Dereck Whittenburg was a member of the North Carolina State Wolfpack men’s basketball team from 1980 – 1983 under Head Coach Jim Valvano. Whittenburg achieved national fame in 1983 when the sixth seeded Wolfpack beat Houston 54-52 in the NCAA National Championship, one of the most famous games in college basketball history.
Later that year, Whittenburg was selected in the third round of the NBA draft later that year but by 1985 Dreck was back at North Carolina state as an assistant coach working under the late Jim Valvano. He later spent time as an assistant coach at George Mason, Long Beach State, Colorado, West Virginia and Georgia Tech, before being named the head coach at Wagner College in 1999.
Following a successful tenure in which he led the Seahawks to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, Dereck was named the head coach at Fordham University from 2003 until 2010. Most recently, he has served as a college basketball analyst for ESPN, and was an Executive Producer of the 30 for 30 documentary “Survive and Advance.”
Dereck currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Jim Valvano foundation for cancer research, and holds the position of Director of Basketball Operations at North Carolina State in Raleigh, N.C.
