The Rising Coaches Podcast

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 at Princeton where he currently is the Head Men's Basketball Coach and holds a 208-117 record as a head coach guiding his team to 3 IVY League regular season championships and 2 IVY League tournament championships

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 strong recruits which ultimately led him to his current position at IUPUI where he begins his first year.

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 has been awarded 4x Ivy League Coach of the Year awards in his 25 year reign at Yale.

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 head women's coach at The Ohio State University. He has landed multiple top recruiting classes in his stint at Ohio State and holds an overall record as a head coach at 427 wins and 199 loses.

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 brings an extensive coaching background to the table having worked in positions from Academic Coordinator to Assistant and many positions in between.

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 youngest Head Coaches in the Division 1 basketball realm, Coach Smart went on later to take a head role at Texas and now currently serves as the man in charge at Marquette University. 

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 win two conference regular season championships, four trips to the elite eight and a run to the final four in her 4 years at 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 Detroit Pistons. He started his coaching career back at his alma mater, Duke University as an assistant and after one season was moved to the associate head coach. After some time excelling in this role he got his first head coaching position at Stanford University for 8 years which led him into his current position as the head coach at the University of Central Florida since 2016.

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 with the New York Liberty. As a coach she continued her basketball career coaching where she ended her career at the New York Liberty as the assistant and then the Head coach for a year. She is currently the assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx. 

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 overall record of 176-99 as a head coach.