Pat Baldwin joined the Valpo men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2023-24 season.
Year 3 of Baldwin’s Valpo tenure in 2025-2026 saw the program record its best conference winning percentage and highest league win total since joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 2017. The team went 11-9 in MVC play, nearly doubling its conference win total for a second straight season, and notching the team’s first-ever winning season in Valley play. Overall, Valpo won 18 games including 17 regular-season contests in 2025-26, the program’s highest regular-season win total since its final season in the Horizon League in 2016-2017. Year 3 of Baldwin’s time on staff was Valpo’s first winning season overall since 2019-2020 and featured a 13-4 record at the Athletics-Recreation Center, the team’s highest home win total since 2016-2017.
Baldwin’s third season on staff was an underdog story in the sense that Valpo finished tied for sixth in the MVC and just one game out of a tie for third in a tightly-packed league after being picked last in the 11-team league in the preseason poll. Valpo ranked 325th nationally in Division-I experience as only three scholarship members of the team had played a D-I game prior to the season. Valpo finished the regular season at 150 in the KenPom after starting the season at 283, moving up 133 spots in the rankings, tied for the fourth largest improvement nationally.
The 2025-26 season saw Valpo sweep the regular-season series from UIC for the first time since the Flames joined The Valley, sweep the regular-season series from Indiana State for just the second time since joining The Valley, win a first-round MVC Tournament game over Indiana State to advance to the league quarterfinals, end a 10-game head-to-head losing streak to Bradley and squash an eight-game head-to-head skid to Drake while notching a road victory over the Bulldogs for the first time since 2018 en route to sweeping Drake for the first time since 2017-18.
In Baldwin’s first two seasons in Northwest Indiana, the Valpo coaching staff recruited and developed back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Freshmen of the Year, marking just the third time that the same team won that award in consecutive seasons since the honor began in 1986. In his second season on staff, Baldwin helped Valpo over double its win total from the previous year as the Beacons recorded 15 victories in 2024-25, the team’s highest output since 2019-20. Valpo picked up numerous breakthrough triumphs in Baldwin’s second season on staff en route to an MVC Tournament semifinal appearance. The team won a season series against Missouri State for the first time in 16 seasons of shared conference affiliation, defeated UNI in back-to-back matchups for the first time in 40 all-time meetings and beat Belmont for the first time since the Bruins joined the Missouri Valley Conference thanks to a 101-point output, Valpo’s highest in league play since 1998.
Baldwin brought head coaching experience to the Valpo bench as he spent five seasons as the head coach at Milwaukee before serving as an assistant coach under Patrick Ewing at Georgetown. He has also worked under Chris Collins as an assistant coach during a successful run at Northwestern, so he has recent stops in the Big Ten and Big East to go along with his head coaching experience.
Prior to Milwaukee, Baldwin spent four seasons as a key member of Collins’ Northwestern staff. The Wildcats increased their win total in each of his four years there. In his final season on staff at his alma mater, Northwestern shattered a program record with 24 wins and achieved the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history. During his time on the Northwestern staff, he helped the team land a recruiting class that ranked in the top 30 nationally.
Before making his way to Northwestern in 2013, Baldwin had coaching stops at Lincoln University in Missouri (2001-2002), Green Bay (2002-2004), Loyola Chicago (2004-2011) and Missouri State (2011-2013). The 1994 Northwestern graduate was a three-year captain and etched his name in the program record book in numerous locations. He owns all three program records for steals – single game (nine), single season (90) and career (272). He ranks third in program history in assists (452) and fourth in single-season free-throw percentage (.880). He scored 1,189 career points and was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
During his time at Milwaukee, Baldwin’s Panthers were among the NCAA leaders in free-throw percentage and nearly set a program record in 2018-19 at .746. His teams reached the Horizon League semifinals on three occasions and he helped the program climb four spots in the league standings from the previous year in his first season at the helm.
The Leavenworth, Kan. native played professionally in Bosnia and Croatia before joining the coaching ranks. Baldwin and his wife Shawn, a former Northwestern volleyball player, have four children – Patrick Jr., Tatum, Brooke and Claire. Patrick Jr. plays in the NBA for the Golden State Warriors.
What They’re Saying About Coach Baldwin
Patrick Ewing, NBA Hall of Famer and Former Georgetown Head Coach: “I enjoyed working with Pat Baldwin. He brought knowledge of the game and a great work ethic to my staff.”
Chris Collins, Northwestern Head Coach: “Pat Baldwin is a home run hire for Valpo basketball. He has a tremendous basketball IQ, does a great job developing players and is a tireless recruiter. Pat played an integral role in helping us recruit and develop our first-ever NCAA Tournament team in Northwestern basketball history. Most importantly, Pat is a high-character family man who will represent Valpo in a first-class manner in everything that he does.”
Jim Whitesell, Former Buffalo and Loyola Chicago Head Coach: “Pat is an incredible addition to Coach Powell’s staff. This is a home run. Pat brings a wealth of experience. He is well versed in every area that there is. Having had the opportunity to work with Pat, I have seen his work ethic, strong values and commitment to the student-athletes.”
