Dereck Whittenburg (born October 2, 1960) is a former collegiate basketball player who played for

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

, where he was a member of the 1982–83 team that won the NCAA national championship. He is currently employed by the athletic department at his alma mater, with his official title being Associate Athletic Director for Community Relations and Student Support. Whittenburg has also been an assistant coach on several teams including North Carolina State, for whom he served three separate stints under head coaches

Jim Valvano James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster. Valvano had a successful coaching career with multiple schools, most notably at North Carolin ...

Les Robinson Les Robinson (born September 23, 1942) is an American former college basketball coach and athletic director at East Tennessee State University, North Carolina State University, and The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He is a memb ...

, and

Mark Gottfried Mark Frederick Gottfried (born January 20, 1964) is an American men's college basketball coach and former player who most recently served as head coach of the Cal State Northridge Matadors Gottfried played one season at Oral Roberts and three se ...

. He also served as head coach at

Wagner College Wagner College is a private liberal arts college in Staten Island, New York City. Founded in 1883 and with an enrollment of approximately 2,200 students, Wagner is known for its academic program, The Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts. It ...

and

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

Biography

Whittenburg was a high school

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n for

Morgan Wootten Morgan Bayard Wootten (April 21, 1931January 21, 2020) was an American high school basketball coach for 46 seasons at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He led the Stags to five national championships and 33 Washington Catholi ...

DeMatha Catholic High School DeMatha Catholic High School is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States. Named after John of Matha, DeMatha is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the Washington Ca ...

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper An ...

. He was paired with

Sidney Lowe Sidney Rochell Lowe (born January 21, 1960) is an American former basketball player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lowe played college basketball and served ...

as a backcourt combination and together the pair helped lead DeMatha to a national championship his junior year. In Whittenburg's four years at DeMatha, the team DeMatha only lost twelve times. Whittenburg's cousin was NBA star David Thompson, who had won the national championship while playing for the

North Carolina State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college footb ...

in 1974. He sought to emulate his cousin and play for

Norm Sloan Norman Leslie Sloan Jr. (June 25, 1926 – December 9, 2003) was an American college basketball player and coach. Sloan was a native of Indiana and played college basketball and football at North Carolina State University. He began a long career a ...

at NC State, where he thought he would win a national championship. Once he and Lowe graduated from DeMatha in 1979, both players signed with the Wolfpack. Whittenburg became a star player under Sloan's successor,

, as he was named second team all-

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

as a junior and helped the Wolfpack to the 1983 national championship. He was a third-round draft choice for the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

(51st overall) in the 1983 NBA draft. In 1985, Whittenburg became an assistant coach at NC State under Valvano. After a year there he moved on to

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

. Whittenburg then followed his head coach from George Mason, Joe Harrington, to

Long Beach State California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

, but only stayed there a year before returning to Valvano's staff at his alma mater. After Valvano's forced resignation in 1990, Whittenburg remained at NC State for one more year before rejoining Harrington at

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. He returned east in 1993 to join

Gale Catlett Wendell Gale Catlett Article refers to Catlett as "W. Gale Catlett". (born October 31, 1940) is a retired American basketball coach who was head coach at the University of Cincinnati and West Virginia University. Playing career Born in Hedgesvil ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

squad for a year, then returned to the ACC with

Bobby Cremins Robert Joseph Cremins Jr. (born July 4, 1947) is an American retired college basketball coach. He served as a head coach at Appalachian State, Georgia Tech, and, most recently, the College of Charleston. Early years Cremins attended All Hallows ...

and

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. After five years at Georgia Tech, Whittenburg got a chance to become a head coach when he was hired by

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

in 1999. He led the Seahawks to three winning campaigns in four years, including a berth in the

2002 National Invitation Tournament The 2002 National Invitation Tournament was the 2002 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. Selected teams Below is a list of the 40 teams selected for the tournament.

and a

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in 2003. His success gained the attention of

, who hired Whittenburg away from Wagner to replace former NBA head coach

Bob Hill Robert W. Hill''The Sporting News: 1992-93 Official NBA Register''. St. Louis, Missouri: The Sporting News Publishing Co. 1992. (born November 24, 1948) is an American basketball coach. Hill grew up in Mount Sterling, Ohio, moving to Worthingto ...

. He struggled as the Rams' head coach, only posting one winning season in six full seasons there. Whittenburg's last full season saw Fordham lose 25 out of 28 games, one of the worst records in all of college basketball, and with the team starting out the 2009–10 season with one win in their first five games Whittenburg was fired. After spending some time working in television, Whittenburg returned to coaching in 2013 when he was hired to be the senior assistant to the head coach at NC State. He also worked as the director of player development. On October 23, 2015, NC State announced that Whittenburg had accepted the position of Associate Athletic Director for Community Relations and Student Support, and would no longer be serving as an assistant coach, effective immediately. Whittenburg was an executive producer for "Survive and Advance", a ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

'' documentary detailing NC State's 1983 title run. He was also an executive producer for "The Gospel According to Mac", a ''30 for 30'' documentary about Colorado football coach

Bill McCartney William Paul McCartney (born August 22, 1940) is a former American football player and coach and the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He was the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder for thirteen seasons (1982–1994), ...

Head coaching record

References

External links