David McLaughlin - Men's Basketball Coach - Dartmouth College Athletics

Photo by: Doug Austin

David McLaughlin

Title:
Head Coach
Alma Mater:
Colby '97
Phone (603):
603-646-8108
At Dartmouth:
9th Year (2016-)

The 2025-26 season marks David McLaughlin’s tenth year (ninth season) on the sidelines as Dartmouth head coach. He was named the 28th head coach of the Big Green men’s basketball program on April 25, 2016.

“Dartmouth College is unique, even within the unique nature of the Ivy League,” said McLaughlin. “It’s the only college in the Ivy League and has an undergraduate focus. The community is real, the culture of support for each other — both in the athletic realm and the campus community — is real, and we extend that to our program.

“I feel that we are truly relationship-based and developmental-based in terms of wanting our guys to improve on a daily basis, and we tie that into what they’re getting on campus every day as well,” McLaughlin continued. “That’s seen through our core values, which is Be A Pro.”

Be A Pro is an acronym that stands for Belief, Excellence, Accountability, Positivity, Relationships and Ownership.

Under the leadership of McLaughlin, the Big Green are on the rise. Most recently, during the 2024-25 season, McLaughlin and his staff led Dartmouth to their first Ivy Madness appearance and proven improvement solely based off record alone. The team went from winning six games in the 2023-24 season to winning 14 in the 2024-25 regular season while matching their six wins from the previous season in the non-conference slate alone. The regular season .519 overall win percentage and .571 conference win percentage marks the first time the program has finished above .500 in its overall record and league record since the 1999 season. McLaughlin coached his team to success and it showed at the conclusion of the season when Ryan Cornish '25 was named First Team All-Ivy and Brandon Mitchell-Day was named Second Team All-Ivy.

In 2021-22, Dartmouth finished 6-8 in Ivy League play, just one game out of the Ivy League Tournament. Those six league victories were the program’s most since recording seven in 2014-15, and marked Dartmouth’s second most league victories in the previous 12 seasons. Defensively, the Big Green led the Ivy League in allowing just 68.2 points per game. The Big Green also beat third-seeded Penn and fourth-seeded Cornell during the regular season.

McLaughlin's Head Coaching Record
		Overall			Conference
Year	School	W	L	Pct	W	L	Pct	Finish
2004	Stonehill	5	12	.294	5	12	.294	13th
2004-05		20	8	.714	16	6	.727	5th
2005-06		27	7	.794	17	5	.773	2nd
2006-07		16	12	.529	11	11	.500	7th
2007-08		18	14	.563	12	10	.545	5th
2008-09		21	8	.724	16	6	.727	3rd
2009-10		24	6	.800	20	2	.909	1st
2010-11		22	8	.733	16	6	.727	2nd
2011-12		25	9	.735	15	7	.682	3rd
2012-13		11	15	.423	7	15	.318	13th

2016-17	Dartmouth	7	20	.259	4	10	.286	t-6th
2017-18		7	20	.259	3	11	.214	8th
2018-19		11	19	.367	2	12	.143	8th
2019-20		12	17	.414	5	9	.357	6th
2021-22		9	16	.360	6	8	.429	5th
2022-23		10	18	.357	6	8	.429	6th
2023-24		6	21	.222	2	12	.143	8th
2024-25		14	14	.500	8	6	.571	3rd
Total (18 Seasons)		265	244	.521	171	156	.523
Dartmouth (8 Seasons)		76	145	.344	36	76	.286
Stonehill (10 Seasons)		189	99	.656	135	80	.628

Among the 2021-22 highlights was a 69-60 triumph over Georgetown. It was Dartmouth’s first win over a major conference opponent since beating Texas A&M on Dec. 17, 1989 and first win over a power conference foe on the road since Dartmouth won at Vanderbilt on Dec. 19, 1969 by an 83-82 final. In Ivy League play, the Big Green picked up a 79-50 win over Columbia on Jan. 29, their largest margin of victory over an Ivy League opponent since Valentine’s Day in 1997, when they beat the Lions, 82-47. Dartmouth closed the season with a 76-54 win over Harvard, spoiling the Crimson’s Senior Day and giving Dartmouth its largest margin of victory in the series in 30 years, and biggest at Harvard since 1955. In that game, Brendan Barry scored 19 points, including four 3-pointers to end his career with the program record for career 3-pointers (244).

Dartmouth finished the 2021-22 season with a NET Ranking of 227, which was ahead of Harvard. It marked the first time since the 2007-08 season that Dartmouth finished ahead of Harvard in the final RPI or NET Ranking.

