Bill Courtney, with an ever-present smile on his face and an always positive attitude, understands success and how to attain it. After five seasons on the sidelines, the Robert E. Gallagher '44 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Basketball understands what it will take to get the Big Red to the top of the Ancient Eight standings. Courtney understands progress isn’t always linear – but that it often is just below the surface.
Courtney became Cornell's 21st head coach in school history when Andy Noel, the Meakem*Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education, offered him the job in April of 2010. He immediately started putting his stamp on the Big Red program.
The Big Red, under Courtney’s tutelage, improved its win total in each of his first three seasons. In all, Courtney has coached or recruited seven All-Ivy League selections, two Ivy Rookies of the Year, a Capital One Academic All-American and the school’s all-time assist leader. His 35 wins over his first three seasons were the most by a Big Red men’s basketball coach since Scott Thompson also won 35 games from 1996-99. Only Sam MacNeil (45 from 1959-62) and Mike Dement (42 from 1986-89) won more games for the Big Red in their first three seasons since the formation of the Ivy League.
Courtney took over a program that had lost four starters and eight seniors — including two All-Americans and three first-team All-Ivy picks — from the 2010 NCAA Sweet 16 squad. Courtney kept Cornell in nearly every game, finishing strong with a 6-3 record over its last nine contests to finish 10-18 overall. With a brand new roster, Courtney's charges lost 10 of their games by five points or fewer and six by three points or fewer despite playing the most difficult schedule in the Ivy League according to the NCAA's RPI rankings.
Under Courtney, a former star guard at Bucknell, the backcourt of juniors Chris Wroblewski and Drew Ferry flourished. Wroblewski earned second-team All-Ivy honors after pacing the circuit in steals, ranking second in assists and fourth in scoring. Ferry was the team's second-leading scorer (11.7 ppg) in his first year with the Big Red and hit 80 3-pointers, first in the Ivy League and fifth all-time in a season at Cornell. The team ranked in the top 10 nationally in 3-pointers made per game (9.0) and hit 251 total, the second-most in a season in Cornell history.
His second season saw marked improvement as the team moved to 12-16 overall and 7-7 in Ivy League play. While taking control of its home court with a 10-3 record at Newman Arena, the Big Red faithful witnessed an overtime win over eventual Patriot League champion and NCAA tournament darling Lehigh, as well as a narrow Senior Day loss to Ivy champion Harvard. Wins over postseason qualifying teams like Yale and Princeton at home showed how close the Big Red is to again contending atop the Ancient Eight standings.
Wroblewski was named to the All-Ivy first team and became the school's all-time assist leader. He was also named to the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America team. He helped develop freshman Shonn Miller, one of his first recruits, into the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and helped junior Johnathan Gray, a former walk-on and team manager, become an All-Ivy pick. Cornell played a much more up-tempo game in his second season, ranking among the top third nationally in steals per game, turnover margin, assists, 3-point field goals made and 3-point field goal percentage defense.
Season three saw more improvement, bumping its season win total to 13 and opening the Ivy season 5-3 before crippling injuries and player attrition led to six consecutive losses to close the year. Cornell played that stretch without four starters and its two leading scorers. Despite the finish, plenty went right during the season. Shonn Miller earned first-team All-Ivy honors after leading the Ivy League in defensive rebounding (5.5 per game) and finishing in the top three in steals (second) and blocks (third). Errick Peck also earned honorable mention All-Ivy accolades. The Big Red’s 208 3-pointers on the season is the sixth-most in school history, while also ranking in the top 10 all-time in blocked shots (fourth, 111) and steals (fifth, 210).
Injuries destroyed what looked to be a promising 2013-14 campaign before it even started, as players missed more than 50 games. Ivy League Player of the Year candidate Shonn Miller missed the entire season, while key contributors Dominick Scelfo, Robert Hatter and Deion Giddens missed significant time. Despite that, the Big Red hit 192 3-pointers, a mark that ranked in the top 10 in a season at Cornell. Nolan Cressler was named an honorable mention All-Ivy selection, while freshmen Robert Hatter (a two-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week selection), Darryl Smith and David Onuorah each received numerous starts.
