Wright State’s loss is the University of Michigan’s gain.
The former head basketball coach of the Raiders — fired seven weeks ago after going 22-13 this past season, finishing 13-5 in league play, making the Horizon League tournament title game for the third time in the past four years and being named the league’s coach of the year in 2013 — was hired as an assistant by Michigan coach John Beilein three days ago.
Although he’s already immersed in his new job, Donlon took a little time Friday to look back at WSU.
“I’m going to miss Wright State,” he said. “I loved — no, I love the place. After 10 years there, I want to be the first to say thank you. It will always have a big place in my heart.
“There are a lot of good, quality people there and many of them have reached out to me in the past couple of days. They’re happy I ended up at Michigan.
“I’ve heard from tons of fans and at least 85 to 90 percent of the former players I had there and at (UNC) Wilmington.
“I’m thankful for Dr. (Mike) Cusack for hiring Brad (Brownell in 2006), which is what got me to Wright State (as an assistant.) And I appreciate Bob Grant for hiring me six years ago.”
Donlon said he’s going to miss everything from the athletes he left behind to the thrice-weekly pickup basketball games he sometimes joined over the noon hour to many of the professors he met around campus.
“The more I got to know the school, the more I realized what a special place it is,” he said. “You’re seeing that now with Tom Hanks’ involvement and so many other things.”
When he was out in the community, Donlon was a tireless ambassador of the university. And that, along with his success (winning at least 19 games four of his six seasons), is why many were surprised by his firing.
Whether it was a personality clash with Grant or the dissatisfaction of a couple of the program’s bigger boosters because the Raiders had not made the NCAA Tournament in Donlon’s six years (they’ve made it twice in 29 years in Division I), the coach was let go with two years remaining on his contract.
The firing drew the rebuke of several former and current college coaches.
And when he and his daughter Maren — who lives in North Carolina with her mom but takes a spring break trip every year with Dad — went to the Final Four in Houston this year, Donlon was overwhelmed by the reception.
“As we were walking around each day, I can’t tell you how many coaches came up and said some very nice things,” he said. “And they said them in front of Maren, which I think that was good for her right then, too.”
Donlon said he never considered scrapping the trip:
“I felt like I had to go. People lose their jobs all the time in all walks of life. It was nothing to feel sorry about on my part.
“When it happened, I think I had one day when that’s all I thought about. But like I tell the players, you have to get ready for the next play.”
As for the two years left on his deal, the school initially tried to play hardball with him, said one WSU supporter in the know. He said there was a clause in Donlon’s contract that said he could be re-assigned to a different position on campus rather than be paid off.
For a coach to be forced to sit out two years can be devastating to his career.
Donlon would not discuss any of that.
“All I’ll say is that the university and I have settled,” he said.
“The main thing is that I’m grateful for my time at Wright State. And I’m always going to root for them. What I hope now is that everyone supports (new coach) Scott Nagy and the players. He’s a good coach and there are a lot of good, quality guys on that team.”
As for his new home, he’s especially appreciative of Beilein, one of the most successful college coaches in the game. He’s taken all four of his Division I programs — Michigan, West Virginia, Richmond and Canisius — to the NCAA Tournament.
“For all his success, I’m struck by his humility,” Donlon said. “Everybody has a boss — whether you’re a head coach with an athletic director or an assistant coach with a head coach — and you want their integrity and ethics to be paramount. With Coach Beilein it certainly is.”
He said he’s known Beilein for 20 years.
When Donlon was a junior guard for UNC Wilmington, his team played the Beilein-coached Richmond Spiders in the championship game of the 1998 Colonial Athletic Association tournament.
“I’ve heard about that game 11 or 12 times in the past couple of days,” Donlon laughed. “We got beat, I think it was 79-64. They hit 11 threes. We didn’t play any defense.”
Interestingly, defense is Donlon’s strong suit. WSU finished in the top 60 in the Kenpom.com defensive efficiency rating three times in the past four years,.
This past season the Raiders gave 16-2 Valparaiso its only two league losses, holding the Crusaders to 10 and 12 points under their scoring average. And when WSU upset Oakland in a Horizon League tournament semifinal, it held the nation’s highest-scoring team to 55 points, 30 below its average.
Beilein — who also just added Oakland assistant Saddi Washington to his staff — has said he brought Donlon on board to upgrade the Wolverines’ defense.
As he’s moving out of Beavercreek this weekend, one thing Donlon is going to miss out on is his family’s Mother’s Day tradition of gathering at Wildfire, the Erie Street restaurant in Chicago that was the favorite of his late mother, Maryann..
Donlon was especially close to his mom, who died of breast cancer in September 2010.
Every year in her name he donates a trip for two — airfare, room, game tickets and more — to the Final Four that is auctioned off at the Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-Off Reception in Cincinnati.
Although his dad was a longtime Division I assistant coach — at Providence, Northwestern and most recently Wright State — it was Billy’s mom who especially “moved” her son’s hoops career along.
When Bill Sr. decided his young son would develop more as a basketball player if he left their Chicago suburb and played in the grittier, give-no-quarter games with a team from Cabrini-Green, one of the most notorious and deadly housing projects in American at the time, it was Maryann who chauffeured Billy.
Initially wary, she ended up a volunteer there, was on the Board of Trustees and today has a senior citizen center named for her there.
Donlon now thinks his mom might have orchestrated matters from above to help him land his new job at Michigan. That’s why he said he’ll especially be thinking of her again Sunday.
“Cabrini-Green ended up one of the best things that ever happened to me,’ he said. “And I think it could be the same at Michigan.”
Here’s hoping it’s that — and more — for a real class act.
About the Author