In McLaughlin’s first season of 2016-17, he had the Big Green in the race to qualify for the inaugural Ivy League Tournament going into the final day of the season. A highlight was a season sweep of Penn, just the second season sweep of the Quakers in the previous 58 years, while Evan Boudreaux earned all-district honors from both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).

McLaughlin faced adversity in his second season with the loss of his top two returning scorers within the first three games of the season, yet he managed to keep the team focused, which led to competitive games throughout the season. The season was highlighted by wins over Loyola Maryland in the final seconds, Brown, Columbia and defending Ivy League champion Princeton, as Dartmouth matched its record from the year prior.

Year three brought the best nonleague record (9-7) in over 20 years with road victories at Loyola Maryland and Albany as well as another triumph over the Great Danes in the Belfast Classic overseas in Ireland on what was a terrific cultural experience for the Big Green. Dartmouth also enjoyed regional victories against Maine, Boston University and New Hampshire, and by the end of the season, forward Chris Knight had earned a spot on the All-Ivy League Second Team as a sophomore.

The 2019-20 campaign started with a bang as the Big Green shocked Buffalo in the season opener, 68-63, ending the Bulls’ 26-game home winning streak. That victory was followed up a week later by sharing the River Hawk Invitational title. After struggling through a difficult start to the Ivy slate with five of the first six games on the road, Dartmouth won five of its next six contests with season sweeps of both Columbia and Cornell along with a home win over Penn. Once again, Knight was named to the All-Ivy League Second Team.

McLaughlin came to Dartmouth after serving three years as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Northeastern University, during which time the Huskies posted a combined record of 52-48. In 2014-15, he helped guide the Huskies to a 23-12 overall record and a regular season co-championship in the Colonial Athletic Association, as well as the CAA Tournament Championship to secure the school’s first bid to the NCAA Tournament in 24 years.

Three of Northeastern’s players earned a total of five All-CAA honors, including Scott Eatherton who was the 2013-14 CAA Defensive Player of the Year and Quincy Ford, who garnered the CAA Tournament MVP award in 2014-15. McLaughlin also secured eight student-athletes for the classes of 2019 and 2020 from six different states, including Massachusetts, Florida and California.

Prior to his tenure at Northeastern, McLaughlin was the head coach at Division II Stonehill College in the Northeast-10 Conference. Under his tutelage, the Skyhawks — which had been 11-45 in the two seasons before he took over — enjoyed terrific success with a combined 189-99 (.656) record in his nine-plus seasons (2004-13), including a 135-80 (.630) mark in conference play. Six times, Stonehill won at least 20 games, topping out at 27 during the team’s run to the national semifinals in 2005-06. The Skyhawks qualified for the NCAA Tournament on five occasions (2006, ’09-12), twice winning the East Regional Championship to advance to the Division II Final Four (2006, ’12). McLaughlin also led Stonehill to two NE-10 regular-season championships (2006, ’10) and an NE-10 Tournament championship (2012), as well as a spot in the top-10 national rankings in four years.

The NABC Regional Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2011, and the NE-10 Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2010, McLaughlin is the all-time wins leader at Stonehill. He mentored a total of 14 All-Northeast-10 Conference players, including three first-team selections, as well as a player who received the NCAA Elite 89 Award for having the highest cumulative grade point average among the teams competing at the 2012 Division II Elite Eight.

McLaughlin produced three-straight NE-10 Defensive Players of the Year to highlight the program’s regular place atop the NE-10 and NCAA Division II defensive charts. Three Skyhawks earned NE-10 All-Rookie Team status during his tenure, and he produced three-straight NE-10 Defensive Players of the Year (2010-12).

McLaughlin was named Stonehill’s interim head coach in January 2004 after three-and-a-half seasons as an assistant coach, and hired on a permanent basis later that year. In his first full season, he navigated the team to a 20-8 finish in 2004-05. Every one of his players graduated during his time as the head coach, spanning nearly a full decade.

Before joining the staff at Stonehill in 2000, McLaughlin served as an assistant coach at Wesleyan University for two seasons. He also spent time on the Suffolk University staff and was the head coach of the gold-medal-winning Northeast entry of the 1999 Bay State Games. McLaughlin served as a head coach at the Collegiate Basketball Invitational for four years, coaching top Division II senior players.

McLaughlin was a four-year letterwinner at Colby College, graduating in 1997 with a degree in history and going on to earn his Master of Education from Suffolk in 1999.

McLaughlin and his wife, Jenna, have three children — Sydney (16), Ryan (14) and Colin (12).