In 33 years coaching at Davidson College, McKillop spurred Davison College regional and national resurgence, led the Wildcats to new heights in a highly competitive basketball-centric conference and coached one of the world’s premier athletes, Stephen Curry.

McKillop’s Davidson teams won 23 conference championships, including 15 regular season crowns. They made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a magical, Curry-led run to the 2008 Elite Eight. Seventeen of his Davidson teams won at least 20 games, while seven won 25 or more. He finished with 634 victories at the Division I college level.

In all, McKillop-coached teams reached postseason play 19 times — the NCAA Tournament in 1998, 2002, 2006-08, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2022, the NIT in 1994, 1996, 2005, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2021, and the CBI in 2011.

The 2007-08 NABC National Coach of the Year, McKillop led Davidson to the 2008 NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional Championship game — the program’s third Elite Eight appearance but first in four decades — with victories over nationally ranked foes Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin. The Wildcats' unbelievable run ended with a two-point loss to eventual national champion Kansas, and Davidson finished the campaign with a final ranking of ninth in the ESPN/USA Today Poll.

For 22 years, McKillop's teams competed in the Southern Conference where they put together one of the most remarkable runs in league history. From 1992-2014, Davidson won 447 games, including a 278-88 record against league competition, making McKillop the most decorated coach in the conference's 100-year existence.  

Along with winning 13 regular season titles and seven tournament crowns as members of the SoCon, the 'Cats went undefeated in league play three times under McKillop, highlighted by a 20-0 record in 2007-08. Davidson had a 43-game conference win streak from 2007-09, one off the SoCon record and the eighth longest in NCAA history.

A 1972 graduate of Hofstra, McKillop has coached eight All-Americans, an Academic All-American, 11 Conference Players of the Year, five Freshmen of the Year and 73 all-conference selections.

57 of his players have gone on to play professionally

A native of Queens, N.Y., McKillop began his coaching career at Holy Trinity High School (1973-78) on Long Island, where he achieved an 86-25 record. In 1978, he joined Eddie Biedenbach's staff at Davidson as an assistant coach before returning to New York a year later to serve as the head coach at Long Island Lutheran (1979-89). There, McKillop compiled a mark of 182-51 to go along with five New York state championships.