Chalktalk Conversations - URI Assistant James Whitford

Archie Miller reunited with a familiar face from his coaching past this April, when seasoned veteran and former Ball State University head coach James Whitford joined the Rhode Island staff. An affable and relationship-driven professional, Whitford brings a blend of substantive acumen and sharp communication skills to the bench alongside Miller and staff. He’s enthusiastic and settling nicely into his role, liking what he sees from this 24-25 Rams squad. We chatted across a range of topics recently —

Chris DiSano: Our natural starting point is your decision to join Archie Miller in Rhode Island. Can you reflect on how this came to be?

James Whitford: Well, I was looking to get back into coaching. I’m a coach through and through… and Arch and I were on the staff in Arizona. We both worked for Sean Miller our first two years there and I had great respect for him [Arch] as a basketball coach when I worked with him. And when you work with someone, you really learn their true colors. You get a sense of who is for the team and how they go about their business: integrity, honestly, character.

So I knew from that moment that I’d love to work with Arch anytime I could. I consider him a great friend and a really good basketball coach. When he had a spot open up, it was an easy decision for me. I’m at a place in my career where working with the right people is really important to me — and no question Arch is a “right person.”

CDD: During your period away from coaching, were you still in Muncie, Indiana [location of Ball State], or elsewhere — and how were you staying connected?

JW: I went to Cincinnati and that was a family decision. My ex-wife and I raise our kids together, so we bought two houses about a mile from each other and that’s where our eldest was born. I was looking to take at least a year off. I didn’t know how long… I was still under contract, but I’d had 28 or 29 years in and I needed a break.

I was a Dad. I stayed sharp by going to any practice I could. I ventured to meet with NBA teams on a handful of occasions, went to NBA Summer League to meet people there. I tried to stay fresh on the ever present evolutions of the game. But I spent a lot of time being a Dad — and if there’s one thing about this profession is it can cut into that part of your life. So it was time well spent and I’m really glad I did it.

CDD: Bouncing back a little bit, what are some similarities and distinctions between Arch and Sean having spent a lot of time with each?

JW: Well, they have a lot of similarities and those stand out more than the differences. The godfather of that family is John Miller [their father, an outstanding high school coach]. They were both coaches kids from day one and they think a lot alike. They both think as CEOs, well beyond the 2.5 hours of practice each day. They both think about having a system, rather than having a play… alignment on all levels and how the parts fit together.

I was introduced to that by Sean. I’d never been with a coach as systematic as Sean was until I started working with him. And Arch is very similar.

I’ll tell you a story about Arch. When we were first at Arizona, I will never forget the first time Arch did an opposing team scouting report. He comes down on the court and he runs through like 16 plays, and I’m watching him, and he has no notes. He’s doing it all out of his head and he’s like 32 years old at the time. And I’m standing there shaking my head saying “I couldn’t do that.” He’d just seen so much at such a young age, I remember how impressed I was with his mind, his ability to understand the game and teach the game.

As for differences [laughs], I haven’t been through a full season with Arch like I have with Sean… but I’ve seen Sean fly off the handle more than I’ve seen Arch do it [laughs].

CDD: Shifting to Rhode Island… what are your impressions of the state?

JW: It’s funny, I spent very little time here even though I attended my sophomore year of high school in nearby Brookline, Mass. But I’ve really just spent times popping in for games and not much more. I’ll be honest, I’m shocked at how beautiful the State is. I didn’t realize how many beaches there are, how much access you have to the ocean. I bought a paddleboard and enjoy the water. My good friend Brian Blaney - he and I were on staff together at Miami of Ohio a long time ago - promises to take me saltwater flyfishing at some point this fall.

CDD: Very cool, I’ve got some paddleboarding spots for you too.

You’ve had the benefit of a successful head coaching stint and amassed significant experience through highs and lows. Now back as an assistant, how will that help you?

JW: It helps a lot. You learn so much as a head coach and it’s so intense. It helps going back to being an assistant because you see it for how it fits into the bigger picture. You know what types of things as a head coach you were worried about that, maybe as an assistant, you can do a better job of taking some of those things off of the head coach’s plate. That’s an important part of being an assistant, take things off the head coach’s plate and allow him to focus his energy where it matters most.

CDD: That’s a great point and the only way you can truly have that level of empathy is to have sat in the seat before. What types of things are you trying to take off Arch’s plate?

JW: One of the things I love about coaching is the relationship piece. The human dynamic, the player dynamic, building relationships and gaining and earning the trust of players. The sweat equity in and out of the gym. Once you build the trust you have a guy’s ear. And you can navigate dynamics of frustration or confusion — and you can nip those things in the bud. Keeping the team rowing in the same direction and not having things fester. There’s nothing more fun than helping a player get better and, when you do it, you build a sense of trust that is critical for individual and team success.

