Bob McCullough, who has won 23 Davidson College conference championships (15 – regular season, 8 – tournament), 10 NCAA tournaments and over 600 wins – is retiring after 33 seasons as head coach of the men’s basketball program.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame nominee, McKillop, 71, is the most successful coach in school and league history and concludes his illustrious career at No. 54 on the NCAA Division I list with 634 wins.
During the 2021-22 campaign, McKillop led the Wildcats to their second-highest win in a single season, 27-7 in total, including a program-best 15-3 score in the Atlantic 10 play. In addition to earning his 11th (9-SoCon, 2-A-10) Conference Coach of the Year award, McCillop’s final campaign was limited by the school’s big bid for the second NCAA competition.
In total, McClip-trained teams reached post-season games 19 times — NCAA Championships 1998, 2002, 2006-08, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2022, NIT 1994, 1969, 2019, 2019, 204, 2020 2019 and 2021 and CBI 2011 In
2007-08 NABC National Coach of the Year helped Davidson defeat three national-level enemies – Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin – in the 2008 NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional Championship game. The Wildcats’ incredible run ended with a two-point defeat to eventual champion Kansas and Davidson completed the campaign with a final ranking of ninth in the ESPN / USA Today poll.
In addition to equaling the school’s record of 29 wins in a single season, McCullough and the Cats combined for 25 consecutive wins, the longest in the country, before falling to the Jayhawks in the last four.
The Wildcats, led by McCillop, hit the 20-win plateau 17 times, while seven teams won 25 or more games.
For 22 years, McCleop’s teams competed in the South Conference where they put together the most notable runs in league history. From 1992-2014, Davidson won 447 games, including a 278-88 record against the league competition, making McClough the most decorated coach of the conference’s 100-year existence.
In addition to winning 13 regular season titles and seven tournament trophies as a member of SoCon, the Cats have been unbeaten in league play three times under McKillop, leading to a 20-0 record in 2007-08. Davidson had won 43-game conferences since 2007-09. He was far from equaling the SoCon record and the eighth longest in NCAA history.
On February 1, 2014, at a pregame ceremony celebrating McKillop’s 25th season, Davidson College administrators honored John M. Announced the naming of the basketball court at Belk Arena as “McKillop Court”.
Selected for 12th place in the 2014-15 preseason poll, McCillop guided the Wildcats to their opening season of the Atlantic 10 regular season championship and their first-ever NCAA Tournament.
In eight seasons in the Atlantic 10, the Cats have won two regular season titles (2015, 2022), a tournament crown (2018) and won a total of 91 leagues, while advancing six times for post-season play (3 – NCAA, 3 – NIT).
McKillop coached the 1,000th game of his career at Davidson on January 29, 2022, becoming only the 10th coach in NCAA Division I history to reach a school milestone.
McClough’s team has also had success on the court. Since the NCAA began tracking it in 2003, it has had a perfect academic progress rate of 1,000 per year.
A 1972 Hofstra graduate, McCillop has trained eight All-Americans, one Academic All-American, 11 Conference Player of the Year, five Freshman of the Year, and 73 All-Conference Selection.
His 57 players have played professionally, including seventh-seeded Stephen Curry in the 2009 NBA Draft, which has given the Golden State Warriors four NBA titles and a recurring NBA MVP honor and, most recently, a final MVP honor.
Known around the world for its connections, McCliop has coached more than 40 international players from 24 different countries.
Entering the Hofstra Basketball and NYC Basketball Hall of Fame, McCillop was signed by the Philadelphia 76ers before becoming a history teacher and coach and then cut.
Queens, NY. A resident here, McCillop’s coaching career began at Holy Trinity High School (1973-78) on Long Island, where he set a record of 86-25. In 1978, he joined Eddie Bidenback’s staff at Davidson as an assistant coach, before returning to New York a year later to serve as head coach at Long Island Lutheran (1979-89). There, McClough collected 182-51 points to go with the five New York State Championships.
On May 19, 1989, the then director of athletics, Terry Holland, appointed McKillop as head coach at Davidson.
