Schrage becomes the 18th head men's basketball coach at Elon and comes to the university from the Ohio State University.
Elon University Director of Athletics Dave Blank introduced as the 18th head coach Mike Schrage in the history of the Elon men's basketball program Monday, April 8, inside of the Gill Room in Schar Center.
Schrage joins the Elon men's basketball program after 
spending the last two seasons as an assistant coach at the Ohio State University, where he worked under head coach Chris Holtmann. Schrage has worked with two of the best college basketball coaches of all time, spending nine seasons with Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University and four seasons at Indiana when Bob Knight led the Indiana University Hoosiers.
"I believe with that background and that commitment, Mike Schrage will win, and win in the right way," Blank told the crowd filling the Gill Room for the introduction. "His experience in developing players will take our program right where we want to go."
Schrage, joined by his family at the event, said he is "absolutely honored" to be the new head coach.
"This is a dream come true for me," Schrage said. "This isn't just a good university. This is a great university. This is a tight-knit community."
In his two years as an assistant at Ohio State, Schrage helped the Buckeyes exceed expectations with two trips to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32. In 2018-19, Ohio State went 20-15 and beat Iowa State in the first round of the Big Dance. The previous season, the Buckeyes posted a stellar 26-9 record and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, beating South Dakota State in the first round before falling 90-84 to Gonzaga. Schrage was instrumental in helping the Buckeyes sign a top-25 class in 2018 and a top-10 class in 2019.
"I am going to promise and guarantee that you are going to get my absolute best, every single day. You're going to get these guys' absolute best every single day," Schrage said. "I am so proud to be the coach, I am so excited to build relationships here and I cannot wait to get started."
Before going to Ohio State, Schrage spent one season on Holtmann's staff at Butler University in 2016-17. There he helped the Bulldogs to a 25-9 record and a second-place finish in the BIG EAST while reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since its 2011 run to the national championship game. Along the way, the fourth-seeded Bulldogs beat Winthrop University and Middle Tennessee State University before falling to eventual national champion, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Schrage also helped Butler sign its highest-rated class in program history.
Prior to Butler, Schrage spent eight seasons as an assistant coach for Johnny Dawkins at Stanford University. During his time with the Cardinal, he helped sign 15 players nationally ranked in the top 100. During Schrage's time in Palo Alto, four Stanford players were selected in the NBA draft and five played in the NBA. In Schrage's eight seasons, the Cardinal appeared in the postseason five times, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2014. It also won at least 20 games on four occasions.
Before going out west with Dawkins, Schrage spent nine seasons at Duke as the director of basketball operations for head coach Mike Krzyzewski from 2002 to 2008 and the program's academic and recruiting coordinator from 1999 to 2002. Schrage was involved in all aspects of the program's administration, including scouting, scheduling, camps and planning. In Durham, Schrage was part of Duke's 2001 national championship run along with two Final Four appearances. While at Duke, Schrage spent time as video coordinator for the USA Basketball Senior National Team at the 2006 World Championship games in Japan and the 2007 Tournament of America in Las Vegas.
Schrage graduated from Indiana in 1998 with a degree in kinesiology and served as a four-year student assistant for then-Hoosiers men's basketball head coach Bob Knight. After graduation, he spent the 1998-99 season as a director of basketball operations for head coach Rod Barnes at Ole Miss.