ST. BONAVENTURE — The crowd at the Reilly Center rose before tipoff Saturday, many holding signs and applauding the man who has defined St. Bonaventure Bonnies basketball for nearly two decades.

Hours earlier, news had spread that Mark Schmidt was coaching his final home game.

The afternoon ended with a 68–63 loss to the Davidson Wildcats, but the result felt secondary to the moment.

The team’s all-time coaching wins leader, who led the Bonnies to NCAA tournament appearances in 2009, 2018 and 2021, will end a storied career after this season.

Schmidt addressed the situation, saying that for him, it was just time. His statement during the post-game press conference was as follows:

“I am retiring today. I will coach on Wednesday. I’m 63 years old, and it’s time to move.

My family has sacrificed for 37 years. My wife is an industrial engineer. She’s smart as a whip, and she doesn’t work because she followed me. So it’s time. And my children as well. They were raised here.

I’m a firm believer that at 75 years old, your time goes down. And I don’t want to be in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank, going around and seeing these beautiful places. I want to travel the world. There’s much more.

As I told the team, if I’m just known as Coach Schmidt, then I haven’t lived the life I should. It’s more than that. I have brothers and sisters. I have nieces and nephews. I have a wife, kids.

Basketball for the last 37 years — when you go to sleep, the last thing you do is think about the team. And when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you do is think about the team. It’s consuming.

And I’m tired of that. I want to spend time with my family. I want to play golf. I want to drink beer, without any consequences.

The university’s been terrific. The alumni — I couldn’t ask for a better 19 years. I’m not leaving because of anything that’s happened. It’s just time. Nineteen years is a long time. From a financial standpoint, I don’t need it. So it’s time to give somebody else a voice.

I’m appreciative of everything. I’m a lucky guy to be able to be a head coach at St. Bonaventure University. It’s such a storied program.

When I first got the job, I remember someone telling people that it was a suicide job, and that I was going to be here for two or three years, and then I was going to be selling insurance. And that didn’t happen.

And I give Steve Watson and Sister Margaret all the credit in the world that they took a chance on me 19 years ago — a guy that was 82–90 at Robert Morris — and they allowed me to coach, and they allowed us to build this program.

And I think what we’ve done is pretty good. It’s pretty cool. We restored this program. It’s back to being credible.

When I first got the job, it was difficult to get teams to come to St. Bonaventure University, but the opponent knew when they got there they would kick our ass. But after a couple of years, that stopped.

I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. I’ve had great assistant coaches. I’ve had great players. And I’ve always said it: you’ve never seen a good team with bad players. You’ve seen some good teams with questionable coaching, but you need players.

I’ve been really lucky to have the players that I’ve had the chance to coach. And they weren’t just good players — they were good people. The guys all graduated. I think we did it the right way.

A lot of people from the outside don’t know. I’ve been here 19 years and people always ask, ‘Why do you stay? Why do you stay?’ And I always told them you can’t put it into words. You’ve got to see it. And once you see it, you’ll believe it.

That’s what Bonaventure is. That’s what Bonaventure has been to me.

The basketball program is it here in Olean and Allegany. It’s the heart. It’s what people do. When people talk about Bonaventure, the academics are good and all that stuff, but it’s about basketball.

So I can’t say enough.

I’m at peace with it. I’m happy. I’m relieved. And now, for the next many years, I’m going to enjoy myself. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself, but there’s a lot of pressure involved when you’re at Bonaventure — or anywhere — as a head coach.

I’m just happy that it’s really coming to an end and I can do something else. As I said, I’m more than Coach Schmidt, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter.”