At 9:58 a.m. on Friday, Holy Cross College announced the resignation of head men’s basketball coach Mike McBride. According to the announcement, McBride, who has been with the Saints since April 2013, stepped down from the program to “pursue other opportunities.”
The resignation came as a surprise to Holy Cross College administration. In an interview, Tom Robbins, director of athletics and head women’s basketball coach, stated he was “was not aware of the situation” beforehand.
McBride's concurring role as the school's senior associate athletic director prompts reorganization of the athletics department following his departure.
For the foreseeable future, assistant coach and assistant athletic director Tyler Braidic will take over as the interim head coach.
In pursuit of a new head coach, Robbins stated that the department would conduct a “national search.”
“We will be looking at any and all people that are interested and certainly vetting and looking at who the best-qualified person will be,” he said. “I can’t speak to whether [Interim Coach Braidic] intends to apply or not, but certainly everyone who applies will be considered.”
In the press release, Robbins praised McBride for his “tireless” efforts to form student-athletes. He stated that McBride would “forever be a part of the Saints basketball legacy.”
Under McBride's tenure at Holy Cross, the program reached new heights. In the 2019-20 season, the Saints won the program's first-ever CCAC regular-season title, reaching the NAIA National Tournament.
The Saints had an outstanding run, making it to the second round before the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his interview, Robbins spoke about the disappointment caused by the cancellation of the tournament.
“The disappointment of the COVID year is probably the biggest thing,” said Robbins. “We had a really good team there and won [in] the first round of the national tournament and were heading on. In that second round, it looked like we could really make a great run, and then everything was canceled.”
McBride's resignation comes after three consecutive losing seasons in conference play. During that stretch, the team combined to go 20-42 against Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference opponents while going 36-52 overall.
Since the 2013-2014 season, the Saints have gone 190-151 (.557) overall and 114-101 (.530) in CCAC play. McBride also produced 28 CCAC All-Academic players, three NAIA All-Americans and 23 CCAC All-Conference players.
