SUNY Niagara found its new top guy by looking one seat down the bench.
Less than a month after longtime women’s basketball coach Nate Beutel left to join the staff at the University at Buffalo, the Thunderwolves promoted assistant coach Maleik Agee to head coach Thursday.
Agee, a Niagara Falls native, has spent the last three seasons as an assistant for the SUNY Niagara men’s and women’s programs. During Agee’s tenure as an assistant, the Thunderwolves have gone 83-13 with three NJCAA Region III championships and two national tournament berths, while going 75-23 with two Region III titles and two national tournament appearances with the men’s team.
“I am very excited to have Maleik Agee taking over our Women’s Basketball program,” interim SUNY Niagara athletic director Bob McKeown said in a statement released by the school. “Maleik is an alum of SUNY Niagara and brings years of experience and basketball knowledge to the position.”
Before joining the staff at SUNY Niagara, Agee built a friendship with men’s coach Bill Beilein. He also spent seven years coaching AAU basketball, particularly with Niagara Falls-based 716 United and the Atlanta Celtics AAU team.
Agee graduated from SUNY Niagara with an associate’s degree in sports management in 2024. He is also a 2014 graduate from Niagara Falls High School, where he was a two-sport athlete.
He inherited a program that went 314-76 over 13 seasons under Beutel’s leadership. The Thunderwolves had never won a Region III championship previously, but Beutel guided them to the last seven titles, while producing eight All-Americans.