Kansas Jayhawks walk-on guard who played on 2008 title team gets head coaching job
Former University of Kansas guard Brad Witherspoon, a member of the the Jayhawks’ 2008 NCAA men’s basketball title team, has been named head coach at Northern Oklahoma College, the school announced Thursday.
Witherspoon, 35, spent the previous four years as assistant men’s basketball coach at Barton Community College in Great Bend, Kansas. Witherspoon has also been an assistant at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska; Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas; John Wood Community College in Quincy, Illinois and Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri.
He replaces Donnie Jackson, who recently accepted the head coaching position at Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kansas. Jackson went 183-69 in eight years at Northern Oklahoma.
Northern Oklahoma College is a public community college in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. It is a member of NJCAA Division I.
“I am extremely excited to be the next head basketball coach of the Mavs,” Witherspoon said Thursday in a news release. “The tradition and resources of NOC Tonkawa (the school also has a campus and team in Enid, Oklahoma) made this a very sought-after job and I am humbled to have been chosen to lead the program and be a part of the NOC faculty.
“We can’t wait to get to work and to bring in a new era of Maverick Basketball,” he added.
Northern Oklahoma at Tonkawa last season went 24-2 and advanced to the Elite Eight at the NJCAA Division I National Tournament where the Mavs lost to eventual national champion, Coffeyville, in overtime.
Witherspoon, a native of Humboldt, Kansas who played at KU in 2006-07 and 2007-08 after making the team out of walk-on tryouts in October 2006, told The Star he’s pleased to be a head coach at the age of 35.
“I’m excited. I’ve been trying to be a head coach for a long time,” Witherspoon said Thursday. “I’m thankful they took a chance on me. It’s hard to be hired as a head coach when you don’t have head coaching experience.”
Witherspoon said he’s sure to use some things he learned playing for Bill Self at KU.
“My claim to fame is I’m the only walk-on to ever make Coach Self’s team through walk-on tryouts,” Witherspoon said with a laugh. The teams he played on at KU went on to win two Big 12 titles, two Big 12 Tournament titles and reached the Elite Eight and Final Four, ultimately winning the 2008 national crown.
“I’ve been using stuff we ran when I was there for 13 years (as an assistant). I watch every game. I see new stuff he’s doing now. I try to pick up as much stuff from him as I can,” Witherspoon added.
“I remember my first year of coaching we were 2-27 at Culver-Stockton. I saw Coach Self that summer. He asked me how it was going. I said, ‘We were 2-27. Not great.’ Coach said, ‘Don’t worry. I was 3-19 my first year at Oral Roberts (finishing the 1993-94 season at ORU 6-21). You’ll get it going.”
NOC athletic director Alan Foster said: “Throughout the process Brad’s enthusiasm, energy and his knowledge of what it took to continue the successful trajectory we are on became more evident with each conversation. No doubt his experience working for multiple successful coaches has prepared him to be our next head coach at NOC Tonkawa. I believe Brad is going to be a great head coach and I am proud we can give him that opportunity. I look forward to working with him and welcoming him and his wife Emily to the NOC family.”
Witherspoon earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from KU in 2009, before earning his masters of health & physical education degree from Emporia State University in 2013.
Witherspoon will teach in NOC’s Health, Physical Education, & Recreation Division.
