Staff Directory
- Title:
- Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach
- Email:
James “Buddy” Donnelly serves as the sports performance coach for Washington women’s basketball and enters his sixth season with the program in 2026-27. Throughout his career, Donnelly has built a reputation for elite, holistic player development.
At Washington, Donnelly oversees several aspects of sports performance, including strength and conditioning, functional movement, and recovery. He works closely with the performance staff to implement nutrition and recovery strategies that mirror those used at the highest level of athletics, and he organizes, monitors, and leverages student-athlete data to maximize practice impact, foster athletic growth, and prevent injury. Washington has undergone an impressive turnaround during his tenure, returning to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons (2025, 2026) for the first time since 2017. In 2025-26, the Huskies finished with their highest NET ranking ever at No. 22 and recorded their most wins (22), conference wins (10), road wins (7), and home wins (13) since the 2016-17 campaign.
Before joining the Huskies, Donnelly served as the director of sports performance for women’s basketball at his alma mater, VCU, for five seasons. During his tenure, VCU steadily improved, reaching the postseason in each of his final three years and culminating with a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2021. The Rams secured their berth by winning four games as the No. 5 seed to earn the conference’s automatic bid — their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009.
The Rams won 20 or more games in both 2019 and 2020, including a 13-3 mark in Atlantic 10 play, and earned WNIT bids in both seasons. They were regular-season co-champions in 2019.
Donnelly graduated from VCU with a master’s degree in health and movement sciences in December 2016, after earning a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education, and exercise science from the school in 2014. He holds the Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC) certification from the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.
