April 2, 2025
 

WESLEYAN’S JOE REILLY RECIPIENT OF 2025 GLENN ROBINSON AWARD
Presented annually to the top head coach in division III college basketball.

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Wesleyan's Joe Reilly is the recipient of the 2025 Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year award, which is presented annually to the top head coach in division III college basketball.

Reilly led Wesleyan to a 30-2 record, a No. 1 ranking and the school's first-ever trip to the Division III Final Four. The Cardinals ran off 26 straight wins to start the season and finished a perfect 10-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).

Wesleyan became the first NESCAC team to complete an undefeated regular season since the league became a formal playing conference and championships began in the 2000-01 season. Reilly's squad won the Little Three Championship, sweeping Williams and Amherst for just the second time since 1947-48.

“A legend in New England basketball, all Joe Reilly does is win,” said Joe Dwyer, President of CollegeInsider.com. “The 2024-25 season is just the latest outstanding campaign turned in by Reilly. He has taken Wesleyan basketball to places it had never been before and there is a lot more to come. Joe Reilly is one of the best coaches in college basketball.”

Now in his 17th season, Reilly has led the Cardinals to a high level of success unmatched in the history of the program. From 2014 to 2019, as well as 2021-23, Wesleyan won at least 16 games and finished with single-digit losses each season, marking the first time in program history that the Cardinals won 16 or more games in five-straight years.

Additionally, Wesleyan qualified for five consecutive NESCAC Championships during that run and reached the NCAA Tournament four times since 2014, after never advancing to the national postseason before. Prior to 2008-09, the Cardinals won 16+ games just six times in 103 seasons since the program's inception in 1901-02.

Reilly is a 1991 graduate of Trinity College, majoring in economics, and completed his MBA at the University of Rhode Island in 1994. Part of a rich basketball coaching family with deep roots in the state, Reilly’s father Joe Sr. was the long-time head coach at South Catholic High School, where he won more than 500 games. His uncle Gene Reilly achieved similar success as the head coach of Portland High School, while brother Luke has captured four State Championships as the head coach of East Catholic High School in Manchester, Conn.

The Glenn Robinson Award is named in honor of the legendary Franklin & Marshall head coach.

The winningest coach in Division III history, Robinson won his 900th game on Jan. 9, 2016. He’s the second Division III coach to spend 1,000 games on the sidelines.

Robinson directed the Diplomats to 23 NCAA tournament appearances, 42 tournament victories, 16 trips to the Sweet 16 and Final Four visits in 1979, 1991, 1996, 2000 and 2009.

Even more remarkable, Franklin & Marshall was 22-43 in his first three seasons and in the last 45 years, all but three players have earned their degree.