It was the moment the game disappeared. The moment everything changed.

On Jan. 24, 2006, Penn men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue, then the head coach at Cornell, had his players working. The Big Red were three days removed from a buzzer-beating loss to in-state rival Columbia, and their sixth-year coach was determined to right the ship.

“The guys were playing extremely hard,” Donahue said at the time. “It was exactly what you hoped to see.”

But as guard Khaliq Gant dove for a loose ball, disaster struck. In a mess of bodies, Gant collided with three other players, sending him straight to the floor. As his head and neck laid over a teammate’s legs, Gant could not move.

“I can still see him lying there,” Donahue recalled.

The medical team moved quickly to save Gant’s life. They steadied his neck and called 911, with paramedics responding 10 minutes later. Gant was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Elmira, N.Y., where he was diagnosed with dislocations in two of his vertebrae. Donahue called Gant’s parents to tell them the news, assuring them that their son would be OK.

Gant underwent a seven-hour surgery to repair the damage to his spinal cord, eventually making a full recovery. Though he never played in another game for Cornell, Gant stayed on as a member of the team, traveling with the group and remaining an integral part of the program. But he still cites his injury as the day that changed his life.

“It taught me a lot about perspective,” Gant said. “Just the amount of patience and humility I had to have to go through that process, it really makes me appreciate every day.”

It had a similar effect on the man Gant called his coach.

“I recalibrated everything I was doing. Could I be better at this? Could I be more of a piece of success, rather than beating down my guys?” Donahue said. “I think of that moment in how I approach every aspect of my profession. That was my wake-up call.”

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Before he was hired as the head coach at Cornell, Donahue’s basketball journey began in the state to which he would one day return. 

After growing up in Springfield, Pa. and playing both basketball and baseball at the nearby Ursinus College, Donahue started his coaching career in 1984 as an assistant at Springfield High School. Before long, he earned a position on the staff at Penn under coach Fran Dunphy, who won 10 Ivy League titles from 1989 to 2006.

There, Donahue not only fulfilled the duties of an assistant coach, but exceeded them.

“Toward the end of his career at Penn, he was doing lots of the coaching,” Dunphy said of Donahue. “We certainly gave him lots of ownership, because he deserved it. … He just was really good and really ready.”

In September of 2000, Donahue was hired as the head coach at Cornell and tasked with revitalizing a program that had recorded just two winning seasons in the previous 12 years. 

Early on, Donahue’s tenure brought much of the same — during his first five years with the Big Red, he won an average of just nine games per season. As a first-time head coach, Donahue says it took time for him to craft his leadership style and credits a long leash with helping him find his footing.

“I jumped into a place like Cornell that was really down, to be quite honest,” Donahue said. “And the beauty of it was, I could make any mistake I wanted to, and they’re like ‘OK. We’re used to that.’”

Then, in the wake of Gant’s injury, things began to change. As Donahue implemented a more thoughtful approach, his team responded. The Big Red went 7-4 to close the 2006 campaign, and in 2007, Donahue recorded his first winning season as a head coach.

“Before Khaliq’s injury, I did not understand how much my actions and words impacted the players that I coached,” Donahue said. “I was so focused on winning and not [on] building the proper culture and caring for the players. After Khaliq’s situation, it made me appreciate my job as a leader and [made me] more grateful for my impact on my players. … If you look at what happened after that, from where we were, it’s night and day.”

“I try to be understanding of our challenges,” Donahue added. “Understanding in players and what they’re going through.”

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Immediately after Gant’s injury, Donahue spent extensive time with him at the ICU in Elmira, skipping practice for the next 10 days to remain by Gant’s side. During that time, Donahue met one of the nurses at the hospital, Wanda Foote, who noticed the level of care he took during his player’s hour of need.

Later that year, Foote’s son, Jeff Foote, transferred from the men’s basketball team at St. Bonaventure to play under Donahue at Cornell. In three seasons with the Big Red, Foote was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year twice, earned three All-Ivy selections, and anchored Cornell to three-straight Ivy titles from 2008 to 2010. That included a run to the Sweet 16 in 2010, with a group which Dunphy called “as good a team as there ever was in the Ivy League.”

