For two decades, Chris Bartley has guided a WPI men’s basketball team that has been a mainstay at the top of the NEWMAC standings and on NCAA Tournament brackets come March.
The winningest coach in WPI men’s basketball history, Bartley has led his teams to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and has compiled 394 victories with a .720 winning percentage on the bench, including a 179-77 (.699) mark in NEWMAC play.
Under Bartley, the Engineers have been the NEWMAC regular season champions 10 times and have won NEWMAC Tournament won championships in 2005, 2006, 2013, when Bartley was named the Glenn Robinson Division III National Coach of the Year and most recently in 2022.
At the conference level, Bartley has been selected by his peers as NEWMAC Coach of the Year on six occasions, and has coached five NEWMAC Player of the Year winners, including Ryan Cain, who was the winner of the 2007 Jostens Trophy, given annually to the best Division III basketball student-athlete in the country.
Tasked with taking over a program that had gone winless the season before his arrival, Bartley quickly began a rebuild and by season three began a streak of 20 or more wins that lasted a jaw-dropping 13 straight seasons, at the time, the second longest streak of over the 400 men’s basketball programs in Division III.
“The success of the WPI Men’s Basketball program under Coach Bartley has been unprecedented highlighted by winning 20 games for 13 consecutive seasons and a career winning percentage to date over 70%”, remarked former Hall of Fame player and assistant coach Ryan Cain. “Coach Bartley recruits intrinsically motivated individuals who continue the tradition of playing hard, physical, tough and being the most prepared. With his engaging personality and ability to relate to people he has created a WPI Basketball Family that we are fortunate to be a part of.”
His 2004-2005 team reached the Sweet 16 by defeating Western Connecticut in front of a raucous Harrington Auditorium crowd. In 2012-13, Bartley’s squad caught the imagination of the WPI community by rattling off 22 straight victories to start the season and a No. 2 ranking in the D3hoops.com Top 25 and just this past season in 2021-22, the Engineers posted a school record 27 wins en route to just its second Elite Eight appearance in school history, finishing with a top 10 national ranking.
One of the hallmarks of Bartley’s teams has been their participation in community service, including a strong relationship with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. In 2005, the men’s basketball program was honored with WPI’s Edwin B. Coughlin ’23 Award for Community Service. Three years later, the group was recognized again during the university’s annual Honors Convocation as recipients of the Denise Nicoletti Trustees’ Award for Service to the Community.
In addition to his coaching duties, Bartley has served as an Associate Athletic Director at WPI and on several key campus committees.
