Dereck Whittenburg

Dereck Whittenburg (born October 2, 1960)[1] is a former collegiate basketball player who played for North Carolina State University, 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.

Dereck Whittenburg

Current position
Title	Associate athletic director
Team	NC State
Conference	ACC
Biographical details
Born	October 2, 1960 Glenarden, Maryland
Playing career
1979–1983	NC State
Position(s)	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1985–1986	NC State (assistant)
1986–1987	George Mason (assistant)
1987–1988	Long Beach State (assistant)
1988–1991	NC State (assistant)
1991–1993	Colorado (assistant)
1993–1994	West Virginia (assistant)
1994–1999	Georgia Tech (assistant)
1999–2003	Wagner
2003–2009	Fordham
2013–2015	NC State (assistant)
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
2015–present	NC State (associate AD)
Head coaching record
Overall	135–162
Tournaments	0–1 (NCAA Division I) 0–1 (NIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
NEC regular season (2002) NEC Tournament (2003)
Awards
NEC Coach of the Year (2003)

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, Les Robinson, and Mark Gottfried. He also served as head coach at Wagner College and Fordham University.

Biography

Whittenburg was a high school All-American for Morgan Wootten at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He was paired with Sidney Lowe 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 (right) with NC State teammate Sidney Lowe in 1983

Whittenburg's cousin was NBA star David Thompson, who had won the national championship while playing for the North Carolina State Wolfpack in 1974. He sought to emulate his cousin and play for Norm Sloan 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, Jim Valvano, as he was named second team all-Atlantic Coast Conference as a junior and helped the Wolfpack to the 1983 national championship. He was a third-round draft choice for the Phoenix Suns (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. Whittenburg then followed his head coach from George Mason, Joe Harrington, to Long Beach State, 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. He returned east in 1993 to join Gale Catlett's West Virginia squad for a year, then returned to the ACC with Bobby Cremins and Georgia Tech.[2]

After five years at Georgia Tech, Whittenburg got a chance to become a head coach when he was hired by Wagner in 1999. He led the Seahawks to three winning campaigns in four years, including a berth in the 2002 National Invitation Tournament and a Northeast Conference championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in 2003. His success gained the attention of Fordham University, who hired Whittenburg away from Wagner to replace former NBA head coach Bob Hill. 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.[3]

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.[4]

Whittenburg was an executive producer for "Survive and Advance", a 30 for 30 documentary detailing NC State's 1983 title run.[5] He was also an executive producer for "The Gospel According to Mac", a 30 for 30 documentary about Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.[6]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Wagner Seahawks (Northeast Conference) (1999–2003)
1999–00	Wagner	11–16	6–12	10th
2000–01	Wagner	16–13	11–9	T–5th
2001–02	Wagner	19–10	15–5	T–2nd	NIT Opening Round
2002–03	Wagner	21–11	14–4	1st	NCAA Division I First Round
Wagner:		67–50[7]	46–30
Fordham Rams (Atlantic 10 Conference) (2003–2009)
2003–04	Fordham	6–22	3–13	T–5th (East)
2004–05	Fordham	13–16	8–8	4th (East)
2005–06	Fordham	16–16	9–7	T–5th
2006–07	Fordham	18–12	10–6	T–4th
2007–08	Fordham	12–17	6–10	12th
2008–09	Fordham	3–25	1–15	14th
2009–10	Fordham	1–4	0–0
Fordham:		69–112	37–59
Total:		136–162
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

References

1. Legends of N.C. State Basketball by Tim Peeler via Google Books, p. 120 27 June 2010
2. O'Connor, John (2002-03-13). "Richmond Facing Underdog That Bites". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Newsbank. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
3. "Fordham fires coach Whittenburg after 1–4 start". ESPN.com. December 3, 2009.
4. "Whittenburg Promoted to Associate AD Position". NC State University. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
5. ""30 for 30" Survive and Advance (TV Episode 2013) – IMDb" – via www.imdb.com.
6. "The Gospel According to Mac" – via www.imdb.com.
7. "MBB All-Time Records (PDF) – Wagner College Athletics" (PDF).

External links

• NC State profile