International Basketball Coaches Clinic

Ritchie McKay

Liberty University, Men’s Basketball

Ritchie McKay is the winningest coach in the history of Liberty University with more than 260 career wins. He was the assistant coach for Virginia for 6 years and in 2015 he came to Liberty University for the second time. Since then, McKay has led the Flames to eight 20-plus win seasons, including a school-record 30 games during the 2019-20 season. In Liberty’s first three years in the ASUN Conference, McKay and the Flames won the ASUN title in each of those years (2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21), punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament in each instance.

Coach McKay led Liberty to its first ever NCAA Tournament win in 2019 and he guided the flames to three straight ASUN titles (2019, 2020, 2021). He has coached 23 All-Conference players at Liberty, including five Player of the Year honorees.

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett was the Head Coach of the University of Virginia from 2009 to 2024, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2019.

Bennett is a three-time recipient of the Henry Iba Award, two-time Naismith Coach of the year, and two-time AP coach of the year. He is one of three coaches in history (with Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzesweki to lead his program to 10 or more consecutive winning ACC records—retiring with a streak of 13—and is one of three coaches (also with Smith and Krzyzewski) to be named ACC Coach of the Year four or more times. He coached 500 games in Virginia, winning 364 of them (72.8 %).
He led the Virginia program to two of its three Final Four appearances.
Prior to Virginia, he was a head coach at Washington State and an assistant coach for the U19 USA team.
As a player, he played for the Charlotte Hornets from 1992 to 1995.

Kostas Papadopoulos

Kostas Papadopoulos is the Technical Director of the Hellenic Basketball Federation’s Development Program and has extensive experience coaching at both the national and club levels. Since 2023, he has served as the head coach of the Greek U20 National Team, leading them to bronze medals in the FIBA U20 European Championship Division A in Crete (2023) and Poland (2024). Prior to this, he was the head coach of the Greek U16 National Team from 2016 to 2020, securing a gold medal in the 2017 FIBA U16 European Championship Division B in Sofia, which earned the team a promotion to Division A. Under his leadership, the team also placed 6th in the European Championships in 2018 (Novi Sad) and 2019 (Udine). His international coaching experience includes serving as an assistant coach for the Greek U18 Women’s National Team in 2015 and 2016, where the team won silver in Bosnia and earned promotion to Division A, as well as an assistant coach for the Greek Men’s National Team from 2021 to 2022.

Beyond his national team roles, Papadopoulos has had a long and successful career in youth basketball development having worked with several Greek clubs. In addition, he has coached at the professional club level, with multiple teams in the men’s and women’s leagues.
With a career spanning over two decades, Papadopoulos has established himself as a key figure in Greek basketball development, mentoring young players and contributing to the success of national and club teams at various levels.