ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – St. Bonaventure's new women's basketball head coach is a familiar face: Jim Crowley, the winningest coach in program history, is returning home. St. Bonaventure Director of Athletics Joe Manhertz has announced that the University and Crowley have reached an agreement for the longtime Bonnies coach to return, again taking the reins of a program he led to national prominence.

Crowley directed the program to previously unseen heights, winning 258 games and capturing six national postseason berths while serving as head coach of the Bonnies from 2000-16.

"Bonaventure is home. It never left me. The people, the memories and the spirit have always been in me," Crowley said. "It isn't just a place; it's a feeling; it's a community that's unmatched. I'm thrilled to come back. Thank you to Dr. Gingerich, Joe Manhertz and Steve Campbell for offering this opportunity, their commitment to women's basketball and vision for the future."

A proven winner who has well over two decades of head coaching experience, Crowley completely rebuilt St. Bonaventure women's basketball during his first tenure, developing one of the Atlantic 10's top programs and one which had increasing relevance on the national scene. He ranks sixth all-time in career A-10 women's basketball coaching victories with 108.

"The opportunity to bring Jim home was something that was too good to pass up," Manhertz emphasized. "The fact that we are able to bring in a respected winner who has National Coach of the Year on his resume speaks volumes about where this program has been and where we feel it can go again. Coach Crowley knows what Bonaventure is about; he has brought us to the highest levels and we know we can get back there."

During the last decade of his initial 16-year stint with the Bonnies, Crowley led the program to two NCAA Tournament appearances, four WNIT berths and a run to the Sweet 16 in 2012. In that span, the Bonnies won 21 or more games six times and went 171-90 between 2008-09 and 2015-16. The team also won at least one game in every postseason appearance.

St. Bonaventure posted a 24-8 record during the 2015-16 season and reached the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament after earning an at-large berth with a 12-4 Atlantic 10 mark. Following that season, Crowley took the head coaching position at Providence and departed Bonaventure with 123 more victories than any other coach in school history.

In 26 seasons as a head coach, Crowley has recorded 381 career victories.

In 2011-12, Crowley led the Bonnies to a school-best 31-4 mark and a perfect 14-0 record in Atlantic 10 play with a year that culminated in a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16.

He was recognized as the 2012 ESPN.com National Coach of the Year and was also named the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Division I Coach of the Year that spring. He is also a three-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, earning that recognition from his peers in 2009, 2012 and 2014. He oversaw the program's first-ever national ranking during the 2011-12 season, and the Bonnies again received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 during the 2015-16 season.

Crowley's programs consistently find success in all areas. In four of his last eight seasons with the Bonnies, his squads ranked in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Top 25 Academic Honor Roll with one of the nation's top cumulative GPAs as a team.  

"The passion, the commitment to basketball, the history of the school. Bonaventure stays with you forever," Crowley said. "I'm incredibly proud of the accomplishments that our past players have achieved in their post playing careers. We have former players who have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, leaders in their fields. It's an incredible sense of pride. The alumni of the program who have given so much to St. Bonaventure are a huge motivation to come back and work like crazy to get back to where we were."

For the past seven years, Crowley oversaw the Big East program at Providence, scoring 85 wins. In his first season of 2016-17, he guided the program to a nine-win improvement over the previous campaign. During 2018-19, Crowley got the Friars back to the national postseason with a 19-win season, ultimately reaching the WNIT Round of 16 following the first postseason run for the program since 2010.  This past year, the Friars scored a Top 25 win at No. 25/24 Creighton. His teams also scored Big East Tournament wins in three of the past five years, the best conference tourney run for the program since the early 90s.

Erica Morrow served as interim head coach for the final two months of the season following a change in leadership mid-year.

"I want to thank Coach Morrow and the entire coaching staff with us this year for their efforts in a difficult situation," Manhertz said. "We are tremendously appreciative of their dedication to our student-athletes."

A formal press conference to re-introduce Coach Crowley to the campus community and local media is slated for 11 a.m. Monday, March 13, in the St. Bonaventure University Doyle Conference Center. The press conference is open to all. A live webstream of the press conference will be available as well by clicking here.