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The Coach

Bobby Gonzalez

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After graduating from Buffalo State College and then playing professionally in Puerto Rico,
Bobby Gonzalez’s coaching career began at a grassroots level.
He initially began working several summer camps including Dean Smith’s Tar Heel Camp and
Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse Orange Camp. These camps led to Gonzalez becoming a high school coach at
two legendary New York City basketball powers, St. Nicholas of Tolentine (Bronx, NY) and Rice High
School (Harlem, NY). While at Tolentine he would coach three McDonald’s All-American’s: Malik
Sealy (St. John’s, NBA), Adrian Autry (Syracuse) and Brian Reese (North Carolina). Over this time,
Tolentine would become the top ranked high school basketball team in the country in 1988. During his
time at Rice, he would coach two McDonald’s All-American’s in Felipe Lopez (St. John’s, NBA) and
Reggie Freeman (Texas). Over this period, Gonzalez became a fixture at both the famed Five Star
Basketball Camp under legendary Howard Garfinkel and the Nike ABCD Camp under Sonny Vaccaro.
He also began coaching at two New York City AAU power programs, Riverside Church Hawks and the
Bronx Gauchos, capping it off coaching in the inaugural Magic Johnson High School All-American
Roundball Classic in Detroit, Michigan.
At this point Gonzalez then began coaching at the Division-I level, landing an assistant coaching
job at Xavier University (Atlantic-10) under Head Coach Pete Gillen. Gonzalez would stay on Gillen’s
staff for the next six years spanning three schools. After Xavier, he followed Gillen to Providence College
(Big East) where he rose to Gillen’s top assistant, followed by a move to the University of Virginia
(ACC), where he ended his tenure as the Associate Head Coach. While at Providence, Gonzalez secured
McDonald’s All-American God Shammgod who led them to an Elite Eight appearance and overtime loss
to eventual National Champions, University of Arizona in 1997. At Virginia, Gonzalez was responsible
for the number one recruiting class in the country, signing three McDonald’s All-American’s in Travis
Watson (Oak Hill, VA), Majestic Mapp (St. Raymond’s, NYC) and Roger Mason (Good Council, MD). It
was during this period that Gonzalez became known on the national stage as one of the best recruiters in
the nation, highlighted by endorsements from Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s Dick Vitale. Hoop Scoop
Magazine and Sport Magazine ranked Gonzalez as the “Number One Up-and-Coming Assistant, Ready
for a Head Coaching Job.”
After one season at the University of Virginia, Bobby would return to his New York roots,
accepting his first Division-I Head Coaching job at Manhattan College (MAAC). Gonzalez inherited a
team coming off a 5-23 season that was picked pre-season to finish tenth in the ten team Metro-Atlantic
Athletic Conference, while also rated in the bottom 15 in the RPI Rankings out of 366 Division-I
basketball programs. Coach Gonzalez would quickly infuse his Manhattan program with his own style of
energy and passion, turning them into a national mid-major power, many began to call “the Gonzaga of
the East.” Over the course of his seven seasons in Riverdale, Gonzalez teams would win seven
championships: two MAAC tournament titles, three MAAC regular season titles and two Holiday
Festival championships at Madison Square Garden. Manhattan went to back-to-back NCAA tournaments.
In their first appearance Manhattan battled and eventually fell to a Syracuse team led by Carmelo
Anthony that would eventually go on to win the 2003 National Championship. The following season,
Manhattan returned to the tournament as a 12 seed and knocked off a Billy Donovan led Florida Gators
team to then lose a heartbreaker by two points in the second round to a Wake Forest team led by future
NBA star Chris Paul.
During his time at Manhattan College, Gonzalez would go on to break all kinds of school
coaching records. He won twenty games, four seasons in a row. He still holds the best winning percentage
of any head coach at Manhattan’s Draddy Gymnasium, with a lifetime .820 winning percentage. In one of

the Jaspers National Invitation Tournament appearances, they went to College Park, Maryland and
knocked off a Gary Williams led Maryland team. Gonzalez received over thirteen different coach of the
year awards over his tenure at Manhattan as well as recruiting the schools all-time leading scorer and first
NBA draft pick in over twenty years, Luis Flores. During this period, Manhattan upset many national
powers, including a #23 ranked Wichita State team and snapped their 33 game home winning streak. The
Jaspers also pulled off back-to-back victories over cross town rivals St. John’s at Madison Square Garden.
Gonzalez’s Manhattan teams graced the front page of the New York Post and New York Daily News
often as were even invited by then-mayor Rudy Guiliani to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock
Exchange. During this time, Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright extended an offer to Gonzalez to be one
of his assistants for the USA Basketball team, where they would go undefeated at the World University
Games held in Izmir, Turkey and capture a Gold Medal.
After Manhattan, Gonzalez went on to fulfill one of his childhood dreams, becoming a Head
Coach in the Big East Conference at Seton Hall University. At Seton Hall, Bobby once again inherited a
team that was picked preseason to finish sixteenth out of sixteen teams. One of the toughest conferences
in the country, it boasted a slew of Hall of Fame coaches including: Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Jim
Calhoun (Connecticut), Rick Pitino (Louisville), Bob Huggins (West Virginia) and Jay Wright
(Villanova). Even getting a late start in recruiting at Seton Hall, Gonzalez would pick up right where he
left off securing McDonald’s All-American point guard Eugene Harvey as his initial recruit from local
powerhouse St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, NJ. Gonzalez would go on to have three straight winning
seasons in the nation’s toughest conference. Under Gonzalez, the Pirates would have multiple wins over
nationally ranked teams. He recruited two one-thousand-point scorers in Jordan Theodore and Fuquan
Edwin, in addition to the all-time leading three-point shooter in Big East history, Jeremy Hazel. Prior to
his fourth season at Seton Hall, Gonzalez was awarded with a three-year contract extension by the school
President and the Board of Trustees. Gonzalez would finish .500 in league play at 9-9 while winning 19
games overall gaining a NIT berth in his final season in South Orange.
After coaching eleven seasons as a Head Coach at the Division-I level, beginning as one of the
top rising stars in the country, Gonzalez is now considered by many to be a seasoned, savvy, veteran
coach with experience turning around struggling programs. He finished with 202 career wins and five
post-season appearances. He has recruited, coached and developed twelve players that would go on to
play in the NBA, along with countless others would go on to play professionally overseas.
Bobby Gonzalez has been honored by his hometown of Binghamton, New York with an
induction as a Distinguished Graduate into their Hall of Fame, while also receiving a Young Alumnus
Award at his Alma Mater, Buffalo State College.
The next step for Bobby was to begin chasing his dream of one day coaching and working at the
highest level, the National Basketball Association. Gonzalez was invited to Charlotte by one of his
coaching idols, Larry Brown. Brown invited Gonzalez as a guest consultant during the 2010 training
camp for the Charlotte Bobcats in Wilmington, NC. Following this, Brown would recommend Gonzalez
to be a player development assistant coach with New York Knicks Head Coach, Mike Woodson, in the
2012 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
Coach Gonzalez has also expanded globally as he was given the opportunity to work with the 19-
and-Under National Team in Beijing, China. Following this, Gonzalez went on to coach in the top
professional league in China, the CBA, with the Jilin Tigers. This past season, Gonzalez was a player
development coach and top assistant with the BC Nevezis team in Lithuania working with NBA Draft
prospects Ariel Huckporti (Germany) and Abramo Canka (Italy).