Dan Pruessner enters his sixth season in charge of Eastern Men's Basketball in 2024-25.
In the 2023-24 season, Pruessner led Eastern University Men's Basketball to the program's first conference championship. In a year where the MAC Commonwealth put three teams into the NCAA Tournament, Eastern had to win a pair of road games against NCAA Tournament teams to claim the program's first title. After pulling away to an 86-72 win at Hood College in the Semifinals, the Eagles erased a 15-point first half deficit and raced to a 98-69 win over a 13th-ranked Widener squad that had handed them two losses in the league.
In another first, the Eagles beat TCNJ in their NCAA Tournament opener. The 21 wins matches the team's total from the 2021-'22 season and is Pruessner's second 20 win season in his first five years. Jaron Fairweather and Zubair Lee each earned First-Team All-MAC Commonwealth Honors and Kaeshawn Ward earned second-team honors. Both Ward and Fairweather reached the 1,000 point mark in the season, and Lee was named MAC Commonwealth Defensive Player of the Year.
With Lee protecting the rim, the 2023-24 team finished 5th in the nation in blocked shots.
Pruessner and his staff brought in a talented group for the 2022-23 season, and they topped York 70-64 in the opening round game of the MAC Commonwealth Tournament before falling 75-70 at top-seeded Alvernia. The 18 wins was the second-most wins by an Eastern team since the program joined Division III in 1992-93. Zubair Lee was named MAC Commonwealth Rookie of the Year.
With a 21-win season in 2021-'22, Dan Pruessner had earned MAC Commonwealth Coach of the Year honors and led the Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament bid. The 21 wins was the most by an Eastern team since the 87-88 team went 30-6.
In the 21-22 season, all five Eastern starters scored in double-figures and the Eagles shot over 46% from the floor. With a 14-2 record in the league, they earned the top seed in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament. Eastern earned home wins over LVC and Messiah before falling 75-71 to Hood in front of a packed house in the league final.
He brought over fifteen years of head coaching experience from different areas of the country before joining the Eastern staff as Associate Head Coach for Eric McNelley in in 2018-19. He was promoted to Head Coach in the spring of 2019 when McNelley stepped away to serve as Athletic Director. In his first year at the helm, the Eagles went 17-10 and advanced to the MAC Freedom Tournament final.
He spent eight seasons as the Head Coach at Florida Christian School in Miami. There, he achieved more district championships than any coach in the school’s 45-year history. From Florida Christian, he moved to North Carolina where he spent four years at Freedom Christian Academy in Fayetteville.
At Freedom Christian he was named the Coastal Plains Independent Conference Coach of the Year, took the Patriots to the NCISA Final Four, and developed over 15 players into NCAA scholarship offers.
He played four years of College Basketball at Northland International University. He also holds a masters degree in Sports Science from the United States Sports Academy.
Eastern Unviersity Coaching Records