“He really cares about everyone he interacts with, specifically the players he recruits,” Gant said. “He really takes the time to make sure that person is cared for. And he shows that compassion a lot more than just on the basketball court.”

Another critical piece in the Big Red’s run was one of Donahue’s hallmark tactics: three-point shooting. From 2008 to 2010, the Big Red ranked first in the Ivy League in three-pointers attempted, three-pointers made, and three-point percentage, with their 42.9% clip in 2010 leading the entire nation.

After Cornell’s run to the Sweet 16, Donahue was hired as the new head coach at Boston College, a Power Five school, and he brought his unique brand of basketball with him. In the 2010-11 season, the first Donahue as coach, the Golden Eagles went 22-13 and finished fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference thanks in part to their league-leading nine three-pointers per night. In a game that has moved heavily toward efficient shot selection in recent years, Donahue’s approach was ahead of its time.

“I’ve probably been analytical my whole life,” Donahue said. “How I look at things, risk-reward, efficiency over non-efficient — I drive my wife crazy with the stuff I bring up.”

“He’s a schemer,” current Penn sophomore guard Sam Brown said of Donahue’s coaching tactics. “He loves to dream up these situations, and I am just a follower of whatever he wants to put me in. I trust him wholeheartedly to put me in the best spot to help me help the team.”

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But in the seasons that followed, the team’s shooting declined, as did its results. From 2012 to 2014, the Golden Eagles went 33-63, culminating in a 2013-14 season that saw them go 4-14 in ACC play. 

One of those wins was the biggest of Donahue’s career: on Feb. 19, 2014, Boston College knocked off No. 1 Syracuse on the road, buoyed by a 50% three-point shooting performance. Less than a month later, on March 18, Donahue was out of a job.

“I loved every day except probably the day they let me go,” Donahue said of his experience at Boston College. “I learned what that level’s like and coached against great coaches, but in all that, I thought I became a better coach.”

After his departure, Donahue spent a year as a television analyst for ESPN and Fox News. But when the position at Penn became available, Donahue made his homecoming, signing on to become the Quakers’ head coach in March of 2015.

“Steve Donahue is a terrific basketball coach and is even more impressive off the court,” Mike Krzyzewski, then-coach at Duke and five-time NCAA national champion, said at the time. “This is truly an outstanding hire by the University of Pennsylvania.”

Donahue has seen mixed results in his near-decade back in the Palestra. After a pair of losing seasons to begin his tenure, he became the first coach to win Ivy titles at two different schools with a championship in 2018. Then, in 2022, Donahue had what was perhaps his best chance at another team title with 2023 Player of the Year Jordan Dingle at the helm, but the Quakers ended the season with two heartbreaking defeats against rival Princeton.

Since then, the team has struggled further. After losing Dingle to the transfer portal, All-Ivy forward Max Martz to medical retirement, and 2024 leading scorer and guard Clark Slajchert to an ankle injury for much of the Ivy campaign, the Quakers finished last season with a 3-11 conference record, the program’s worst since 1957. The Red and Blue are 1-5 in the Big 5 over the past two years. Penn has not beaten Princeton since 2018.

“When people look at us on the floor, I want it to be Penn basketball,” Donahue said, referencing the gritty style that led the team to many of its 26 Ivy titles. “It’s gotten away from that a little bit. I know we have it in us.”

Despite these challenges, the Quakers remain confident in their ability to engineer a turnaround. Part of that confidence comes from Donahue’s ability to draw up X’s and O’s. But it also comes from a trust that extends far past the bounds of the sport.

“I think the biggest thing that he’s really taught me is that all these things that are going on in basketball are applicable to life,” senior forward/center Nick Spinoso said. “He’s really helped me mature and grow. … He’s helped me on and off the court, a lot more than I think I realized, and probably more than I realize now.”

“If I were to have a son play college basketball, it would be an honor to have him coached by Steve Donahue,” Dunphy said.

After nearly 25 years as a head coach, Donahue’s approach can be described in a number of ways: efficient, winning, tactical. But when asked to distill his style to a single word, Donahue’s answer was far simpler.

“Understanding,” Donahue said.