Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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04-18-23 10:21 PM - Post#355804
Griffin added two coaches to his staff a couple of weeks ago, although I have been waiting to post pending further confirmation. Both are familiar names: (1) Branden McDonald, who replaced Joe Meehan at Bucknell this past August when Meehan left the coaching profession; and (2) Jesse Flannery, a name that will resonate with Bison fans. I presume Flannery will be the #3 assistant and McDonald #2, although there is a possibility that the final coaching hire might be someone equivalent to McDonald. Still waiting on news about the final hire and also about the DOBO. Here is some bio info on both McDonald and Flannery for those not familiar with their backgrounds:
McDonald :
• Played guard at Virginia Union, graduating in 2011.
• Played HS ball in a Maryland suburb outside of D.C.
• First coaching jobs were with Team Takeover (D.C. AAU) and with a local HS.
• Then worked two years (2013-15) as a grad assistant under Jamie Dixon for Pitt teams that won 45 games in total.
• From 2015-17 he was an assistant at Manhattan for Steve Masiello who is now the Associate Head Coach at St. John’s under Pitino.
• Was assistant for four years (2017-21) at Towson working for Pat Skerry in the CAA.
• Left for a higher level assistant job at Northern Illinois for new coach Rashon Burna. Served a year, plus the following summer, before coming to Bucknell as the #2 assistant. I can only speculate why he left NIU but it was clearly his decision. Possibly he and his wife, who was a college athlete in Northern Virginia, wanted to be closer to home, especially with two small kids.
Jesse Flannery:
• Played PG at Johns Hopkins for four years, graduating in 2018.
• Two years (2018-20) as a grad assistant for very successful VCU teams under Mike Rhoades (now the PSU coach), where he earned a master’s degree in sport leadership.
• Served as an assistant at Amherst 2021-22.
• Was an assistant at Army this past season, working under Jimmy Allen, who was in the process of building a strong team at West Point.
There have been rumors about the new DOBO possibly being one of this past season’s grad assistants at St. Joes, but no official word.
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