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Ritchie Lawrence McKay (born April 22, 1965) is an American basketball coach who is in his second stint as the head coach of the Liberty Flames of Liberty University. McKay for the last 6 seasons had been the associate head coach to Tony Bennett for the Virginia Cavaliers at the University of Virginia. He had previously been the head coach of the University of New Mexico, Oregon State, Colorado State, Portland State, and Liberty.

Ritchie McKay

McKay in 2014
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Liberty
Conference	ASUN
Record	199–104 (.657)
Biographical details
Born	(1965-04-22) April 22, 1965 (age 57) Indianapolis, Indiana
Playing career
1983–1987	Seattle Pacific
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1988–1989	Washington (asst.)
1989–1990	Queens (asst.)
1990–1991	Seattle Pacific (asst.)
1991–1993	Bradley (asst.)
1993–1995	Washington (asst.)
1996–1998	Portland State
1998–2000	Colorado State
2000–2002	Oregon State
2002–2007	New Mexico
2007–2009	Liberty
2009–2015	Virginia (assoc. HC)
2015–present	Liberty
Head coaching record
Overall	364–262 (.581)
Tournaments	1–2 (NCAA) 2–1 (NIT) 5–3 (CIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
MW tournament championship (2005) 3 ASUN tournament (2019–2021) 3 ASUN regular season (2019–2021) ASUN East Division (2022)
Awards
Big South Coach of the Year (2016) Jim Phelan Award (2019) 2× ASUN Coach of the Year (2020, 2021)

On April 3, 2009, McKay was hand-selected by Bennett and lured from his head coaching position at Liberty to become Associate Head Coach at Virginia.[1] On April 1, 2015, he returned as head coach of the Liberty Flames.[2] McKay holds the Liberty school record for single-season wins, with his team attaining a record of 30–4 (as of March 9, 2020) in the 2019–20 season after winning the ASUN Conference regular season and tournament championships.

Life and sports

McKay got his first head coaching job with Portland State. After a poor first year, McKay led the team to a third-place conference finish in his second season. He used that success as a springboard to his next coaching job, this time at Colorado State. He stayed two seasons there before heading to Oregon State, and then another two at Oregon State before accepting the head coaching position at New Mexico. While there, he experienced mixed success. In 2005, his team won the Mountain West tournament and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. That successful season helped launch forward Danny Granger to an NBA career. Still, McKay couldn't turn New Mexico into a consistent program, and in February 2007, he was fired.

McKay then took a job at Liberty University, where he took the Flames to Big South Conference semifinals in back-to-back years. His second-year, with the help of Seth Curry, McKay led the LU to a Division I school-record 23 wins[3] and a bid to the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.[4] After the season ended, Curry transferred to Duke University, and McKay's longtime friend Tony Bennett was hired as head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers. Bennett then asked McKay to join his staff as his associate head coach, and McKay accepted. On April 1, 2015, McKay was selected to return to Liberty University as head coach.[2]

En route to a school-record 28 wins, McKay's Flames defeated the storied UCLA Bruins on their home court in Los Angeles by 15 points, prompting the immediate firing of UCLA head coach Steve Alford in December 2018, before the Pac-12 Conference season even began.[5] Ironically, it was Alford who replaced McKay at New Mexico after his firing there nearly 12 years earlier. The following year, he was the 2019 recipient of the Jim Phelan Award.[6]

Personal life

McKay graduated from Westwood High School, and played college basketball at Seattle Pacific University, where he set the single-season and career record for steals, and he was third in career assists. McKay has a wife, Julie, daughter, Ellie, and sons Luke and Gabriel.[7]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Portland State (Big Sky Conference) (1996–1998)
1996–97	Portland State	9–17	6–10	7th
1997–98	Portland State	15–12	10–6	T–3rd
Portland State:		24–29 (.453)	16–16 (.500)
Colorado State (Western Athletic Conference) (1998–1999)
1998–99	Colorado State	19–11	7–7	T–4th (Mountain)	NIT Quarterfinals
Colorado State (Mountain West Conference) (1999–2000)
1999–00	Colorado State	18–12	8–6	T–4th
Colorado State:		37–23 (.617)	15–13 (.536)
Oregon State (Pacific-10 Conference) (2000–2002)
2000–01	Oregon State	10–20	4–14	T–9th
2001–02	Oregon State	12–17	4–14	9th
Oregon State:		22–37 (.373)	8–28 (.222)
New Mexico (Mountain West Conference) (2002–2007)
2002–03	New Mexico	10–18	4–10	7th
2003–04	New Mexico	14–14	5–9	T–5th
2004–05	New Mexico	26–7	10–4	2nd	NCAA First Round
2005–06	New Mexico	17–13	8–8	5th
2006–07	New Mexico	15–17	4–12	T–8th
New Mexico:		82–69 (.543)	31–43 (.419)
Liberty (Big South Conference) (2007–2009)
2007–08	Liberty	16–16	7–7	4th
2008–09	Liberty	23–12	12–6	3rd	CIT Quarterfinals
Liberty (Big South Conference) (2015–2018)
2015–16	Liberty	13–19	10–8	T–5th
2016–17	Liberty	21–14	14–4	3rd	CIT Quarterfinals
2017–18	Liberty	22–15	9–9	T–5th	CIT Semifinals
Liberty (ASUN Conference) (2018–present)
2018–19	Liberty	29–7	14–2	T–1st	NCAA Division I Round of 32
2019–20	Liberty	30–4	13–3	T–1st	NCAA Canceled*
2020–21	Liberty	23–6	11–2	1st	NCAA Division I Round of 64
2021–22	Liberty	22–11	12–4	1st (East)
Liberty:		199–104 (.657)	97–42 (.698)
Total:		364–262 (.581)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

*The 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

References

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