Updated 8/20/25
Scott Bittner is in his 10th year as the head men’s basketball coach at Stockton and 20th year on the Stockton coaching staff. Bittner boasts a 152-80 record (.655 winning percentage) with four NCAA Tournament berths, one NJAC championship and one ECAC championship as the head coach. Before taking over in 2016, he served as assistant coach and then associate head coach for the Ospreys over a 10-year span.
Last year, Bittner led Stockton to a 19-9 record and a fourth straight NCAA Tournament berth, tying the longest streak in program history. He coached the Ospreys to a 17-11 mark plus a fifth consecutive NJAC championship game appearance in 2023-24. Bittner steered the Ospreys to a 24-6 record plus the team’s second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2022-23.
Bittner helmed Stockton to an outstanding 26-5 record in 2021-22 and was voted NJAC Coach of the Year and NABC District 4 Coach of the Year. The Ospreys won the NJAC championship and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Stockton went 5-4 and reached the NJAC championship game in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Bittner’s 2019-20 squad posted an 18-9 mark, tied for first place in the NJAC regular season and started the run of five straight NJAC championship game berths.
In 2018-19, Stockton went 10-15 overall with eight wins in the NJAC. The rebuilding year came on the heels of a 15-10 campaign in 2017-18. In his first season as a college head coach, Bittner led the 2016-17 squad to an 18-11 record and the program’s first ECAC championship.
During Bittner’s 10 seasons as assistant coach and then associate head coach, Stockton went 217-74 (.746 winning percentage) with six NCAA Tournament appearances, highlighted by a berth in the 2009 NCAA championship game. The Ospreys won five NJAC championships, including three straight from 2014-16, and posted eight 20-win seasons with Bittner on Gerry Matthews’ staff.
In 2007-08, Bittner’s second year as a Stockton assistant, the Ospreys snapped an 11-year NJAC championship drought and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The next year, Bittner helped Stockton reach its pinnacle as the Ospreys repeated as the NJAC champs, went 30-3, setting a school record for victories, and reached the NCAA championship game.
The 2009-10 campaign saw Stockton earn its third straight NCAA berth. Bittner later helped the Ospreys reach the 20-win mark again in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Stockton regained the NJAC crown and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 before finishing with a 25-5 record in 2013-14. The Ospreys followed with two more conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances, going 23-6 in 2014-15 and 21-7 in 2015-16.
In addition to his time on the Stockton staff, Bittner coached on the high school level as an assistant coach at Bishop Eustace and his alma mater, St. Augustine Prep. As a player, he spent one year at Morris County College and then three seasons at Wheeling Jesuit University. Bittner scored 1,681 career points for the Cardinals and was a 1994 Division II All-American and three-time All-WVIAC selection. Bittner graduated from Wheeling Jesuit in 1995 and was inducted into school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
