From staff and wire reports

LEWISBURG -- Pat Flannery retired Friday after 14 years as Bucknell's basketball coach, leading the small Patriot League school to two NCAA tournaments, highlighted by a victory over Kansas in 2005 and a Top 25 ranking the next season.

Beginning July 1, the 50-year-old coach will become a fundraiser at his alma mater. He said a big part in leaving coaching was to spend more time with his family.

Bucknell president Brian Mitchell called the decision a "tremendous loss to our basketball program." The school will begin a nationwide coaching search, athletic director John Hardt said.

Flannery had a 234-178 record at Bucknell and won three regular-season conference titles. Bucknell went 11-18 during the past regular season and lost in the second round of the league tournament.

Bucknell's upset of Kansas in the NCAA tournament three years ago capped a season full of upsets for the Bison. The following season, Bucknell became the first Patriot League team to be ranked in the AP Top 25, and defeated Arkansas in the NCAAs to move to the second round again.

Bucknell is the only Patriot League program to win a game in the NCAA tournament.

Flannery was flanked by his wife and two sons at the news conference at Alumni House, which was draped in the school colors of bright orange and blue. In thanking his family, Flannery looked at his sons and said, "I'll be glad to get out of that limelight. ... They're growing up fast."

In a 2007 interview with The Daily Item for its magazine, "Inside Pennsylvania," Flannery said that he was alarmed a few years ago when he realized he wasn't listening to his kids because he was thinking about the job. But, he had finally learned to leave his job at the office.

"I don't bring (work) home," he said. "When it's over, it's over. I've put it in proper perspective."

Flannery experienced health problems in recent years and missed a few games this season with an illness the university declined to discuss. Flannery said he's completely healthy and his health had nothing to do directly with the decision that been "coming over years."

But he said the illness, along with the sudden death last year of Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, were factors in pondering a change. Prosser's son, Mark, is a Bucknell assistant.

Flannery informed his team Thursday.

A Pottsville native, Flannery came to Bucknell in 1976 as the first recruit of Charlie Woollum, the man he would replace in 1994. He graduated in 1980 with a degree in economics and political science.