James Whitford
American basketball coach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Bryce Whitford[1] (born July 23, 1971) is an American college basketball assistant coach for the Rhode Island Rams men's basketball program and the former head coach of the Ball State Cardinals men's basketball program. Before he was hired at Ball State, Whitford served as an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio), Xavier, and Arizona where he was instrumental to those teams reaching the Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen.[2] Amongst peers, Whitford is known for his predictive analytics, work ethic, defensive schemes, recruiting and relationship building. Whitford is married to Alexa Teare, Founder and CEO of a health-tech startup. He has two sons with his former wife.
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Associate Head Coach |
| Team | Rhode Island |
| Conference | Atlantic 10 |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | July 23, 1971 |
| Education | Wisconsin (1994) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1997–2005 | Miami (OH) (assistant) |
| 2005–2009 | Xavier (assistant) |
| 2009–2011 | Arizona (assistant) |
| 2011–2013 | Arizona (associate HC) |
| 2013–2022 | Ball State |
| 2024–present | Rhode Island (associate HC) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 131–148 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 3 MAC West Division (2016, 2017, 2020) | |
Coaching career
While enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Whitford spent three seasons as a student manager for the Badgers men's basketball team. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1994.[3]
Whitford's first professional coaching experience was with the Miami RedHawks men's basketball program. Starting as an administrative assistant 1994, he became an assistant coach in 1997 and advanced to top assistant in 1998.[4]
In 2005 Whitford left Miami for Xavier, where he spent four seasons under head coach Sean Miller before following Miller to Arizona in April 2009.[5] After his first two seasons at Arizona Whitford was promoted to associate head coach, a position he held for another two years before taking the head coaching position at Ball State in April 2013.[3][6] On March 14, 2022, Ball State fired Whitford after nine years as head coach.[7]
In 2024, Whitford joined Miller's brother Archie's coaching staff at Rhode Island as an assistant coach. Whitford and Archie Miller had previously served as assistant coaches together at Arizona.[8]
Head coaching record
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball State Cardinals (Mid-American Conference) (2013–2022) | |||||||||
| 2013–14 | Ball State | 5–25 | 2–16 | 6th (West) | |||||
| 2014–15 | Ball State | 7–23 | 2–16 | 6th (West) | |||||
| 2015–16 | Ball State | 21–14 | 10–8 | T–1st (West) | CIT Quarterfinals | ||||
| 2016–17 | Ball State | 21–13 | 11–7 | T–1st (West) | CIT First Round | ||||
| 2017–18 | Ball State | 19–13 | 10–8 | 3rd (West) | |||||
| 2018–19 | Ball State | 16–17 | 6–12 | 5th (West) | |||||
| 2019–20 | Ball State | 18–13 | 11–7 | T–1st (West) | |||||
| 2020–21 | Ball State | 10–13 | 8–9 | 8th | |||||
| 2021–22 | Ball State | 14–17 | 9–10 | 6th | |||||
| Ball State: | 131–148 (.470) | 69–93 (.426) | |||||||
| Total: | 131–148 (.470) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||