In 1985, Whittenburg became an Assistant Coach at NC State under the legendary Coach Jim Valvano. After a year there he moved on to George Mason University. Whittenburg then followed his Head Coach from George Mason, Joe Harrington, to Long Beach State, but only stayed there for a year before returning to Valvano’s staff at his alma mater. After Valvano’s forced resignation in 1990, Whittenburg remained at NC State for one more year before rejoining Harrington at Colorado. He returned east in 1993 to join Gale Catlett’s West Virginia squad for a year and then returned to the ACC with Bobby Cremins and Georgia Tech.[2]
After five years at Georgia Tech, Whittenburg got a chance to become a head coach when he was hired by Wagner in 1999. He led the Seahawks to three winning campaigns in four years, including a berth in the 2002 National Invitation Tournament and a Northeast Conference championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in 2003. His success gained the attention of Fordham University, who hired Whittenburg away from Wagner to replace former NBA Head Coach Bob Hill. Unfortunately, he was only able to post one winning season in six full seasons there.
After spending some time working in television Whittenburg returned to coaching in 2013 when he was hired to be the senior assistant to the Head Coach at NC State. He also worked as the Director of Player Development.
On October 23, 2015, NC State announced that Whittenburg had accepted the position of Associate Athletic Director for Community Relations and Student Support.
Whittenburg was an executive producer for “Survive and Advance”, a 30 for 30 documentary detailing NC State’s 1983 title run. He was also an executive producer for “The Gospel According to Mac”, a 30 for 30 documentary about Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.
