The Rising Coaches Podcast

Jake Alburtus is the current Recruiting and Operations coordinator at Georgia Tech University. Coach Alburtus is a new face to the Georgia Tech staff, while recently coming from a coaching stint with the Arkansas Razorbacks and spending numerous years with Western Michigan as a student manager and graduate assistant.

Archie Miller is the Head Coach at the University of Rhode Island. Coach Miller is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Native and went on to move south to continue his playing career at NC State. Upon graduation, Miller would carry on his basketball career on the other side of the lines as he would coach at a variety of places in various assistant roles including Western Kentucky, NC State, Arizona State,...

Orlando Vandross is a graduate from American International College in Springfield (Mass.), He ranks 13th in scoring at AIC and is third on the career assist list for the school. Coach Vandross enters his fifth season as an assistant coach and eighth overall with the Virginia Men’s Basketball program. He served his first three seasons as UVA’s director of recruiting/player development. He also spen...

Karen Aston is a strong Division 1 Head Coach with 15+ years of head coaching experience and almost 30 years of coaching experience overall. Coach Aston is the current head coach at UTSA while also having previous head coaching roles at Charlotte, North Texas and Texas. Prior to her head coaching career she held multiple assistant roles at Baylor, North Texas and Texas.

Kenny Blakeney is a former Duke Blue Devil and a 2 time NCAA Champion Blakeney took a wide range of coaching stops including James Madison, La Salle, Delaware, Seton Hall, Marshall, Harvard and Columbia all in assistant positions and currently rounding things out where he currently stands as the current Head Coach of Howard University.

Jamie Dixon was born and raised in Burbank, California. Coach Dixon played his college career at TCU and was drafted in the 7th round of the NBA draft by the Washington Bullets leading him to round out his professional career in New Zealand. He started his coaching career in New Zealand at Te Aute College, making his way to numerous assistant positions including LA Valley, UC Santa Barbara, Hawaii...

Adam Nelson is a former coach in the NCAA for 15+ years. Adam has had various coaching stops at the University of South Carolina, Boston College, Holy Cross, Northeastern, Newbury and Suffolk University. Adam is now the current owner and operator of the well known coaching resource, HoopDirt.com.

Matt Jones the current Assistant Coach at the University of Idaho. Coach Jones is a 5 year member of the Rising Coaches Organization and a Trinity University Alumni. Matt has had coaching stops in roles such as a GA and DOBO at Seattle University, which then led him into his current position at Idaho.

Mike Mulcahey has 25+ years of experience as an Athletic Trainer. Mike is the current athletic trainer with the Dayton University Flyers Men’s basketball team in his 9th season. We are excited to speak with Mike today to help coaches be able to learn more about how to best help their players get the most out of their bodies while also actively recovering and rehabbing.

Nicole Woods is the current Head Coach of the Women's Basketball program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Woods started her coaching career as a Graduate Assistant at SIU Carbondale for 2 years where she was then led into an assistant position after another two years at Stetson. Following Stetson, Woods went on to be the Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator for 5 seasons and then...

Today on the Rising Coaches Podcast, you will get to hear a recap of some of the top segments we have had with current coaches and former players after our new podcast relaunch in October of 2023, some of which include Purdue’s Matt Painter, Florida Atlantic's Dusty May, Yale's James Jones, and Marquette’s Shaka Smart, as well as some other of the best basketball minds in the industry. We hope you...

Allen Deep is a Pittsburgh native who has a strong resume including a variety of years as a G League Assistant, as well as a team USA Assistant Coach, while currently running his own prep team and training organization, Run The Show. He coached at a variety of places including University of Akron, Maine Red Claws and the Westchester Knicks, while also playing a pivotal role with the successes of T...

Terence Dials is a Youngstown, Ohio native and current Director of Professional Development for Ohio State University. Terence played 4 years at Ohio State while being a Big Ten player of the year his senior year while moving on to play professionally in various countries including France, Germany and Uruguay just to name a few. Terence was inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame and then came b...

