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.

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 member of the North Carolina State Wolfpack men's basketball team that won the 1983 NCAA national title. Whittenburg's off target shot/pass was grabbed by Lorenzo Charles for the game-winning dunk to defeat the University of Houston's Phi Slama Jama team. Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe were the two starting guards for NC State; they played high school basketball together at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Whittenburg was a high school All-America for Morgan Wootten at DeMatha. He was an N.C. State regular from 1980 to 1983 under Jim Valvano where 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 twenty-five of their twenty-eight 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

Notes