Billy Lange leaves St. Joseph’s to join New York Knicks staff

Billy Lange has gone from the hot seat to the New York Knicks bench. After six seasons at Saint Joseph’s, Lange is expected to join the Knicks coaching staff, an athletic department source confirmed to The Athletic. Former Penn coach Steve Donahue, who was hired in May to be associate head coach, will take over as the acting head coach.

Lange had started to turn a corner the last two seasons, building arguably the most talented team in the Atlantic 10. A core of Rasheer Fleming (selected 31st in the NBA Draft), Xzayvier Brown (The Athletic’s 23rd-ranked transfer in the latest portal cycle) and Erik Reynolds (who played summer league for the Oklahoma City Thunder) had big expectations entering last season and knocked off eventual Elite Eight team Texas Tech in the non-conference.

But the Hawks, picked to finish third in the A-10 in the preseason, finished fifth, an underwhelming result considering the amount of talent on the roster. Lange would have likely been on hot seat lists this year. While Phil Martelli struggled in his final years as head coach, Martelli never went six straight seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance, and the Hawks hadn’t come close under Lange.

Lange was brought in to run an NBA offense but that never seemed to take off. The Hawks finished in the top 100 in adjusted offense only once — 94th in 2023-24 — and last season was the only year they had a winning record in the A-10.

This year’s team returns starter Justice Ajogbor along with two others who started games in Derek Simpson and Anthony Finkley, but the window to compete near the top of the A-10 has likely passed. According to Bart Torvik’s preseason poll, the Hawks are the seventh-best team in the A-10.

Donahue has been a head coach for 24 seasons. He has a 331-344 career record and went 131-130 at Penn with one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018.

(Photo: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)