John Griffin III

Biography

One of the catalysts of some of Bucknell’s all-time greatest men’s basketball teams returned home in March 2023. John Griffin III, a 2008 Bucknell graduate, became the 22nd head coach of the Bison men’s basketball program and presided over a season of growth in 2023-24. Griffin guided the Bison to a T-2nd finish in the Patriot League last season. After finishing 10-8 in league play, the Bison won a Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal game on the road at American and then took three-time defending champion Colgate to the final buzzer in a three-point loss in the semifinals. Griffin, who spent the previous four seasons as associate head coach at Saint Joseph’s University, was a key part of some of Bucknell’s very best teams in his two previous stints in Lewisburg, comprising four years as a student-athlete and four more as an assistant coach. In those eight seasons, Bucknell compiled a 174-87 (.667) overall record and a 102-26 (.797) mark in Patriot League games. Griffin helped lead Bucknell to four NCAA Tournament appearances, two as a player (2005, 2006) and two as an assistant coach (2017, 2018). Griffin comes from a deep-rooted basketball family. He is now a second-generation head coach following in the footsteps of his father, John Griffin II, who was head coach at Siena from 1982-86 and at Saint Joseph’s from 1990-95. Griffin’s younger brother, Matt, played basketball at Rider and Boston University and is now an assistant coach on his staff at Bucknell. “John Griffin i