The St. Joe’s men’s basketball team has appointed Steve Donahue as their new head coach following the recent resignation of Billy Lange Sept. 10. The news came as a shock to the St. Joe’s community as Lange accepted a player development position with the New York Knicks just two months prior to the start of the 2025-26 season. This will be Lange’s second career involvement with an NBA team. He was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2013-2019 before accepting a head coaching role at Hawk Hill in March 2019.

Lange’s six-year tenure with the Hawks resulted in an overall record of 81-104, back-to-back Big 5 Championship titles and the production of pro-talents like 2025 NBA draftee Rasheer Fleming and the program’s all-time leading scorer Erik Reynolds II (2,175).

Donahue originally joined the men’s basketball coaching staff as an associate head coach to Lange May 13. Donahue, now the 16th head coach in program history, has over three decades of Division I experience under his belt, including head coaching stints with Cornell University (2000-2010), Boston College (2010-2014) and University of Pennsylvania (2014-2025). Donahue led Cornell to three straight NCAA tournament appearances spanning his last few seasons with The Big Red, even making it as far as the Sweet Sixteen in 2010. Penn also made an appearance in the NCAA tournament under Donahue’s leadership eight years later. The 2018 Ivy League Coach of the Year had an overall record of 131-130 across his 10-year residency with the Big 5 rival.

According to NCAA transfer rules, each player on the St. Joe’s roster was granted a 30-day transfer portal window effective the day of Lange’s departure. The deadline for players to make a final decision in regards to where they want to play is Oct. 10, which is about three weeks prior to the first game of the regular season. The roster has remained unchanged two weeks following the shift in the head coach position.