St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt will retire after the season, the school announced Saturday after its regular season ended with a 68-63 loss to Davidson.
The Bonnies will head to the Atlantic 10 tournament next week, starting in the first round Wednesday.
Schmidt, 63, has been at the helm of St. Bonaventure for 19 seasons. He has led the program to three NCAA tournament appearances and two Atlantic 10 regular-season titles. He won Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year on two occasions, in 2016 and 2021.
“I’m a lucky guy. To be able to be the head coach at St. Bonaventure for 19 years is an honor,” Schmidt said in a statement. “When I first got the job, I remember someone telling me I was going to be here for three or four years and then I was going to be selling insurance. I give Steve Watson and Sister Margaret Carney all the credit in the world that they took a chance on me 19 years ago. A guy who was 82-90 at Robert Morris and they allowed me to coach, they allowed us to build a program, and I think it was a pretty good one.”
In 2018, the Bonnies won their final 12 games of the regular season to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. They were given an 11-seed and a spot in the First Four, where they beat UCLA before losing to Florida in the first round.
Overall, Schmidt went 339-253 during his time in Olean, New York. He is the career wins leader in St. Bonaventure men’s basketball history.
“Mark will forever be viewed as one of the most prominent individuals in the history of St. Bonaventure’s storied basketball heritage. The legacy Mark has authored is simply astounding,” athletic director Bob Beretta said in a statement.
Before taking over at St. Bonaventure in 2007, Schmidt spent six seasons as the head coach at Robert Morris, where he went 82-90. He also spent time as an assistant coach at Xavier, Loyola (Maryland) and Penn State.
St. Bonaventure hired former ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski as the program’s general manager before last season, and he is expected to take a significant role in the search for Schmidt’s replacement.
“Ours is a proud basketball heritage, and he leaves sitting among the giants of St. Bonaventure basketball. We should all be grateful for what he has meant to this place,” Wojnarowski said in a statement.
