Mount St. Mary's coach Donny Lind fights back tears with son on March Madness podium

USA Today

22-03-2025

Mount St. Mary's coach Donny Lind fights back tears with son on March Madness podium
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Duke win over Mount St. Mary's makes coach and son emotional
Mount St. Mary's coach Donny Lind takes to the podium with tears in his eyes, and let's his son Silas speak on his experience in March Madness.
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Editor's note: Follow Men's March Madness live updates and scores from Friday's first-round action.
Mount St. Mary basketball coach Donny Lind was brought to tears following the Mountaineers' 93-49 loss to No. 1 seed Duke and ensuing exit from the first round of the men's NCAA Tournament.
But it wasn't because the Mountaineers' storybook season, which consisted of a First Four win over American, came to an end on Friday. That might have factored into his emotions, but that wasn't what catalyzed him into fighting back tears on the podium at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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Instead, it was 20 words that his young son, Silas Lind, said about being alongside his dad and the Mountaineers all season.
"These have been the best few weeks of my life," Silas Lind said, "and I hope we have many, many more of them."
The viral clip of the first-year Mount St. Mary's coach and his son is a perfect example of the emotions of March Madness — both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The emotions of Silas Lind also speak to what he hopes the memory of being in March Madness alongside his dad will mean for his son in the years to come.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for the Linds and the Mount St. Mary program. After finishing the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) regular season at 12-4, the Mountaineers entered the conference tournament as the No. 5 seed.
Then came wins against No. 3 seed Marist, No. 2 seed Merrimack and No. 4 seed Iona to win the program's first MAAC tournament title, which also punched the program's first ticket to the Big Dance since 2021.
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"It's amazing. This is a hard business for us as fathers, very difficult. So to be able to bring him with me — my wife and my daughter are here too — it's been a blast. He's enjoyed missing school, playing with his friends on the court, but he can speak to that, I'm sure," Donny Lind said Friday when asked what it's been like to have his son alongside him this season.
"But to be able to have these guys along for this ride and to be a part of it and just be having so much fun, I've got the best job in the world. I've said it for the last 10 months. To share it with the people I love the most, with my family and, shoot, those guys in the locker room has been unbelievable.
"Hopefully he'll talk to the fact that he's had a blast over the course of the last couple weeks. You should see him at home games when he's allowed to be on the bench. He's having a lot of fun. That's what our program's about. We try to have as much fun as we can. This is a fun, fun game. It's a blast to get to do this with him."
Mount St. Mary's ends Year 1 of the Donny Lind era at 23-10 overall, its first 20-win season since the 206-17 college basketball season.
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