Ritchie McKay

Ritchie McKay
	McKay in 2014
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Liberty
Conference	C-USA
Record	244–127 (.658)
Biographical details
Born	April 22, 1965 (age 58); Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
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	409–285 (.589)
Tournaments	1–3 (NCAA Division I); 3–2 (NIT); 5–3 (CIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
	MWC tournament (2005); 3 ASUN tournament (2019–2021); 4 ASUN regular season (2019–2021, 2023); ASUN East Division (2022);
Awards
	Jim Phelan Award (2019); Big South Coach of the Year (2016); 2× ASUN Coach of the Year (2020, 2021);

Last updated April 16, 2024

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 New Mexico, Oregon State, Colorado State, and Portland State.

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 had 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 Vikings (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 Rams (Western Athletic Conference)(1998–1999)
1998–99	Colorado State	19–11	7–7	T–4th (Mountain)	NIT Quarterfinals
Colorado State Rams (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 Beavers (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 Lobos (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 Division I Round of 64
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 Flames (Big South Conference)(2007–2009)
2007–08	Liberty	16–16	7–7	4th
2008–09	Liberty	23–12	12–6	3rd	CIT Quarterfinals
Liberty Flames (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 Flames (ASUN Conference)(2018–2023)
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)
2022–23	Liberty	27–9	15–3	T–1st	NIT Second Round
Liberty Flames (Conference USA)(2023–present)
2023–24	Liberty	18–14	7–9	T–4th
Liberty:		244–127 (.658)	124–57 (.685)
Total:		409–285 (.589)
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 COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dale Layer is an American basketball coach, currently a special assistant to head coach Buzz Williams at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Previously he served as an assistant coach for the Greensboro Swarm of the NBA Development League. He was previously the head coach of the Liberty Flames men's basketball team. He was fired by the university on March 5, 2015 after finishing the season with only a 2–16 conference record and an 8–24 overall record. It marks his second stint as a coach at Liberty; he spent the 2007-2008 campaign as an assistant to Ritchie McKay.

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The Liberty Flames men's basketball team is the men's basketball team that represents Liberty University. They play their home games at Liberty Arena and are members of the Conference USA, having moved there in July 2023 after 5 seasons in the ASUN.

The 2015–16 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team represented the University of Virginia during the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, in their 111th season of play. The team was led by head coach Tony Bennett, in his seventh year, and played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 29–8, 13–5 in ACC play to finish in a tie for second place. They defeated Georgia Tech and Miami (FL) to advance to the championship game of the ACC tournament where they lost to North Carolina. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a #1 seed where they defeated Hampton, Butler, and Iowa State to advance to the Elite Eight where they lost to fellow ACC member Syracuse.

The 2015–16 Liberty Flames men's basketball team represented the Liberty University in the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in Lynchburg, Virginia for the 26th consecutive season at Vines Center, with a capacity of 8,085. The team was led by Ritchie McKay, who was in his third season, but first season since his return to the program. They were members of the Big South Conference. They finished the season 13–19, 10–8 in Big South play to finish in a tie for fifth place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Big South tournament to UNC Asheville.

The 2017–18 Liberty Flames men's basketball team represented Liberty University in the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in Lynchburg, Virginia for the 28th consecutive season at Vines Center, with a capacity of 8,085. The team was led by Ritchie McKay, who was in his fifth season, but third season since his return to the program. They were members of the Big South Conference. They finished the season 22–14, 9–9 in Big South play to finish in a four-way tie for fifth place. They defeated Campbell and UNC Asheville to advance to the championship game of the Big South tournament where they lost to Radford. They were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament where they defeated North Carolina A&T in the first round in a game referred to as the Jim Phelan Classic. They received a second round bye and defeated Central Michigan in the quarterfinals before losing in the semifinals to UIC.

