Niagara University Athletic Communications

Nick MacDonald will transfer from Niagara to Daemen where he'll play for his father, Mike MacDonald, the Wildcats' veteran head coach

Family Affair: MacDonald & Son To Unite On Daemen Hardwood

Veteran hoops coach bringing son to program as Division I transfer

5/19/2021 12:15:00 PM

By: CONTACT: Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications | (716) 839-8385 | mmiranto@daemen.edu

AMHERST, N.Y. - Basketball has always been a family affair in the MacDonald household, but that's about to take on a whole new meaning. Mike MacDonald, Daemen's head men's basketball coach since 2014, officially announced the signing of his son, Nick MacDonald, as a transfer student-athlete today.

Nick MacDonald, a 6-foot-5 guard, will have three seasons of remaining eligibility. He comes to Daemen following a two-year stint at Division I Niagara where he averaged 3.9 points and 1.1 rebounds in 52 games. While playing better than 13 minutes per contest, MacDonald did most of his offensive work from behind the three-point arc, shooting 34% and canning 50 of his 65 career field goals.

The younger MacDonald is a 2018 graduate of Canisius High School. He earned honorable mention All-Western New York honors as a senior when he captained the Crusaders and produced 12.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. He went on to play one season of prep basketball at St. Thomas More in Oakdale, Conn. There, he averaged 13 points per game and shot 40% from three-point range.

Officially official. Excited to have Noodles here with us. pic.twitter.com/9Io6uK1jzy
— Daemen College MBB (@DaemenMBB) May 19, 2021

"Well, I guess I know Nick better than any other recruit we've signed," said the elder MacDonald, a fixture on the Western New York college basketball scene for more than 30 years. "In a way, it's been the longest recruiting process I've ever gone through. I'm humbled that he would choose to go this route and excited for the challenges ahead. He's joining a team that has five starters back off a run to the Elite Eight. He's going to have to work for everything."

"This program is a really good fit for me," Nick MacDonald said in an interview with The Buffalo News last month. "I fit with the way my father plays and tries to build his team around, and it's an excellent program with a long history of winning. I'm hoping to go to a team that is good, and elevate their level of play."

Nick, who will study Business Administration with a concentration in Sport Management, is the third of Mike and Maura MacDonald's sons to play college basketball, but the first to choose to have his dad as a coach. His older brothers Matt and Patrick are graduates of the University of Pennsylvania and the State University of New York Maritime College, respectively, where they enjoyed stellar careers.

Daemen is set to return all 12 players who were active during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, as well as several who opted out due to COVID-19. The Wildcats captured their first NCAA Division II East Region championship and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in the program's NCAA era (2015-present). Working four new starters around consensus All-American center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.), the Wildcats finished with a 10-6 overall record and were ranked ninth in the final Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) national media poll.

The Wildcats' full 2021 recruiting class is expected to be formally announced in the coming weeks.

Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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