19-win season in 2019-20. The 2019-20 staff completed third within the Colonial Athletic Convention with a 12-6 document, and the staff positioned a league-leading 5 gamers on the All-CAA staff. The 2017-18 staff is off to a 10-1 begin, Towson’s greatest as a Division I program, and was ranked fourth within the CollegeInsider Mid-Main ballot whereas receiving votes within the Related Press ballot.
Previous to his tenure at Towson, McDonald labored underneath head coach Steve Masiello for 2 seasons in Manhattan. McDonald broke into the collegiate teaching ranks as a graduate assistant coach at Pitt from 2013-2015. In his first season, the Panthers received 26 video games, the final of which was a first-round NCAA Event contest in opposition to Colorado. Pitt received 19 video games and performed within the NIT in 2014-15.
A local of Glen Arden, Md., McDonald performed collegiately at Virginia Union and graduated in 2011 with a level in psychology. After commencement, he labored as an assistant coach with the Workforce Takeover AAU program after which at Eleanor Roosevelt Excessive Faculty, the place he helped the staff win the 2012-13 Maryland state championship.
