Men’s Basketball Head Coach Matt Croci Accepts New Position

Springfield, Ohio - Matt Croci, Wittenberg class of 1994 and head men’s basketball coach, has been named the new director of athletics for Wilmington College. Croci has served as head coach of his alma mater’s men's basketball program for eight seasons. The 19th head coach in the illustrious history of Wittenberg men’s basketball, which boasts the highest win total in all of NCAA Division III, Croci departs with a record of 142-60.

“It has truly been an honor and a privilege to lead our storied program,” Croci said. “I am incredibly proud of our players and will be forever in their debt. We found great success on and off the court. I still firmly believe we would have won the national championship in 2020 had COVID not interrupted life.

“Thanks to all former coaches and support staff who have made our program go. I look forward to supporting the program and rooting the Tigers on from a distance.”

Croci led Wittenberg to a pair of North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season titles in 2018 and 2020 and NCAC Tournament titles in 2018 and 2019. The Tigers advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament three straight years from 2018-20, reaching the second round the first two years and the Round of 16 in 2020 before the season was concluded prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He coached five Wittenberg players who earned NCAC Defensive Player of the Year awards and a total of 10 different players to All-NCAC honors. Under his tutelage, three Tigers earned all-region awards and Chad Roy claimed All-America honors in 2018.

Croci picked up NCAC Coach of the Year awards in 2018 and 2020, and he went on to earn Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year in 2018 as well. The Tigers were ranked nationally throughout a three-season span from the 2017-20, with a high of No. 3 during the 2017-18 campaign.

Croci brought 18 years of coaching experience with him to the Wittenberg sidelines when he was hired in 2016, including seven seasons at the helm of the program at Kenyon College (2003-10) and 11 seasons as an assistant at Capital University, the University of Mary Washington, and Wittenberg. He holds a career record of 208-176 as a head coach.

Croci is the only individual in NCAC history to earn Men's Basketball Player of the Year (1994) and Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year (2008 at Kenyon, 2018, 2020). A 2005 inductee into Wittenberg’s Athletics Hall of Honor, Croci led the Tigers to a phenomenal 98-18 overall record as a starting guard and two-year team captain from 1990 to 1994.

During that span, Wittenberg won four regular season conference titles and two NCAC Tournament crowns. The Tigers advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament three times, highlighted by a Final Four appearance in 1994. Croci was named first-team All-NCAC in 1993 and 1994, and after leading Wittenberg to its only undefeated regular season in program history, he earned NCAC Player of the Year and third-team All-America honors.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Croci earned his bachelor's degree in English from Wittenberg. He and his wife, Patrice, Wittenberg class of 1995, have three children, Sophia, Cecilia, and Cameron. Croci will succeed Bill Wilson who resigned the position at Wilmington College in June 2024.

Wittenberg will embark upon a nationwide search for its next men’s basketball head coach immediately. The Tigers are coming off a 2023-24 season that concluded with records of 18-9 overall and 11-5 in the NCAC, good for a third-place finish in the regular season standings.