Keuka Standout Jim Crowley Leads Revival at St. Bonaventure

Jim Crowley, a 1993 Keuka College graduate, has revived the women's basketball program at St. Bonaventure. His Bonnies earned the school's first spot in the NCAA Division I tournament field after posting a 29-3 regular-season record and claiming the Atlantic-10 regular-season title (photo courtesy of St. Bonaventure Sports Information Department).

By John Boccacino/Sports Information Director
Updated 3/22/12 to include quotes from Jim Crowley

The small town of Olean, N.Y. is alive with basketball fever as both the St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s teams earned spots in the NCAA Division I tournament.

The success of the Bonaventure women (31-3 overall), who went undefeated in the Atlantic 10 conference and won the most games in a season in school history, can largely be credited to longtime head coach Jim Crowley, a 1993 Keuka College graduate who played for the Storm’s men’s basketball team and also coached the Storm’s women’s basketball team.

Crowley, who has spent the last 16 years with the Bonnies, including the last 12 as the women’s head coach, was named the 2011-12 ESPN.com National Coach of the Year after leading Bonaventure into the Big Dance for the first time in school history.

Bonaventure earned an at-large bid and the No. 5 seed in the Raleigh Region and rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to knock off No. 12 seeded Florida Gulf Coast University in the first round.

Facing No. 13 Marist College in the second round, the Bonnies advanced into the Sweet 16 with a 66-63 victory that snapped the Red Foxes’ 11-game win streak.

The Bonnies are preparing to face top seed Notre Dame (32-3) at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday for a spot in the Elite Eight, but while his team is gearing up for the biggest game in school history, Crowley took some time to chat about his past.

“The best thing I could say about Keuka is I knew I made the right choice because I don’t ever recall having a bad day at Keuka,” Crowley said by phone from Olean on Thursday.

“When you’re dealing with 18- to 22-year-old students, they’re looking for every reason to have angst, but even as I was going through my four-year career as a student-athlete, I was able to enjoy every day. Certainly there were rough times, and I would have loved to win more games, but there were great people and if I had to do it all over again, I’d pick Keuka every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”

In claiming the school’s first NCAA appearance, Bonaventure sported an 18-game winning streak until suffering a 56-53 setback to Dayton in the A-10 title game. It was the school’s first appearance in the conference championship game, and it came after Crowley’s Bonnies won the school’s first-ever A-10 regular-season title.

It is a remarkable turnaround for Bonaventure, which posted five seasons with single-digit win totals during Crowley’s first eight years, but has won 20-plus games in each of the last four years. Crowley’s career record at Bonaventure stands at 185-177, and he’s the second-longest tenured women’s basketball coach in school history.