Joe Reilly enters his 18th season as head coach of the Wesleyan University men’s basketball program in 2025-26. The 2025 Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year, presented annually to the top head coach in Division III college basketball, Reilly led Wesleyan to a 30-2 record, No. 1 national ranking, and the school's first-ever trip to the Final Four in a storybook 2024-25 season. The Connecticut native heads into the new season having achieved 10 straight winning seasons at Wesleyan, broken the single-season wins record four different times in his tenure with the Cardinals, and has led the team to all six of the program's NCAA Tournament appearances.
Reilly's group enjoyed a season for the ages in 2024-25, going 26-0 to start the season where his team started the year unranked. The Cardinals advanced to the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and Final Four rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time before finishing 30-2 overall. Wesleyan became the first NESCAC team to go undefeated in the regular season since the league became a formal playing conference and championships began for basketball in 2000-01. Reilly swept all the major coaching awards, earning the Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year award, the highest individual coaching honor handed out at the Div. III level, while also being voted the NABC District 1 and Region 1 Coach of the Year and the NESCAC Coaching Staff of the Year. He earned his 400th career coaching win during that campaign where his team also swept Williams and Amherst in four regular season meetings, marking just the second time since 1947-48 that the Cardinals have accomplished that feat. Three Cardinals earned All-NESCAC honors including two First Team selections, both firsts for the program. The 30-2 season set a single-season wins record while the Cardinals prolonged a streak of 10 consecutive winning seasons, the second-longest such streak in the team's 122-year history.
The 2021-22 season saw Reilly voted NESCAC Coach of the Year and District 1 Coach of the Year by his peers, as he became the first Wesleyan head coach to earn both honors. He led Wesleyan to a 25-4 record (9-1 NESCAC), top-seed in the NESCAC Tournament for the first time, the program's second NESCAC Championship and hosting NCAA Tournament opening round games. Wesleyan earned hosting rights for the NCAA Tournament opening first and second round games for just the second time in program history. Wesleyan also had five players average double figures in points for the season, something that has never happened before in program history. He also won his 200th career game at Wesleyan, an 87-70 victory over Colby at home on Senior Day.
The Cardinals' 2017-18 campaign was one of the best in program history as they finished the season with a 22-7 overall record and a 7-3 mark in the NESCAC, while Reilly won his 300th career game late in the season. Both the 22 overall wins and seven conference victories were program records at the time—the 22 wins surpassed the previous mark of 20 that Reilly’s team set during the 2011-12 season. The Cardinals hosted NCAA Tournament games for the first time and won their first national postseason game in school history with a 101-71 first round victory over Southern Vermont. Additionally, Reilly’s squad claimed its third consecutive Little Three title and second outright. Jordan Bonner ’19, Jordan Sears ’18, and Austin Hutcherson ’21 all received NESCAC recognition following the season as Bonner was named to the Second Team, Sears was named Defensive Player of the Year, and Hutcherson was awarded Rookie of the Year. Hutcherson was also named the D3hoops.com Northeast Region Co-Rookie of the Year.
In 2016-17, Reilly’s team won the Little Three title outright for the first time since the 1990-91 season with a 3-1 record against its rivals Amherst and Williams. Wesleyan earned the No. 4 seed in the NESCAC Championships and later received its first-ever NCAA at-large bid to return to the national postseason tournament for the second time in three years.
In 2015-16, the Cardinals won a share of the Little Three title with another 3-1 mark against the Mammoths and Ephs. Midway through the year, Reilly surpassed 100 career victories as Wesleyan’s head coach as the team finished with 18 wins.
In 2014-15, Reilly guided the Cardinals to the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in the modern era of Division III basketball. The national tournament appearance capped a 19-win season and an incredible run to claiming the NESCAC Championship.
In his first year at the helm of the Cardinals, Reilly brought in a high-impact recruiting class that included Shasha Brown ’13, Mike Callaghan ’13, Greg St. Jean ’13, and Derick Beresford ’13. Brown finished his career at Wesleyan as the all-time leading scorer (1,745 points) and assist man (393). Callaghan finished with 1,175 career points, good for sixth all-time in program history, and continued his basketball career post-graduation playing professionally in both Ireland and Spain. Beresford also finished his stellar career as a member of the 1,000 point club, while St. Jean graduated from Wesleyan and went on to become the youngest assistant coach in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings. Most recently, he won an NBA Championship as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff.
Among the 14 recruiting classes that have fully matriculated through Wesleyan during Reilly’s tenure, 10 different players have finished as 1,000-point scorers (Brown, Callaghan, Beresford, BJ Davis ’16, Harry Rafferty ’17, Jordan Bonner ’19, Antone Walker '22, Gabe Ravetz '23, Nicky Johnson '25, and most-recently Shane Regan '25).
Throughout his coaching career, Reilly has brought his teams on multiple international trips, to destinations such as Taiwan, Ireland, England, and Spain. He is very involved in the local community running basketball camps for all ages, along with youth clinics and coordinating various school visits. Reilly has also been honored twice with the Schoenfeld Sportsmanship Award during his time at Wesleyan (2010 and 2015).
Before returning home to Connecticut, Reilly was the head coach at Bates for 11 years. After inheriting a three-win team, Reilly turned Bates into a consistent NESCAC winning program, accumulating 154 victories during that span. He was named the NESCAC Coach of the Year following the 2005-06 season, in which his team won 20 games and set a school record with 16 straight victories. Over his final six seasons at Bates, Reilly amassed a .701 winning percentage. He was named the Maine Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year three different times and the New England Basketball Hall of Fame Coach of the Year in 2003.
Reilly is a 1991 graduate of Trinity College, majoring in economics, and completed his MBA at the University of Rhode Island in 1994. He currently resides in Cromwell, Conn. with his wife, Isabel, and four children (Joey, Carly, Lenna, and Johnny). Part of a rich basketball coaching family with deep roots in the state, Reilly’s father Joe Sr. was the long-time head coach at South Catholic High School, where he won more than 500 games. His uncle Gene Reilly achieved similar success as the head coach of Portland High School, while brother Luke has captured four State Championships as the head coach of East Catholic High School in Manchester, Conn.
Reilly is also very active in the local youth basketball community, volunteering for numerous free coaching clinics throughout the state of Connecticut. His annual summer basketball camp, the ‘Cardinal Basketball School’, is a highly successful program that brings together youth in the community to improve their basketball skills, while also building valuable life skills.