The Big Red bounced right back in 2014-15, ranking as one of the most improved teams in the country in posting a 13-17 record, an 11-game improvement. After being picked to finish last in the preseason, the Big Red finished fifth. Cornell led the Ivy League in blocked shots and field goal percentage defense (.389), the latter ranking 18th nationally - a far cry from the 2013-14 season when the Big Red was 341st with opponents shooting .495. First-team all-league selection Shonn Miller earned NABC all-district honors and was a finalist for the Lefty Driesell Award as national defensive player of the year. He became the first player in school history to reach 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, 100 blocks and 100 steals. His senior guard tandem of Galal Cancer and Devin Cherry both finished their careers ranked in the top 20 all-time at Cornell in assists.
Regarded as a player's coach, Courtney has had success at every stop on his journey to Cornell. An assistant coach at major conference programs Virginia Tech, Virginia and Providence, he helped both George Mason and Bowling Green to national prominence as well. During his 15-year career as an assistant, Courtney was part of teams that made eight postseason appearances (three NCAA, four NIT, one CBI), won at least a share of four conference titles (Mid-American, Colonial and ACC) and posted 15 winning seasons with eight years of 18 wins or more.
Courtney, 42, spent a season under Seth Greenberg at Virginia Tech, where he helped the Hokies to a 25-9 record and a spot in the NIT quarterfinals. Virginia Tech matched a school-record with 25 wins and finished third in the ACC at 10-6 in conference play behind national champion Duke and Maryland.
Courtney arrived in Blacksburg after three years at Virginia under head coach Dave Leitao and a short stint at Virginia Commonwealth University. In his first season in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers won a share of the 2006-07 ACC title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Virginia knocked off top 10 teams Arizona and Duke that year after being picked to finish eighth in the league in the preseason poll.
One year at Providence under coach Tim Welsh during the 2005-06 season followed a fantastic eight-year run at George Mason. Under head coach Jim Larranaga at GMU, Courtney was largely credited with recruiting the core of players that helped the Patriots to the 2006 NCAA Final Four. He spent eight seasons as an assistant and associate head coach (1997-2005), helping the Patriots to a pair of regular season CAA titles and four postseason bids, including trips to the NCAA tournament in 1999 and 2001. During that run, George Mason won at least 18 games five times and won 10 league games in each of his last seven years there. The 2003-04 squad set a then-school record with 23 wins.
Courtney had moved to George Mason after following Larranaga from Bowling Green University, where he was part of a 22-10 NIT squad in 1996-97 that claimed a share of the Mid-American Conference regular season crown. Courtney helped in the development of NBA Lottery pick and MAC Player of the Year Antonio Daniels at Bowling Green, who went on to a successful 12-year NBA career. He began his collegiate coaching career with a one-year stint at American University in 1995-96 under head coach Chris Knoche.
After playing professionally for the Philadelphia Spirit of the United States Basketball League (USBL) and for the Milwaukee Bucks' NBA Summer League team in 1992, Courtney headed overseas for two years to play in Hong Kong. He earned the league's most valuable player award and collected the 1993 Asian All-Star game MVP Award. While pursuing his playing aspirations prior to breaking into college coaching, Courtney was an assistant basketball coach at James Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Va. (1992-94) and at Thomas Jefferson Science & Technology School in Alexandria, Va. (1994-95).
Courtney has familiarity with Cornell after earning a pair of first-team All-Patriot League accolades during his junior and senior seasons at Bucknell University, serving as team captain both years. Courtney set the school's single-season scoring record of 619 points as a junior and graduated with 1,499 points, a mark that still ranks among the top 10 all-time at the school. He still owns Bucknell records for career free throws made (400) and most 20-point games in a season (16 in 1990-91). He scored 31 points and had six assists and five rebounds against the Big Red as a senior, helping Bucknell to a 98-96 victory in Lewisburg. That came a year after he scored a game-high 21 points with four rebounds and four assists in a 93-85 Big Red victory at Barton Hall.
Courtney graduated in 1992 with a degree in education and was named to the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in October of 2007.
Courtney and his wife, Gina, have two sons, Billy (14) and Derek (12).
*Updated May 15, 2015
