Randy Wittman: The Indiana Born Coach Who Carried Hoosier Grit to the NBA

Randy Wittman is an American former professional basketball player who played the guard position in college and in the NBA for 9 seasons. Wittman is a former head coach of Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Washington Wizards. Including his head coaching tenures, he has a total of 20 years of coaching experience in the NBA.

Playing Career

College

Wittman starred for Indianapolis Ben Davis High School from 1975 to 1978. He averaged around 23 points a game for Ben Davis.

After High School, Wittman played for the Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball of the University of Indiana from 1979 to 1983 under the legendary Bob Knight. Notably, the 1979–80 Hoosiers, led by Isiah Thomas and featured future NBA players in Mike Woodson, Jim Thomas, Butch Carter, and Ray Tolbert, won the Big Ten championship and advanced to the 1980 Sweet Sixteen Tournament.

In 1981, the Hoosiers won another conference title and advanced to the NCAA Championship, defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels, who had James Worthy and Sam Perkins. In 1983, Wittman’s last season with Indiana, he was named Consensus second-team All-American.

NBA

Wittman was selected by the Washington Bullets with the 22nd pick of the 1983 NBA draft, but his draft rights were traded to the Atlanta Hawks. Wittman played 5 seasons for the Hawks, adding to the backcourt of Doc Rivers and Spud Webb. Wittman started in a total of 249 games for the Hawks and from 1985 to 1988, he averaged around 12 points and 3.5 assists.

In 1988, Wittman was traded to Sacramento in exchange for Reggie Theus where he only played 31 games with Sacramento, starting in only 2 games. After a season with Sacramento, Wittman spent the last 3 seasons in his career with the Indiana Pacers.

After 9 seasons in the NBA, Wittman retired in 1992.

Coaching Career

Shortly after his retirement, he was hired as an assistant coach for the Pacers under Bob Hill. The team finished with a 41-41 record, losing in 4 games (3-1) against the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1993 playoffs. Coach Hill was fired and none of his staff were retained under Larry Brown.

In 1993, Wittman was hired as an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks under Quinn Buckner. the Mavericks finished with a 13-69 regular season record; the Mavericks finished with a 11-72 record the season before. Buckner was fired and Wittman was not retained on the staff under Dick Motta.

In 1994, the Timberwolves hired Wittman as an assistant coach under Bill Blair, finishing with a 21-61 record. The following season, Minnesota had the 5th pick in the 1995 draft, selecting Kevin Garnett, who would become the franchise’s star for many years to come. Blair was fired, replaced by Flip Saunders for the remainder of the season, finishing with a slightly better record of 26-56.

Wittman would be retained under Saunders, and this would begin a new collaboration between the 2 coaches as Wittman would later coach under Saunders in a second stint with Minnesota, and Washington.

Wittman along with the Timberwolves coaching staff contributed to turning the team around as the Timberwolves improved their record to 40-42, reaching the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, where they were eliminated in 3 games against the Houston Rockets. The team continued their winning records and playoff appearances but were eliminated in the first round against the Seattle SuperSonics and San Antonio Spurs respectively.

Wittman became the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1999, his first NBA head coaching job. His coaching staffs featured Bill Blair, his former Minnesota boss, Bob Ocipeka, who he coached alongside with in Indiana, Keith Smart, and Mike Woodson, his former Hoosiers teammate and who he would later work with during Woodson’s head coaching tenure with the Hoosiers in 2021.

In Wittman’s first season as the head coach, the Cavaliers finished with a 32–50 record with notable talent in Shawn Kemp, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Lamond Murray. The following season, the team finished with a 30–52 record. Wittman was fired after 2 seasons and a 62-102 coaching record with the Cavaliers.

After being fired, he returned to Minnesota under Flip Saunders in 2001. After multiple first round eliminations, the Timberwolves made a deep playoff run in 2004, reaching the western conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. They were defeated in 6 games. In that same season, Kevin Garnett won the MVP award.

In 2005, Wittman became an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic under Brian Hill. Amongst Wittman’s fellow assistant coaches was Mark Bryant, who Wittman coached in Cleveland. The Magic finished with a 36–46 record, not qualifying for the playoffs.

Wittman returned to the Timberwolves in 2006 for a third time as an assistant coach under Dwane Casey, who was fired after a 20-20 record. Wittman was named the interim and later was officially named the head coach. He finished the season with a 12-30 record as the interim, leading to a 32-50 team regular season record. In the following season, the Timberwolves went 22–60.

In 2009, He was fired after a 4-15 start, replaced by General Manager Kevin McHale for the remainder of the season.

Later that year, Wittman reunited with Saunders as an assistant coach for his staff in Washington. He remained as an assistant until 2012 when Saunders was fired after a 2-15 start and Wittman became the interim head coach. After the season they finished with a 29–53 overall record and he was named the official head coach, making this his 3rd head coaching job.

“Randy did an outstanding job for us you know, we became one of the best defensive teams in the league top 10 for the last two years, the players responded to him he brought the whole team together we played a real good brand of basketball a very unselfish and we got to the second round of the playoffs and I think we’re really headed in the right direction.”

– Ernie Grunfeld, Wizards Team President in 2014

The Wizards improved their record the following season to 44–38 with John Wall and Bradley Beal leading the way. and reached the post-season for the first time since 2008. The Wizards had advanced to the second round of the playoffs for just the third time since 1979 but were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in 6 games.

Under Wittman, the Wizards defense league-wide was ranked:

• 7th (2013-2014)
• 6th (2014-2015)
• 14th (2015-2016)

Wittman was fired on April 13, 2016, after missing the playoffs. This was the last season Wittman would be on the sidelines, but he was still involved in basketball with consulting for the Orlando Magic in 2017 and later became a contract advisor for the Indiana Hoosiers when Mike Woodson was their head coach.

Behind the Coaching has a coach profile for Randy Wittman, where you can read more about his coaching career, who he coached, and the impact he made in each of his tenures.

Randy Wittman Photo Credit: Arbor to SJ (Wikimedia Commons) & Keith Allison (Flickr)