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Billy Donlon - Men's Basketball - Clemson University Athletics

Billy Donlon

Position: Associate Head Coach

Billy Donlon enters his second season as associate head coach at Clemson in 2023-24. He most recently served as the head coach at Kansas City for the previous three seasons.

In three seasons as the Kansas City Men’s Basketball head coach, he finished 46-39 (.541) mark, including a 27-20 (.574) record in conference play. Overall as a head coach, Donlon holds a 155-133 (.538) record.

Donlon’s third year leading the Roos was his most successful. He finished 19-12, including a 12-6 mark in league play. Of the 19 wins, one included a 80-66 victory on the road at SEC foe Missouri.

The 19 victories were the most in program history since joining a conference.

In Donlon’s second year at the helm during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, he led the Roos through their return to the Summit League, guiding them to a .500 record in conference play. In Summit competition, the Roos swept Omaha and Denver, splitting decisions with North Dakota, North Dakota State and Oral Roberts, who later went on to qualify for the 2020-21 NCAA Sweet Sixteen.

Buying in to Donlon’s hard-nosed defensive style, the Roos were the top-rated defensive team in the Summit, allowing just 62.6 points per game, the 17th-best mark in Division One. KC also ranked first in the conference in three-point percentage defense (.325), rebounding defense (30.0), turnover margin (3.21), assists (14.79) and steals (7.92). 

Donlon’s 2020-21 squad was led by Brandon McKissic, who earned Second Team All-Summit, Summit League Defensive Player of the Year and Lefty Driesell Defensive All-American honors. Additionally, the Roos’ Josiah Allick was named Second Team All-Summit.

Donlon made amazing strides as he took over the Roos Men’s Basketball program at the start of the 2019-20 season. The Northbrook, Ill., native recorded the second-most wins (16) as a first-year head coach in school history ending with a 16-14 overall mark. He led the Roos to a 7-3 stretch to end the season, cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  When looking at the numbers across the board, the 16-14 overall record marked the most wins in three years and the .533 win percentage was the highest since 2010-11. In conference play, the Roos posted eight victories, which was the highest output in their Western Athletic Conference history. Playing in the newly renovated Swinney Center, Kansas City went 9-4 at home and tied the second-best home start in school history at 6-0.

Under Donlon’s guidance, the Roos had a positive start to the season. Kansas City won its ninth game in the 16th overall contest to begin the year 9-7. That start marked the fastest output to nine wins since the 2010- 11 program. Additionally, with five wins prior to Dec. 1, the Roos collected the most victories before the calendar flipped into December since 2016-17. A non-conference highlight was advancing to the championship game of The Island of Bahamas Showcase on Nov. 24. The Roos lost against Liberty, a team to advance to the Round of 32 in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, but proved to the world they were a team to be reckoned with.

  Donlon preached team defense and his team demonstrated it – Kansas City ranked 23rd in the country in 3-point field goal defense (29.7%), 33rd in steals per game (8.1) and 47th in turnovers forced (15.2).

In his first KC recruiting class for 2020, he brought in five decorated recruits, including two local Kansas City prospects from Truman High School and North Kansas City High School.

Donlon was introduced as the seventh head coach in Kansas City men’s basketball history on March 28th, 2019.

After spending the last three seasons as an assistant coach (2016-19) in power five conferences, Donlon arrived at Kansas City. Prior to KC, Donlon joined the Northwestern men’s basketball program as an assistant coach in June 2017. During Donlon’s time as an assistant coach at Northwestern, the Wildcats went a combined 28-36.

Donlon’s lone season in Ann Arbor saw Michigan post a 26-12 record, including winning four games in four days to capture the Big Ten tournament title. The Wolverines went on to advance to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament.

  Donlon made the move to Michigan after spending a decade at Wright State, including the final six years as the program’s head coach. In those six seasons (2010-16), Donlon compiled a 109-94 record with three 20-plus win seasons and helped the Raiders reach the Horizon League Tournament title game three times (2013, ‘14, ‘16). In addition, Donlon’s squads tied the program marks for wins with 23 in 2013 and conference wins with 13 in 2016.

After his 2013 squad was picked to finished last in the preseason, Donlon went on to be named the Horizon League’s Coach of the Year. He guided the Raiders to a 10-win improvement, tying the school record with 23 wins, the No. 3 seed and a championship game appearance in the Horizon League Tournament as well as a semifinal appearance in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). He was also named a finalist for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award and the Hugh Durham Coach of the Year Award given to the nation’s top mid-major coach.

During his tenure, he coached five players to All-Horizon League honors — Vaughn Duggins (2011, 1st), N’Gai Evans (2011, 2nd), Julius Mays (2012, 2nd), Cole Darling (2013, 2nd) and A.J. Pacher (2014, 2nd). In 2012, Mays was also named the Horizon Newcomer of the Year and was a member of the All-Newcomer Team. Known for his defensive strategies, Wright State’s defense ranked as high as 16th nationally in 2013, and he had two players selected as the Horizon League All-Defensive Team — Matt Vest (2014) and Joe Thomasson (2016).

Before his promotion to head coach in 2010, Donlon served as the associate head coach under Brad Brownell for four seasons (2007-10). He helped Wright State to four straight 20-plus win seasons, the 2007 Horizon League regular-season and tournament title and an automatic bid to the 2007 NCAA Tournament, where the Raiders lost in the first round to Pittsburgh.

Before joining Wright State, Donlon was an assistant at his alma mater UNC Wilmington for four seasons (2002-06), coaching again under Brownell. Donlon assisted the Seahawks to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances (2003, ‘06) and two Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) regular-season and tournament titles (2003, ‘06).

Following his collegiate playing career at UNCW, Donlon began his coaching career as an assistant at American University (1999-2000) before moving on to Saint Peter’s for a season (2000-01). Following the 2001 season, Donlon spent a year playing professionally overseas with Irish National Team, as well as stops in France and Germany.

As a collegiate player, Donlon was a star guard at UNC Wilmington for four seasons (1996-99), playing in 118 career games. He finished with 901 points and at the time of his graduation he was the Seahawks all-time assist leader with 456, which currently stands third in UNCW history. He was a member of the Colonial Athletic Association’s (CAA) All-Rookie Team in 1996 and led the team in assists as a junior (5.6 apg) and senior (5.2 apg).

Donlon, who earned a history degree in 1999 from UNCW, received one of the CAA’s most prestigious honors in his senior year. He was selected as the recipient of the Dean Ehlers Award for Leadership, presented annually to the player who embodies the highest standards of leadership, integrity and sportsmanship through academic and athletic achievements.

He is married to the former Melissa McCracken.

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