James Bryce Whitford (born July 23, 1971) is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach and the former head coach of the

Ball State Cardinals men's basketball The Ball State Cardinals men's basketball team represents Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The Cardinals first basketball season was 1920–21. The school's team currently competes in the Mid-American Conference. The team last played ...

program. Before he was hired at Ball State, Whitford served as an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio), Xavier, and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

where he was instrumental to those teams reaching the

Elite Eight In the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, NCAA men's Division I basketball championship or the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, NCAA women's Division I basketball championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight t ...

and Sweet Sixteen. Amongst peers, Whitford is known for his

predictive analytics Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of Statistics, statistical techniques from data mining, Predictive modelling, predictive modeling, and machine learning that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future or other ...

, work ethic, defensive schemes, recruiting and relationship building. Whitford is married to Alexa Teare, an Organizational Psychology/Talent Executive and Leadership Development Coach. He has two sons with his former wife, Amber Stocks.

Coaching career

While enrolled at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

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 Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

in 1994. 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. In 2005 Whitford left Miami for Xavier, where he spent four seasons under head coach

Sean Miller Sean Edward Miller (born November 17, 1968) is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as head coach at the Texas Longhorns men's basketball, University of Texas at Austin. He previously served as head coach at the Arizona Wil ...

before following Miller to Arizona in April 2009. 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. On March 14, 2022, Ball State fired Whitford after nine years as head coach. In 2024, Whitford joined Miller's brother Archie's coaching staff at

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

as an assistant coach. Whitford and Archie Miller had previously served as assistant coaches together at Arizona.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Ball State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitford, James 1971 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Arizona Wildcats men's basketball coaches Ball State Cardinals men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Wisconsin Miami RedHawks men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Madison, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coaches Rhode Island Rams men's basketball coaches