Denison University

Chris Sullivan begins his sixth season as Head Coach of the Denison University men's basketball program in 2024-25, and is in his 15th season with the Big Red overall.

The 2024-25 season was historic for the Big Red, as they finished with a program record 24 wins en route to their first NCAC Tournament Championship since the 2015-16 season and their first NCAC Regular Season Championship in program history. The team ended up finishing 24-4 and 14-2 in conference play. After a hot start going 5-1, the Big Red rattled off 12 straight wins in what would be their longest winning streak in program history. They would continue their momentum into the conference tournament, winning their semifinal game in a close 74-70 brawl with Ohio Wesleyan. In the conference championship game, they faced off against Wooster, whom they had split with earlier in the season, and got the edge early to win 79-68 to secure not only a conference tournament championship, but a bid to the NCAA Tournament First Round. The Big Red faced off against Franklin College in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, and after a back-and-forth battle that needed to go into overtime to decide a winner, Franklin came out on top with a three-point win, 67-64. Three members of the team were honored with All-NCAC, as Ricky Radtke secured First Team All-NCAC honors for the first time in his career, Trevor Reed notched Second Team honors, and Darren Rubin rounded out the group receiving Third Team honors.Sullivan currently holds a 72-46 (.610) record at Denison, which is currently the second-best winning percentage at Denison through 100 games.

The Big Red finished 15-12 overall and 10-6 in the North Coast Athletic Conference in 2023-24. The season was highlighted by a win over Wabash on Jan. 3. The team advanced to the NCAC Tournament semifinals for a fourth year in a row and seventh time in the past eight seasons. The Big Red earned a 78-62 win over Oberlin in the quarterfinal round. Denison won six-straight games from late November through late December. Ricky Radtke secured second team all-conference for a second-straight year. 

Denison men's basketball finished its 2022-23 season 15-11 overall and 10-6 in the NCAC. The Big Red also finished in fourth place in the conference during the regular season and advanced to the NCAC Tournament semifinals for the third season in a row and for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. In the NCAC quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Denison earned a 65-63 win at home over fifth-seeded Wittenberg University thanks to the game-winning fastbreak layup by sophomore Scotty Dean in the final second of the game. Denison reached the 10-win mark in the NCAC for the second season in a row under the direction of Coach Sullivan. It was the first time Denison has earned at least 10 conference wins in back-to-back seasons since 2017-18. Lastly, junior Darren Rubin and sophomore Ricky Radtke were both named Second-Team All-NCAC.

Denison finished its first full season (2021-22) under the direction of Coach Sullivan with a 13-13 overall record and an 11-7 record in the NCAC. The Big Red earned the No. 5 seed for the NCAC tournament before defeating Coach Sullivan’s alma mater, No. 4-seeded Wittenberg University, 62-58 in the quarterfinals to advance to the NCAC semifinals, where they fell to No. 16 nationally-ranked and eventual NCAC Champion and NCAA Final Four participate Wabash College.

In his first season as head coach in 2020-21, Sullivan had to navigate the COVID-19 Pandemic, and his team went 5-5 in a shortened winter season.

On March 10, 2020, Chris Sullivan became Denison’s 21st Head Men’s Basketball Coach in the 121-year history of the program. Sullivan takes over for Bob Ghiloni who announced his retirement after 18 seasons leading the Big Red. Sullivan recently completed his ninth season as an assistant coach and his fourth year as associate head coach. In 2017, he was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Under Armour 30 under 30 list highlighting the top men’s basketball coaches in the nation under the age of 30.

During his time as an assistant coach at Denison (2011-12 to 2019-20), the Big Red won an NCAC title (2016), which earned the program it's first automatic bid to play in the NCAA Tournament; won a program-record 22 games in a season, earned top-25 and top-10 national rankings, made the NCAC Tournament semifinals five times and won 120 games. He also helped coach two all-region players in Dimonde Hale and Jett Speelman.

Sullivan accepted the lead assistant coaching position at Denison after a stellar career at Wittenberg University. He was named to the D3hoops.com All-American team in 2011 where he set the program and conference record for 3-pointers made in a season (120). He is one of 20 All-Americans produced by Wittenberg. He scored 1,090 points in his collegiate career and is Wittenberg’s career leader in 3-pointers made (241). Sullivan graduated from Wittenberg in 2011 with a degree in Sport Management.

Sullivan comes from a family of coaches as his brother Kevin, played at DePauw and coached at Kenyon & Emory; Brian, played & coached at Davidson College, and after a professional basketball career is currently working on his PhD in Performance Psychology, and his father, Greg, is the Director of the Positive Coaching and Leadership Masters program at the University of Missouri.

Chris and his wife Kellen reside in New Albany with their sons Mac & Grant.