On Wednesday afternoon, Saint Joseph’s athletic director Jill Bodensteiner announced that Lange stepped down as the head coach of the men’s basketball to return to the NBA and serve in a front-office position ‘focused on player development’ with the New York Knicks.
Bodensteiner also announced that newly hired associate head coach Steve Donahue has been named as Lange’s successor on a full-time basis.
The news of Lange stepping down to return to the NBA is a significant one, as the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season is less than two months away from starting. Atlantic 10 media day is set to take place next month.
‘Billy and I shared a vision for how to run a program in the new world of college sports,’ Bodensteiner said in a statement. ‘He built that infrastructure from the ground up — people, culture, facilities, student-athlete development and talent. We have all of the pieces we need to be successful as Steve Donahue leads us into our next chapter of Hawks basketball.’
Saint Joseph’s hired Lange away from the NBA — where he previously served as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers — to become the successor to legendary college basketball coach Phil Martelli in 2019. In his six seasons at St. Joe’s, however, Lange never reached the level of success Martelli had in the Atlantic 10.
The Hawks finished with just two winning seasons under Lange, both of which came in the last two seasons — a first for the program in two decades. He went 81-104 in six seasons at Saint Joseph’s, which was his second Division I head coaching job after serving as the head coach at Navy from 2004-2011.
Saint Joseph’s finished with a sub-.500 record in Lange’s first four seasons and never finished better than tied for fifth in the Atlantic 10 standings, which the Hawks achieved last season with an 11-7 conference record. Saint Joseph’s also never appeared in the NCAA Tournament under Lange, but did appear in the National Invitation Tournament each of the last two seasons — resulting in first-round losses to Seton Hall and UAB, respectively.
One bright spot for Lange in his time at Saint Joseph’s was the Hawks winning back-to-back Big 5 Classic titles, a non-conference built-in tournament between Saint Joseph’s and the other five Division I basketball programs in the Philadelphia area: Temple, Villanova, LaSalle, Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Both of Saint Joseph’s Big 5 titles included two consecutive wins in the Holy War rivalry with Villanova.
In Donahue, Saint Joseph’s gets a veteran boss of the bench and one that understands the Big 5 and Philadelphia basketball market, as he spent the last nine seasons at the University of Pennsylvania. The veteran coach was hired by Lange in May to be his associate head coach after he was fired by the Quakers following the 2024-25 season.
‘But nothing prepared me for what I saw when I joined the team. We are athletic, deep and talented; we have the people, culture and first-class facilities. We have everything we need to win.’
Saint Joseph’s is set to open up the season on Monday, Nov. 3 against Lafayette.
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