CDD: Shifting to roster construction, when you got in the mix — how have you guys rowed as a staff on the roster and personnel front. What have you observed?

JW: By the team I joined, I was jumping onto a treadmill moving quickly. In college, you don’t just get to choose who you want like the NBA draft, they have to choose you too. A lot of moving parts and changing dynamics. It was just us working together. They worked hard before I got here and when I joined them we continued that. To Arch’s credit, he was patient at times when we didn’t quite have the right guy not to settle [in the portal, particularly]. It took a while to build the whole thing, but I think we’re all really happy with where we landed.

CDD: I know you’re a defensive minded coach and you’ve been significantly involved. Can you take us through the approach here this offseason?

JW: My background is on the defensive side of the ball. I worked for Herb Sendek who’s a really good defensive coach and I spent a lot of time with Charlie Coles, who was a good defensive mind, at Miami of Ohio. So when Sean hired me (at Arizona), he really hired me to be his defensive coordinator, so to speak, and I was on that side of the ball with him for eight years.

When I got here - Duane [Woodward] and I work on the defensive side together and usually split roles - and we spent a lot of time watching the defensive side as a staff. Every assistant plus Arch in there, breaking down what we were doing and weren’t doing well [last year] and comparing notes - so it wasn’t just my ideas or another guy’s ideas. We wanted to get there collectively. And the areas we needed to improve were really two parts:

One, it was certainly roster construction. We had to get bigger and we really had to get older. One of the things about last year’s team was the inexperience. I learned that the hard way my last year at Ball State as head coach too. You’ll have to look it up on KenPom but I think we were the 5th or 6th most inexperienced team in the country. I like to say now that only tells you that I was the 5th or 6th dumbest coach in the country [both laugh].

But it was a real hard lesson for me trying to win with youth. It’s hard. We had really good young players in my last year at Ball State and hindsight would tell you it was one of the best recruiting classes in the history of the conference - but we finished 6th out of 12, I believe, because we were just young. So, I thought for us here at Rhode Island that getting bigger and older was really important. Getting Javonte Brown was a really big piece for us, a rim protector. And the pieces we added late - Quentin Diboundje is an older kid and is physically built. It’s not like bringing in your traditional freshman.

And there are systemic things we tweaked and think we can do better this year - and hopefully you’ll see that when the games begin. For example, how we’re playing/defending two man games up top (the European style) that so many are playing this way… we want to be more difficult to play against defensively and not being able to turn us as many times. We’ve adjusted the way we’re playing some of those things and we’ve adjusted and simplified for the better of our pick and roll coverage. We want to simplify it from the perspective of the player, but give us more options within that simplification as a unit. And a part of being good is getting just a little better in every single area and, collectively, it will add up.

CDD: What are your impressions of progress made since summer workouts began?

JW: I’ve been excited. For me, coming here has been exciting from top to bottom. I’ll start with the staff. Austin Carroll and Forty (Woodward) have great experience and basketball minds… Benny Sander and Chandler Graves. That’s been fun for me to join and be a part of… there’s no dead weight, so to speak, and everyone is good at what they do.

I think the team has done a good job. I know for Archie it’s the first time since he’s been here that we’ve had a true offseason where you’ve had returning guys that were able to be around all summer, we had quite a lot of time with the entire team including the newcomers, and it’s been more standard in having a real summer to build up and get ready for the fall. We’ve showed up, so we’re better strength-wise and better conditioning-wise than where we’ve been. We’re off to a much smoother start because of less transition.

I think we can have a good team. I don’t have the benefit, not being in the Atlantic 10 for the last couple of years… so I don’t have as good a feel for our conference opponents yet. But I really like our team. We have good experience, we have good balance — we’re pretty good at the rim, we’re pretty good shooting the basketball - and we can hurt you in a number of different ways. We have good depth. We’ve gotten a lot bigger. Javonte is a real presence at the rim and adding that to David [Fuchs], David [Green], Drissa [Traore]… and adding older guys like Sebastian Thomas, Jamarques Lawrence, Diboundje, Brown… these aren’t freshmen. They’ve been in college for a while and they know what they’re doing. Those things stand out to me. It’s a fun group to work with and I’m optimistic.

CDD: Let’s wrap with the UConn scrimmage opportunity coming up next week. Your thoughts?

JW: It’s great to play against a program like UConn. We’ll get a lot out of the game and it’s awesome right now because, boy, do we have their attention in practice [laughs]. There’s no dog days of October. We have their full attention and it’s a great opportunity to learn against the best. That’s when you learn the most about your team — and we’ll learn a lot about ourselves.