Colgate has rewarded men’s basketball head coach Matt Langel with a five-year contract extension.
The new deal comes after Langel guided the Raiders to a historic 2017-2018 season and earned Patriot League Coach of the Year honors. Colgate set a program record with 19 wins and made its first national postseason tournament appearance since 1996 during the record-setting campaign.
Langel, who just wrapped up his seventh season at the helm, is now under contract through the 2022-23 season.
“The fact that my seven years have flown by like a New York minute is a testament to the special place that is Colgate,” Langel said. “The University and Hamilton communities have exceeded my expectations, even knowing the great things my Colgate alum younger brother always shared. Tara, our three children and I deeply thank all of Colgate University, present and past, and particularly, my assistant coaches and our student-athletes without whom none of our success would have been possible.”
Colgate went 19-14 overall in 2017-18, setting a program record for wins in a season. The Raiders tallied 17 regular-season wins and 12 Patriot League wins, both of which tied program records. Langel secured the program’s first overall winning record since 2007-08. The Raiders accepted a bid to the College Basketball Invitational to advance to a national postseason tournament for the first time since a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 1995 and 1996.
The 2017-18 season saw the Raiders advance to the Patriot League Championship Game for the first time in 10 years. Colgate finished Patriot League play at 12-6 to earn the No. 2 seed in the league tournament, marking the team’s highest league finish since the 2014-15 squad also finished second, and tied for the highest finish since the 1995-96 team won the regular-season title.
The Raiders also went 13-3 in the friendly confines of Cotterell Court during the 2017-18 campaign to tie the program record for home wins and mark the most home wins in 91 years (1926-27).
Langel became just the second Colgate coach to earn men’s basketball Patriot League Coach of the Year honors in 2018, and the first since 1996. Jack Bruen collected Coach of the Year nods in both 1992 and 1996.
Since arriving in Hamilton in 2011, Langel has mentored and developed a Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, Patriot League Rookie of the Year, nine All-Patriot League picks, three Patriot League All-Rookie members and three All-District honorees.
Langel has aided in the development of seven professional basketball players in Mike Venezia ’12, Mitch Rolls ’13, Murphy Burnatowski ’14, Damon Sherman-Newsome ’15, Ethan Jacobs ’15, Alex Ramon ’16 and Austin Tillotson ’16.
The Raiders are 43-31 against Patriot League competition over the last four seasons. Colgate has finished in the top half of the Patriot League in each of the last four seasons, including a pair of second-place finishes. Langel and the Raiders return two All-League picks for the 2018-19 campaign and three of the team’s top five scorers from the 2017-18 season.
Langel arrived at Colgate in April 2011 after five seasons as an assistant coach at Temple and two at Pennsylvania – all under head coach Fran Dunphy. Langel was a 1,000-point scorer under Dunphy at Penn and is in the Quaker records book in several categories.
Langel and his wife, Tara, reside in Hamilton with their three children: Logan (10), Luke (8) and Jackson (4).
