Bill Cleary continues to raise the fortunes of Colgate Women’s Basketball since taking over as the program’s 10th head coach in March 2016.
The Raiders in 2019-20 posted a remarkable season – arguably the second-best in team history. Colgate finished 19-11 for the most regular season wins and second-most wins overall. Only the 2003-04 Patriot League champions did it better at 21-10.
It was just the second winning season in 33 years of Division I play. The next best record was 14-14 back in 1990-91.
Cleary’s charges fashioned a 6½-game improvement over the previous season's record and finished above .500 in the Patriot League for just the third time at 11-7. Colgate’s third-place finish resulted in Cotterell Court hosting its first Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinal matchup.
The third-place finish was the program’s best in 16 years, harking back to the 2003-04 Raiders sweeping their way to the program’s only regular season and tournament championships. It marked just the third time a Colgate team finished over .500 in 30 Patriot League seasons.
A postseason invitation to the WNIT was a possibility for the Raiders before all sports seasons were halted by a coronavirus outbreak.
Season of Firsts and Bests
Colgate led the Patriot League in 2019-20 in scoring offense (69.1), assists (16.8), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2) and turnover margin (+4.3). Other records of note from 2019-20 included:
- An indication of the respect now afforded to Cleary’s program saw the Raiders picked to finish sixth in the 2019-20 Preseason Patriot League Poll. That was the best Colgate preseason position since 2010-11.
- The 79-52 victory at NJIT was Colgate’s largest season-opening win in 29 years and the second-largest to begin a season in program history. Only an 86-48 triumph at Northeastern to open the 1990-91 season was better. The last time the Raiders won by at least 27 points was a 72-45 triumph at Loyola back in 2015.
- Colgate’s 88-51 victory over Siena on Dec. 4 was the largest for the program since an 84-37 triumph over Division III Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in 2001. It missed by one point tying the record for largest margin of victory against a Division I opponent, set when Colgate opened its 1990-91 season with the 86-48 blowout at Northeastern.
- The Raiders at 8-3 (.727) opened with the program’s best regular season nonleague record and tied three other Colgate teams for the most nonconference wins. The 2003-04 Patriot League champions went 8-5 (.615), the 1997-98 squad went 8-6 (.571) and the 1990-91 Raiders went 8-7 (.533).
- One of the best seasons in Colgate Women’s Basketball history earned the appropriate recognition from Patriot League coaches. Rachel Thompson earned Colgate’s first All-Patriot League First Team selection since 2006, and she and Abby Schubiger teamed to give the Raiders two selections on the All-League team for the first time since 2004. Schubiger earned All-Patriot League Third Team honors.
- Thompson also was named to the All-Defensive Team for the second year in a row, while Alexa Brodie picked up Patriot League All-Rookie Team honors.
- No fewer than 14 Colgate, Cotterell Court or opponent records were broken when the Raiders outlasted Army 100-93 on Jan. 5. Included was Colgate’s field goal percentage for a game at 63.3 and the Cotterell Court free throw percentage mark for a game with Colgate going 17-of-18. The Raiders missed their first free throw that afternoon and then made 17 straight.
- Fun Fact: Colgate shot 73 percent (19-of-26) from the field in the second half of that game against Army -- and lost the second half 58-57! That total set a Patriot League record for points in one half.
- The 80-55 victory over Navy on Jan. 11 was the third-largest winning margin in Colgate’s 30 years of Patriot League play. And the biggest one at home in 29 years. Not since a 74-45 blitz of Lehigh in 1991 – the first season of Patriot League basketball – had the home fans seen such a one-sided conference victory. The only other one better was a 72-45 thumping at Loyola on Jan. 24, 2015.
- The 73-52 triumph over Lafayette on Jan. 15 was the sixth by 20 or more points, extending the record for one season. The previous mark of four was set by the 2003-04 champions.
Career Win No. 250
Cleary earned his 250th career coaching victory in Colgate’s 2019-20 season-opening win at NJIT. His career coaching mark shows 268 wins against 225 losses through 17 seasons, and 48-71 in four years of Patriot League play.
Cleary built programs from the ground up at Wilmington (Delaware) and Bloomsburg (Pennsylvania) in the NCAA Division II ranks before being named Colgate head coach in March 2016.
Before the success of Season 4, Cleary guided the Raiders to a pair sixth-place finishes -- despite preseason prognostications of near the bottom of the Patriot League standings.
In 2018-19, the Raiders finished 12-17 overall for their best win total since 2004-05. Colgate also jumped to 8-10 in the Patriot League for its highest victory total and best winning percentage since 2003-04.
Thompson was selected to both the 2019 All-Patriot League Second Team and the Patriot League All-Defensive Team.
In Cleary's first season of 2016-17, the Raiders clinched sixth place in the Patriot League standings for the first time since 2011-12.
Cleary built successful programs in both of his previous head coaching stops, arriving at Colgate after eight seasons at Bloomsburg and five at Wilmington (Del.).
During his eight-year tenure at Bloomsburg, Cleary compiled a 164-69 (.704) overall record and a 97-42 (.698) mark in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The Huskies won just eight games the year before Cleary’s arrival, but he put together four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2012-15, a PSAC title and five straight PSAC East Division crowns.
Four Straight NCAA Berths
Bloomsburg’s 102 wins during that four-year NCAA run were the most in school history, and the 2012 NCAA tournament bid was the program’s first in 20 years.
Cleary during his time at Bloomsburg coached four PSAC East players of the year and four freshman of the year honorees.
Awards weren’t limited to the student-athletes under Cleary, who three times was named PSAC East Coach of the Year and in 2015 earned WBCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. That season, he guided the Huskies to a 26-5 overall mark and a 20-2 record in the PSAC. The campaign ended in heartbreaking fashion at the NCAA regional final, a 72-69 overtime decision at the hands of eventual national champion California (Pa.) on the Cal home court.
During his eight years at Bloomsburg, Cleary recruited and coached six 1,000-point scorers.
The first head-coaching position for Cleary was at Wilmington (Del.), where he turned around another struggling program. The Wildcats in Cleary’s first season of 2003-04 won two games for the sixth straight season. Four years later, Wilmington went 22-9 and captured an ECAC Division II title for its first championship in school history.
Philadelphia Roots
A native of the Philadelphia suburb of Broomall, Cleary began his career with one season as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Towson and two years as a men’s basketball graduate assistant at Georgia Tech under Paul Hewitt. While in Atlanta, Cleary earned his master's degree in sports administration from Georgia State University in 2002.
Cleary is a 1998 graduate of Villanova University with a degree in political science. He and his wife, Jackie, are the parents of sons Billy and Chase.
