Former Penn men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue isn’t going far.
On Tuesday, Saint Joseph’s announced that Donahue will join the men’s basketball team’s coaching staff, serving as associate head coach for the program. The Hawks, who also compete in the Big 5, will mark Donahue’s fifth collegiate coaching stop and third in the city of Brotherly Love.
“St. Joe’s has always been a big part of my family,” Donahue said in a statement released by Saint Joseph’s. “Five siblings, including my sister Kathy — who worked at St. Joe’s for nearly 40 years — attended the university, as did my son Matthew. Uncles, nieces, cousins, you name it. It’s more than a job, it’s home.”
Donahue will serve under Hawks’ head coach Billy Lange, who is entering his seventh year at the helm of the Atlantic 10 program.
Last season, Lange’s squad finished 22-13, including an 86-69 win over Donahue and Penn at the Palestra. St. Joe’s ultimately fell to George Mason in the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals.
“In the last 30 years, there is not a single person I have talked more with about basketball philosophies, the challenge of head coaching leadership and the pursuit of daily improvement than Steve,” Lange said.
Since integrating Drexel into the Big 5, the Philadelphia-area association has split its six teams into two pods of three to determine seeding for the annual Big 5 Classic at the Wells Fargo Center. In the two seasons since adopting this format, Villanova and St. Joe’s have been included in Penn’s pod.
If Penn and St. Joe’s again find themselves in the same group, the Quakers can expect to see a familiar face on the opposite sideline next season.
“The Big 5 is a big piece of what we do here,” Donahue said before the start of the 2024-25 season. “I know it means a lot to people – winning that championship.”
Donahue spent nine seasons as Penn’s head coach before being fired in March. During that stretch, he led the Red and Blue to an Ivy League title in 2018 and a Big 5 title in 2019, amassing an overall record of 131-130.
A native of nearby Springfield, Pa., Donahue’s roots in the region run deep. He began his coaching career at the high school level with stints at Springfield High School and Monsignor Bonner High School before moving to the college ranks as an assistant at Philadelphia University (now Jefferson) from 1988 to 1990. There, Donahue served under Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Herb Magee, who also oversaw Lange’s first collegiate coaching job from 1996 to 1998.
Donahue then spent a decade as an assistant coach at Penn under program legend Fran Dunphy before making the jump to Cornell, where he led the Big Red to three straight Ivy League titles from 2008 to 2010. Donahue then coached at Boston College from 2010 to 2014 before returning to Penn in 2015.
With nearly 25 years of Philadelphia-area coaching experience, Donahue brings a wide breadth of knowledge to Hawk Hill.
“I have been blessed to work alongside some great basketball minds and I hold Steve in the highest regard as a coach,” Lange said of Donahue. “He will sharpen our team and staff as a whole.”
