Men's Basketball
McDonald, Branden
Branden McDonald
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- bm036@bucknell.edu
- Phone:
- 570-577-3072
Branden McDonald joined the Bucknell men's basketball staff prior to the 2022-23 season and remained in Lewisburg as part of John Griffin's first coaching staff in 2023-24.
McDonald helped lead the Bison to a T-2nd finish in the Patriot League last season. After finishing 10-8 in league play, the Bison won a Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal game on the road at American and then took three-time defending champion Colgate to the final buzzer in a three-point loss in the semifinals.
McDonald came to Bucknell from Northern Illinois, where he spent the 2021-22 season following a four-year stint as an assistant coach at Towson. McDonald helped the Tigers to an 18-win season in 2017-18 and a 19-win season in 2019-20. The 2019-20 squad finished third in the Colonial Athletic Conference with a 12-6 record, and the squad placed a league-high five players on the All-CAA Team. The 2017-18 team jumped out to a 10-1 start, Towson's best as a Division I program, and was ranked as high as fourth in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major poll while also receiving votes in the Associated Press poll.
Prior to his tenure at Towson, McDonald worked under head coach Steve Masiello for two seasons at Manhattan. McDonald broke into the collegiate coaching ranks as a graduate assistant coach at Pittsburgh from 2013-15. In his first season, the Panthers won 26 games, the last of which was an NCAA Tournament first-round contest against Colorado. Pitt won 19 games and played in the NIT in 2014-15.
A native of Glen Arden, Md., McDonald played collegiately at Virginia Union and graduated in 2011 with a degree in psychology. After graduation, he worked as an assistant coach with the Team Takeover AAU program and then at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, where he helped the team win the 2012-13 Maryland state championship.
McDonald helped lead the Bison to a T-2nd finish in the Patriot League last season. After finishing 10-8 in league play, the Bison won a Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal game on the road at American and then took three-time defending champion Colgate to the final buzzer in a three-point loss in the semifinals.
McDonald came to Bucknell from Northern Illinois, where he spent the 2021-22 season following a four-year stint as an assistant coach at Towson. McDonald helped the Tigers to an 18-win season in 2017-18 and a 19-win season in 2019-20. The 2019-20 squad finished third in the Colonial Athletic Conference with a 12-6 record, and the squad placed a league-high five players on the All-CAA Team. The 2017-18 team jumped out to a 10-1 start, Towson's best as a Division I program, and was ranked as high as fourth in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major poll while also receiving votes in the Associated Press poll.
Prior to his tenure at Towson, McDonald worked under head coach Steve Masiello for two seasons at Manhattan. McDonald broke into the collegiate coaching ranks as a graduate assistant coach at Pittsburgh from 2013-15. In his first season, the Panthers won 26 games, the last of which was an NCAA Tournament first-round contest against Colorado. Pitt won 19 games and played in the NIT in 2014-15.
A native of Glen Arden, Md., McDonald played collegiately at Virginia Union and graduated in 2011 with a degree in psychology. After graduation, he worked as an assistant coach with the Team Takeover AAU program and then at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, where he helped the team win the 2012-13 Maryland state championship.
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