With Liberty’s win Saturday over FIU, Ritchie McKay has become the program’s winningest coach in school history. McKay has 260 wins in his 12 seasons at Liberty, passing Jeff Meyer who won 259 games from 1981-1997.
“Any of those honors, I look at them like when individual coaches are recognized for a coach of the year award,” McKay said. “I just believe if you saw the line of individuals that contributed to that accomplishment, you’d split that award or that acknowledgement in hundreds.”
McKay helped turn around a Liberty program that was one of the worst in the country and helped the Flames become one of the more well-respected mid-major programs.
He first came to Liberty in 2007, serving as the Flames’ head coach for two seasons, posting a 39-28 overall record and 19-13 mark in Big South play. He led the Flames to a 23-12 record in 2008-09, at the time matching the program’s NCAA Division I record for most wins in a season. That team featured several talented recruits McKay brought to the Mountain, including Seth Curry who finished his freshman season averaging 202. Points per game and was named the 2009 Big South Freshman of the Year. Curry was part of a recruiting class which was ranked No. 48 in the country by Basketball Times.
After his first two years in Lynchburg, McKay joined his friend Tony Bennett as an assistant coach at Virginia in Charlottesville. He spent six seasons under Bennett, learning his famed Pack Line Defense during his time before returning to Liberty in 2015.
In the four seasons prior to McKay’s return to Liberty, the Flames lost 84 games, averaging 21 losses per season over that stretch. In his first year back at Liberty, the Flames would lose 13 straight Division I games to open his second tenure before he began to turn the ship.
Since his return, Liberty has won 221 games (and counting) over the past 10 seasons while helping the program reach heights never before seen.
“We’ve had an unbelievable amount of support from our administration,” McKay said. “I was hired originally by Dr. Falwell and Jeff Barber, the second time by Jerry Junior and Jeff Barber, and now I work for I think two of the finest people on the planet. Dr. Costin is absolutely fabulous and Ian McCaw, in my mind, is as good if not the best AD in the country, and I love Pastor Jonathan. I feel like we have an alignment, and I get the privilege of serving under those men.”
McKay and Liberty have posted seven 20-win seasons over the past nine campaigns, including a school-record 30 wins during the 2019-20 season. McKay and the Flames won the ASUN title in the program’s first three years in the conference, punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament in each instance. Liberty had three ASUN Tournament titles and four ASUN regular season crowns in four years in the league as well as the East Division title during the 2021-22 campaign.
McKay and the Flames made history in 2019, winning the school’s first ever NCAA Tournament game against 5-seed Mississippi State. The Flames received a 12-seed in that year’s Big Dance, the first time the program had reached the Tournament as anything other than a 16-seed. Liberty would also earn its first ever AP Top 25 vote in the history of the program that season while also earning votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
McKay and the Flames won 27 games during the 2022-23 season, earning a share of the ASUN regular season crown. Liberty would advance to the NIT for the first time in school history, picking up a win over 2022 Final Four participant Villanova. Liberty would finish the year at No. 46 in the country in the NET rankings and No. 48 in KenPom, both new program records at season’s end.
Over his first 11 seasons at Liberty, McKay has guided the Flames to postseason play in seven seasons including three NCAA Tournament appearances, an NIT berth, and three CIT appearances. The Flames have picked up nine wins over high major programs over the past eight seasons.
McKay has coached 23 all-conference players at Liberty, including five Player of the Year honorees (four POY, one DPOY). He’s been named conference coach of the year on three occasions, doing so in the Big South in 2016 and in the ASUN in 2020 and 2021.
“You look at all the players that believed in what we were dreaming about that came here and stayed here, even at the beginning,” McKay said. “We lost our first 13 Division I games. For Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz, Anthony Fields, Ryan Hiepler, I’m not going to name them all because it would take us too long. Then, we’ve had some great assistant coaches and support staff, even managers.”
McKay has coached some of the best players to ever play at Liberty, including several that have gone on to play professionally. These names include Seth Curry, Darius McGhee, Caleb Homesley, Kyle Rode, Lovell Cabbil, Scottie James, Elijah Cuffee, and Myo Baxter-Bell.
“I just wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than myself,” he said. “Doing it at a place like this is a really, really unique opportunity. You get inspired by everyone that has a badge that is on campus, whether it’s in our campus security, our deans, our student body, there is a pursuit of excellence that I think we all draw from.”
