B.J. Dunne

B.J. Dunne enters his fifth season as the head coach of the Gettysburg College men’s basketball program in 2022-23. In 2021-22, Dunne led the Bullets back to the postseason for the first time in his tenure. He guided the team to a 15-9 mark in the regular season and 11-7 mark in conference play to earn the No. 3 seed and a spot in the conference semifinals. Dunne mentored Gettysburg's first first-team all-conference honoree since 2017 when Avery Close '22 garnered the accolade. Additionally, Carl Schaller '25 became the program's second player to be tabbed CC Rookie of the Year.

During the 2019-20 campaign, the Bullets showed remarkable improvement in their second season under Dunne, improving their win total by six games and averaging more than 72 points per game for the first time in 12 years.

Gettysburg opened the year on a hot streak, claiming the team title at its own tip-off tournament for the first time in four seasons and scoring 98 points in a win over Penn State Berks, marking its highest total in over two years. Late in the campaign, the Bullets took two nationally-ranked programs down to the wire, falling by just six points (77-71) to No. 15 and eventual Centennial Conference champion Johns Hopkins University and narrowly missing the biggest upset of the season in Division III hoops with a 74-70 setback at the hands of top-ranked Swarthmore College inside Bream Gym. Gettysburg swept rival Franklin & Marshall College for the first time in 11 years and finished with a 12-13 record overall.

The Orange and Blue set a new program record with 200 three-pointers made and the team posted the fifth-best three-point percentage at .383 in in 2019-20. Nick Antolini ’22 became Dunne’s first 1,000-point scorer and all-conference honoree at Gettysburg, while Danny Duffey ’22 finished as the program’s all-time leader in assists (330).

Dunne claimed his first victory at Gettysburg against Ithaca College, 92-84, during the opening round of the Gettysburg Tip-Off Tournament. Four days later, he registered his first Centennial Conference victory against Franklin & Marshall College, becoming the first head coach in 41 years to win the opening meeting against the Diplomats. Gettysburg then went on to break the 20-year record of three-pointers made in a game at Dickinson College with 15.

Off the court, Dunne is involved in numerous organizations on campus and nationally – Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI), Student-Athlete Impact Leader Staff Advisor (SAIL), Bias Awareness Resource Committee (BARC), Orange & Blue Advisory Council, The Basketball Tournament (TBT), AARA, and NABC Committee for Racial Reconciliation.

Prior to Gettysburg, Dunne guided the Vassar College men’s basketball program for five seasons. In his first season as head coach, Dunne became the youngest head coach in the NCAA at all levels at the time, and in 2016, he was one of two Division III Coaches named to the Under Armour 30-Under-30 Team. Dunne inherited a Vassar basketball program that had only advanced to the conference tournament twice in 42 years and had only won 31 games in the previous five seasons. Tasked with re-energizing the program, Dunne's teams advanced to the conference tournament three times and the Liberty League Championship Game once.

Dunne’s first year at the Vassar helm in 2013-14 will go down as arguably the greatest season in program history. The Brewers punched their first ticket to the Liberty League Tournament since 2007-08 after earning a program record 19 wins and finishing second in the league with 10 conference wins, a program record. Vassar picked up its first-ever Liberty League Tournament victory with a win over Skidmore College, and nearly captured the squad’s first-ever league title, falling 75-74 in double-overtime to Hobart College. That season, Vassar posted the seventh-best field-goal percentage defense in Division III and was sixth in the nation in defensive rebounds per game. Offensively, the Brewers finished 15th in Division III in three-point field-goal percentage. In all, Vassar was first in seven statistical categories in the Liberty League, while Dunne coached five individual conference stat leaders. The team also received the CBOA Schoenfield Sportsmanship Award that season.

Dunne and his staff were named as the 2013-2014 Liberty League Co-Coaching Staff of the Year and he coached 10 All-Liberty League selections during his tenure. He mentored 24 Liberty League All-Academic selections, 12 National Association of Basketball Coaches Honors Court selections, and the team received four NABC Academic Excellence Team awards. Dunne has coached three 1,000-point scorers, one D3hoops.com All-East Region selection, and one CoSIDA Academic All-District selection.

Before his time at Vassar, Dunne spent a year as the men’s basketball top assistant coach at Emerson College in 2011-12 under Jim O’Brien, the former head coach at Ohio State University and the National Co-Coach of the Year in 1999. He was also an assistant coach at Babson College during 2010-11.

Dunne has even taken his coaching skills overseas. In the summer of 2015, he represented the United States as the head men's basketball coach at the European Maccabi Games in Berlin, Germany. He put together a team of 12 of the best Jewish players in the country to compete against Israel, France, Germany and other nations in the Open Division. The team placed second, winning the Silver Medal.

In addition to his work at the college level, Dunne was the founder, owner and program director of the Bay State Flash AAU Basketball Club. In just two seasons, Dunne’s teams qualified for nationals twice, won the 2012 U-17 Massachusetts State Championship, and were the 2012 Hall of Fame National Invitational Champions. Additionally, Dunne worked for the Boston Celtics NBA Development League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, where he assisted the Basketball Operations department. He has been very active on the camp circuit, working events at Harvard University, Princeton University, Brown University and Columbia University.

Dunne is a 2010 graduate from Bates College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. He was a three-year letter winner and served as a student-assistant coach as a senior for the Bobcats. While at Bates, the team compiled a 62-39 record over four years including back-to-back 18-win seasons. During the 2006-07 season, Dunne was a member of a team that was ranked 12th in the national polls. As a senior, Dunne was awarded with the “Love for the Game” award. He furthered his education at Boston College, earning a Master of Science Degree in Administrative Studies in 2012.

Dunne is no stranger to the Orange and Blue. His wife is the former Megan Moore '08 who was a standout women’s lacrosse player. Moore helped lead Gettysburg to Centennial Conference titles in 2005 and 2006 and was named All-America Second Team in 2008. She finished her lacrosse career with 170 points and 140 draw controls.

Career Highlights

• 9 Seasons as a Head Coach
• 28 All-Academic Selections
• 15 NABC Honors Court Selections
• 12 All-League Selections
• Seven NABC Academic Excellence Team Awards
• Six 1,000 Point Scorers
• One Rookie of the Year Selection
• Two All-Rookie Selections
• One Coaching Staff of the Year Award
• One D3hoops.com All-Region Selection
• One CoSIDA Academic All-District Selection
• One Schoenfeld Sportsmanship Award
• Most regular season and conference wins in program history at Vassar College
• Served as head coach of Armored Athlete at The Basketball Tournament in 2020