McKillop retires after 33 seasons at Wildcats’ helm

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Davidson basketball coach Bob McKillop is retiring after 33 seasons at the school.

McKillop, 71, announced his retirement at a Friday news conference that was originally billed as one to honor Steph Curry, who just won his fourth NBA championship with Golden State. But while Curry’s number will be retired, the McKillop news quickly usurped it.

McKillop will be succeeded by his son, Matt McKillop, effective immediately, “not because he’s Bob’s son, but because he’s the best man for the job,” Davidson athletic director Chris Clunie said.

Matt McKillop played for his father for four years at Davidson and later became his top assistant coach. He has been an assistant at Davidson for 14 years and, before all that, was a ballboy at Davidson. Clunie was a teammate of Matt McKillop’s on the basketball team in the early 2000s.

Bob McKillop coached for 33 years at Davidson, winning 634 games and coaching the 2008 team to the NCAA Elite Eight. Clunie said McKillop still had one more year left on his current contract but that he had told the coach long ago that he could stay as long as he wanted to. In recent days, McKillop decided it was time to go.

Both Matt and Bob McKillop choked up at times during the announcement. A roomful of Davidson friends and alums was shocked into silence when McKillop, after praising Curry for getting his degree, said: “Steph is part of the story. And the second part of the story is I’m stepping down as the basketball coach.”

“I read once that tears are a gift from God,” Bob McKillop said, trying hard to get the words out. “Tears show that your heart can be touched. I think you know how my heart has been touched by Davidson.”

“This is an emotional day for our family,” Matt McKillop said.

Bob McKillop said Matt would be his “own man” and that he knew Matt was ready for the job because for the past five years, on the bench, “he’s been a pain in the butt.”

Bob McKillop added that Matt had become more vocal with his suggestions over the past few years in the middle of games, many of them good ones, and that to try to get them across in those heated moments “took courage.” Matt McKillop is 39 and hasn’t been a head coach before. He and his wife have two daughters, ages 5 and 3.