Lionel Chalmers is a current Assistant Coach with the Orlando Magic. Coach Chalmers was born and raised in Albany, New York where he then went on to move to Ohio and play his collegiate career at Xavier University. He was a 2nd round draft pick in the NBA to the LA Clippers and then went on to play 11 seasons in various countries such as Europe, Italy, Russia, Turkey and France, just to name a few...

Greg Tonagel is one of the current hottest names in the basketball industry. Coach Tonagel is the current Head Coach at Indiana Wesleyan University as well as the fastest AND youngest Head coach to receive 500 wins in all of college basketball history, which he accomplished in just 629 games as well as winning 3 NAIA National Championships. Tonagel played at Valparaiso for four years and upon grad...

Mitch Henderson was born in Indiana and a three sport standout. He continued his playing career for Princeton and was then drafted into the MLB by the New York Yankees, however he decided to continue his career in basketball. He received his first coaching position at Northwestern where he stayed as an assistant for 11 years from 2000-2011. This then led him to his first official coaching position...

Johnny Montello i the current Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at IUPUI, who is also a member of the Rising Coaches Organization. Coach Montello is in his seventh year as a college basketball coach and had previous stops at Walsh University in various roles as a Graduate Assistant and Assistant Coach. Johnny then moved onto Eckerd College for a year where he helped with landing 9 very st...

Coach James Jones is the Head Basketball Coach at Yale University. Coach Jones started his collegiate career playing 4 years for Albany where he then went on to start his coaching career as an assistant for 5 years. Following Albany, Coach Jones landed an assistant role at Yale for 2 years then to Ohio University for 2 more before heading back to Yale to start his head coaching career. Coach Jones...

Kevin McGuff was cultivated in Hamilton, Ohio. He attended St. Joseph’s college where he played for four years. He then went on to start his coaching career as an assistant at Miami of Ohio and then to Notre Dame. These successful assistant jobs helped him land his first head coaching gig at Xavier University, then leading to numerous years at Washington and for the previous 10 years, being the he...

Bill Comar is the current Special Assistant to the Head Coach at Ball State University, coach Bill Comar. Coach Comar is a pivotal name in the Rising Coaches tree as a member but also in the Ball State coaching staff. Coach Comar brings over 20+ years of coaching expertise at various stops such as Dayton, Miami of Ohio, Xavier, Loyola Chicago, Indiana and currently where he stands, Ball State. He...

Shaka Smart is a Madison, Wisconsin legend who held his playing career at Kenyon College. Coach Smart stayed in the Pennsylvania area post college finding an assistant role at California (PA) which then led him to assistant roles at Akron University, Clemson, Florida and into his first head job at VCU. After helping VCU get to their first Final Four appearance in school history as one of the young...

Jonneshia Pineda is the current Associate Coach for the Women’s basketball team at Louisville. Coach Pineda started her collegiate career playing at Georgia Southwestern State University. Following her career she moved on to various roles at Georgia Tech for 6 years which helped her land her assistant and then associate positions at Louisville where she currently serves. She has helped Louisville...

Johnny Dawkins was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and played his collegiate career at Duke University. At Duke, he became the team's all-time leading scorer with 2,556 points, which stood until 2006 when JJ Redick surpassed it. He was the 10th overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft and continued on for 9 seasons playing with various teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Detr...

Katie Smith is a Logan, Ohio native who went on to play her collegiate career at Ohio State University where she ended up breaking the BIG 10 scoring record for points in a career for both the men’s and women’s teams. She ended up getting drafted into the WNBA to the Minnesota Lynx for 6 years where she then bounced to a couple teams including Detroit Shock, Seattle Storm and rounded her career wi...

Fran Fraschilla is a Brooklyn, New York Native, and current College Basketball Analyst with ESPN. Fran had numerous stops in his coaching career including Ohio University, Ohio State University and Providence College all as assistant coaching positions. He then went on to start his Head Coaching career at Manhattan for 4 years, St. John’s for 2 years and New Mexico for another 3 years posting an o...