New Ball State coach waited for right - and great - opportunity

James Whitford has been in this position before, prior to where he found himself Saturday morning. He had had earlier opportunities to become a head basketball coach, but this was different. He was being offered the chance to lead the Ball State men's basketball program and Whitford couldn't say no. And he would have been foolish to have done so.

“This isn't my first head coaching opportunity,” Whitford explained. “This isn't my second. I've had a number of schools come my way in the past few years. I've been aggressively patient in seeking the right one.”

When you've served as the “right-hand man” to Arizona coach Sean Miller for eight seasons (four at Xavier and four more with the Wildcats), you will have suitors. Miller is not only a highly-successful coach; he's a very bright man.

Miller had advised Whitford to seek a good job, not the first job. Ball State is a great job and Whitford understood IC card.

“There are a lot of good coaches that go to programs that have a history of not having much success,” Whitford said. “The coaches then fight an uphill battle.”

That won't be the case for Whitford. He'll win in Muncie. Miller wouldn't have relied heavily on someone that wasn't an incredibly knowledgeable coach.

Cynics can throw all the numbers from the past 11 years of Ball State mediocrity at me that they wish, I just know what I know, after following this program since the Jim Holstein-era as a card-carrying member of the Cardinal Knot-Hole Club.

I know a great basketball job when I see one and Ball State is a great opportunity. Whitford walks into a program that has many of the correct pieces already in place due to his predecessor, Billy Taylor.

“I know where the program was when Billy got there and I know where it is now,” Whitford said. “It's in a lot better shape. I know myself, like all of the people at Ball State, have great respect for Billy and appreciate the work that he's done.”

Taylor did everything well, with the exception of leading this program to its potential. Having gone 15-15 each of the past two seasons, given the resources of this program, simply wasn't acceptable.

“I've coached against some of the real good Ball State teams,” Whitford said. “When I was recruiting for Miami (Ohio) and Ball State got involved, that was a real scary sight for us.”

Many of the younger Cardinal fans don't know Billy Butts from their own, but Worthen Arena is as beautiful of a facility as the Mid-American Conference has. The state of Indiana produces an abundance of talent capable of filling a good portion of the Cardinal roster, and the Ball State campus is a fun place to be nine months out of the year (I grew up five minutes away, you'll have to trust me on that).

Throw in the fact that five of the Cardinals' top six scorers return next season, and it won't be long until Whitford has this program competing with the best in the MAC.

Cardinal Nation shouldn't be skeptical of Ball State athletic director Bill Scholl bringing in a guy from Arizona. Whitford has coached a pair of Indiana Mr. Basketball's (Ben Davis' Damon Frierson and Pike's Justin Cage) while he was an assistant at Miami and Xavier, respectively. He knows the difference between Lawrence North and Lawrence Central.

The murders of Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards in a Parkland coffee shop on Nov. 29, 2009, sent shock waves around Pierce County and across the country. Hearts were opened to the grieving families – and so were wallets.

People handed $20 bills to Lakewood officers responding to service calls. Children emptied piggy banks and slid bills and coins under the front-desk glass at police headquarters. The donation box near the front of the building had to be emptied every hour or two.

Wurts, the guild president, was the public face of the grieving officers, representing the guild and seeking donations for the officers’ families. Manos, the guild treasurer, worked behind the scenes with others managing the donations.

The two friends have emerged as key figures in the story of how the Lakewood Police Department’s biggest tragedy led to its biggest scandal.

Manos, 36, was sentenced to 33 months in prison last year after confessing to bilking a combined total of more than $150,000 from the guild and the charity. He spent it on auto parts, outdoors gear, household items, a Las Vegas vacation, gambling and even to pay guild tax penalties.

Wurts, 38, was fired Dec. 28 after an internal investigation determined he prevented earlier detection of Manos’ theft by letting their friendship cloud his judgment.

Documents paint a picture of a guild president who enabled his friend’s personal indiscretions, turned a blind eye to missing checks and inquiries about guild finances, thwarted another officer’s attempt to remove Manos from the treasurer post and found himself in the middle of a forgery investigation.