Mike Buchanan joined the Notre Dame basketball program in the 2017-18 season, serving as the Offensive Quality Control Coordinator.
Buchanan brings 35 seasons of overall coaching experience and a varied coaching and basketball background. In his lifetime, Buchanan has been involved in basketball on numerous levels: as a player, a coach, a referee, a reporter, a commissioner and a trainer. This will be his 22nd season coaching basketball, to go along with 14 seasons coaching other sports. After spending over 23 years in sales, Buchanan started out his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater, Towson High School, for two seasons with the girl's varsity team, which included one MD state championship win. He also coached at that time with the MD Tornadoes AAU girl's program. He spent the next five years from 1997-2002 as an assistant coach at then-Villa Julie College (now Stevenson University); he coached four seasons with the women's team and one season as shooting coach with the men's team. He also served as the Sports Information Director at Villa Julie for three years during that span.
From there, Buchanan went on to coach for 14 years in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (IAAM), the Baltimore area girl's private school league. The IAAM encompasses about 31 schools, and Buchanan coached at all three levels during his tenure - A, B and C conferences. He took over as Head Coach for the girls varsity team at Notre Dame Prep in Towson from 2002-2006. Competing in the tough "A" Conference, with all the other schools heavily recruiting for basketball, Buchanan's Blazers posted a combined record of 45-55 over the four-year span, including six upset wins over teams ranked in the Baltimore Sun Top 15 poll.
Buchanan then moved on to St. Timothy's School in Stevenson for the next 10 years. He coached varsity basketball all 10 years, and also coached volleyball for seven seasons, softball for two and lacrosse for five. His volleyball teams made it to three IAAM championships and won one title. In basketball, his teams compiled a record of 130-80, including two undefeated seasons and two IAAM "C" Conference championships. His teams posted a school-record 45-game win streak during that run, and also posted the school's first win over Bryn Mawr in over 50 years, a rivalry that is noted as the longest running girl's high school competition on record (now 115 years). After its back-to-back titles, St. Tim's moved up and competed in the "B" conference his final two seasons. In its very first season competing in the "B" St. Tim's made it to the title game despite falling in the finale. In his 14 overall seasons in the IAAM at NDP and STS, Buchanan's varsity basketball teams combined for a record of 175-135.
For a five-year span while coaching, Buchanan also branched out and was certified to become a referee at the high school level. He has served as the commissioner of the West Towson Basketball Association, a neighborhood hoops group that celebrated its 50th reunion last October. He even covered basketball as a member of the media, working part-time for Digital Sports, Varsity Sports Network and the IAAM website, writing stories on various local high school sporting events, including of course basketball. In addition to his varied duties, Buchanan made his living the past 20 years doing year-round basketball activities: camps, clinics, individual and group and team skill sessions, and Bootcamp off-season training sessions for players. As a trainer, he has worked with over 5,000 male and female players of all ages, from travel/rec, AAU, high school and college teams. Working with Cliff Gillespie, he ran the Towsontown Rec Council summer camp for 13 straight years. Over the past seven years, Buchanan has specialized in individual and team shooting sessions, using the DrDish machine, the NOAH machine and his many years of experience, including time over the past few years working with the Pro-Shot shooting system.
Buchanan resigned from St. Tim's in May of 2016, taking time away from basketball for the first time in 20 years to recover from a hip replacement surgery. After one year away, he decided to return to the hardwood to assist Coach Gizzi. The two began a friendship about 15 years ago when Gizzi coached at McDonogh and Buchanan coached at NDP.
Buchanan grew up in Towson and played at Towson High School and then Washington & Lee University, where he graduated in 1975. Mike resides in Nottingham with his wife Linda and their three cats Boo, Curry and Graycie.