The 2018–19 Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team represented the University of Virginia during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by head coach Tony Bennett in his tenth year, and played their home games at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The 2018–19 UCLA Bruins men's basketball team represented the University of California, Los Angeles during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Bruins played their home games at Pauley Pavilion as members in the Pac-12 Conference. They were led by sixth-year head coach Steve Alford until he was fired mid-season and assistant Murry Bartow was named the interim head coach. Their lineup featured three former McDonald's All-Americans: sophomores Jaylen Hands and Kris Wilkes were both named second-team All-Pac-12, while first-year player Moses Brown was voted to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. UCLA finished the season 17–16, and lost in the second round of the Pac-12 tournament. They missed the postseason for the second time in four years.

The 2018–19 Liberty Flames men's basketball team represented Liberty University in the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in Lynchburg, Virginia for the 29th consecutive season at Vines Center, with a capacity of 8,085. The team was led by Ritchie McKay, in his sixth season, but fourth season since his return to the program. They were first-year members of the ASUN Conference. They finished the season 29–7, 14–2 in ASUN play to share the regular season championship with Lipscomb. They defeated Jacksonville, North Florida and Lipscomb to be champions of the ASUN tournament. They received the ASUN's automatic-bid to the NCAA tournament where they defeated Mississippi State in the first round before losing in the second round to Virginia Tech.

The 2019–20 Liberty Flames men's basketball team represented Liberty University in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in Lynchburg, Virginia for the 30th consecutive and final season at Vines Center, with a capacity of 8,085. The team was led by Ritchie McKay, who is in his seventh season, but fifth season since his return to the program. They are second-year members of the ASUN Conference.

The 2020–21 Liberty Flames men's basketball team represented Liberty University in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team plays its home games in Lynchburg, Virginia for the inaugural season at Liberty Arena, with a capacity of 4,000. The team was led by Ritchie McKay, who was in the sixth season of his current stint as head coach and eighth overall. Liberty was a third-year member of the ASUN Conference. They finished the season 23-6, 11-2 in ASUN Play to finish in ASUN regular season champions. They defeated Kennesaw State, Stetson, and North Alabama to be champions of the ASUN tournament. They received the ASUN’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament where they lost in the first round to Oklahoma State.

The 2021–22 Liberty Flames men's basketball team represented Liberty University in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in Lynchburg, Virginia at Liberty Arena. The team were led by Ritchie McKay, who was in the seventh season of his current stint as head coach and ninth overall. Liberty competed as a member of the East Division of the ASUN Conference.

The 2022–23 Liberty Flames basketball team represented Liberty University in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Flames were led by Ritchie McKay in the eighth season of his current stint as head coach. They played their home games at Liberty Arena in Lynchburg, Virginia as members of the ASUN Conference.

The 2023–24 Liberty Flames basketball team represents Liberty University in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Flames are led by Ritchie McKay in the ninth season of his current stint as head coach. They play their home games at Liberty Arena in Lynchburg, Virginia as first-year members of Conference USA.

References

↑ Virginia assistant Ritchie McKay sees step down as a step up, accessed March 12, 2019
1 2 "Release on 4/1/15: McKay Returns to Liberty as Flames Men's Head Basketball Coach" . Retrieved April 22, 2023.
↑ McKay's departure newsadvance.com ^{[ dead link ]}
↑ CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament
↑ Steve Alford's UCLA run ends with Liberty rock bottom, Retrieved March 12, 2019
↑ Ackerman, Jon (April 5, 2019). "Liberty University's Ritchie McKay given Jim Phelan Award for top Division I head coach". Spectrum Sports. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
↑ "Ritchie McKay". Liberty Flames . Retrieved January 3, 2020.

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[1] Virginia assistant Ritchie McKay sees step down as a step up, accessed March 12, 2019

[LibertyReturn-2] 1 2 "Release on 4/1/15: McKay Returns to Liberty as Flames Men's Head Basketball Coach" . Retrieved April 22, 2023.

[3] McKay's departure newsadvance.com ^{[ dead link ]}

[4] CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

[5] Steve Alford's UCLA run ends with Liberty rock bottom, Retrieved March 12, 2019

[6] Ackerman, Jon (April 5, 2019). "Liberty University's Ritchie McKay given Jim Phelan Award for top Division I head coach". Spectrum Sports. Retrieved April 8, 2019.

[7] "Ritchie McKay". Liberty Flames . Retrieved January 3, 2020.

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