Billy Donlon is gearing up for one last NCAA Tournament run with Clemson.

Donlon has spent the past four years serving on Brad Brownell’s staff as the associate head coach, and earlier this week, he officially accepted the job as head coach at Eastern Michigan.

However, before heading off to his new job, Donlon is planning to finish out the season with the Tigers, a decision that Brownell said was a mutual one.

“Obviously, he’s really close with a lot of our players, and I’m so happy for him,” Brownell said from the NCAA Tournament in Tampa, FL. “It’s very well deserving. He’s going to do a great job at Eastern Michigan. But he wants to see this through. He wants to be with these guys and our team and see how far we can go. So yeah, it was a little bit of a mutual decision that we talked about over the last 72 hours or so.”

Donlon and Brownell go way back. All the way back to Donlon’s playing days at UNC Wilmington, where Brownell served as an assistant coach from 1994-2002, before he took over as head coach in 2002.

“When I was an 18-year-old college freshman at UNC Wilmington, he was my 24-25-year old young position coach,” Donlon said. “We actually got in a huge confrontation, my very first skill workout, and after that, we’ve got along great. He is a terrific coach and he is a better human.”

“I was with him for eight years, his first eight years as a head coach. I told him the other day, when I came back after accepting the Eastern Michigan opportunity, I said, ‘Hey B, not bad. We’ve got six tournament appearances in 12 years.’ That is one every two years. That is really pretty good.”

Prior to his time in Clemson, Donlon served as the head coach at Kansas City for three seasons. He was also the head coach at Wright State from 2010-16.

This will mark Donlon’s third head coaching job. He served as the head man at Wright State from 201–16 and as the head coach at Kansas City from 2019-22.

The 49-year-old, who owns a career head coaching record of 155-133, will now take over an Eastern Michigan program that had a 10-21 record this season. Donlon replaces Stan Heath, who went 57-99 over his five seasons at the helm of the program.

Following his stint at Kansas City, Donlon joined Brownell’s staff at Clemson, becoming an integral part of the Tigers’ success in recent years. Clemson is in the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season, with Donlon playing a key role in the run to the Elite Eight two years ago.

“When we came, the back was a little against the wall a little bit,” Donlon said. “To be able to come and help a guy that has helped me for 30 years, in every aspect of my life — probably outside of my mom, dad, or a family member, he’s probably my second phone call with every major decision.”

The No. 8 seed Tigers will face No. 9 seed Iowa in the first round on Friday evening, and coming up with a plan to slow down Bennett Stirtz, who is averaging 20 points per game, might be one of Donlon’s biggest challenges of the season.

“They are just so well-coached,” Donlon said. “It is hard to make them play a way other than how they want to play. And Bennett Stirtz is phenomenal. Been watching him play for a long time. He has had an incredible season. He is a great, great player.”