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Wizards Assistant Coaches
With a wealth of NBA coaching experience and basketball knowledge, Randy Wittman is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards. Prior to coming to Washington, Wittman served as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves from January 23, 2007 to December 8, 2008. That marked his third stint with the Timberwolves, as he also served as an assistant coach with Minnesota from 1994-1999 and from 2001-2005.
Wittman earned his first NBA head coaching job in Cleveland, where he led the Cavaliers for two seasons from 1999-2001. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers in 1992, and later worked as an assistant for the Dallas Mavericks and Orlando Magic.
A 1983 graduate of Indiana University, Wittman played collegiately under Bobby Knight, helping the Hoosiers to a NCAA championship in 1981. He was originally drafted by the Washington Bullets with the 22nd pick of the 1983 NBA Draft, but was traded to the Atlanta Hawks prior to the start of the 1983-84 season. Wittman played nine seasons in the NBA for Atlanta, Sacramento and Indiana before retiring in 1992 with a career average of 7.4 points per game (.501 FG%) in 543 games.
As a two-time academic All-American at Indiana, he was also named the Co-Big Ten Player of the Year as a senior in 1983. Wittman was inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame in 1995, and in 2007 he was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame. A native of Indianapolis, Wittman and his wife, Kathy, have two children, Ryan, who plays basketball professionally in Europe, and Lauren, a Junior at Indiana University.
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Don Zierden is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards after being named to Flip Saunders’ staff on June 3, 2009. Zierden came to Washington after spending the previous two seasons as head coach of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. Prior to working in the WNBA, Zierden served as an assistant coach under Saunders for two seasons with the Detroit Pistons from 2005-07.
The Minnesota native began his NBA working relationship with Saunders in Minnesota with the Timberwolves, where he served as the team’s video coordinator for the 1999-2000 season. Following his first season with Minnesota, he was promoted to assistant coach/director of player development on July 11, 2000. Zierden was a part of the coaching staff that led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals in 2004, and he remained with the club through the 2004-05 season.
Zierden’s coaching career has also included time spent under Saunders at the University of Tulsa (1986-88), and in the Continental Basketball Association with the La Crosse Catbirds (1990-94, including winning the 1992 CBA Championship). Additionally, Zierden has been the head coach of the CBA’s Pittsburgh Piranhas (who he took to the CBA Finals in 1995), and the La Crosse Bobcats.
Zierden resides in Minnesota with his wife, Anne, and two children, Isaiah and Rachel.
Sam Cassell is in his third season in the NBA coaching ranks after his hire by the Wizards on May 21, 2009. Cassell moved to the bench after an outstanding 15-season NBA career, in which he won three NBA championships; two with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995 and one with the Boston Celtics in 2008.
In 993 career regular season games, the former All-Star averaged 15.7 points and 6.0 assists per game. Cassell made his mark as a clutch player in his rookie season in 1994 when he averaged 9.4 points and 4.2 rebounds off of the bench in the playoffs to help the Rockets to their first NBA Championship, and was a key contributor on the Rockets squad that won the title again in 1995.
The Baltimore native also appeared in the Eastern Conference Finals with Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld’s Milwaukee Bucks in 2001 and the Western Conference Finals with Flip Saunders’ Minnesota Timberwolves in 2004.
The 2003-04 season marked one of Cassell’s finest seasons as a professional, as he averaged 19.8 points and 7.3 assists per game. Cassell was named to the NBA All-Star game for the first time in his career and was also named All-NBA Second Team during that campaign.
Cassell played two seasons at San Jacinto College in Texas before starring at Florida State University from 1991-1993. In 2004, Cassell was inducted into the Florida State Athletic Hall of Fame.
Ryan Saunders, Assistant Coach
In his third season as an NBA assistant coach, Ryan Saunders has continued the family tradition by joining his father on the sidelines.
Saunders came to the Wizards after spending a year coaching under Tubby Smith at the University of Minnesota, where he helped the Golden Gophers to an NCAA Tournament appearance. In addition to his on-court work, he helped players with their academic and social development off the court.
Before moving to the sidelines, Saunders played four seasons at Minnesota, where he was a two-time team captain, four-time scholar athlete award winner and 2006 Big Ten All-Academic selection. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sport management and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in applied kinesiology.
Saunders is involved with various youth basketball camps and charitable organizations in Minnesota.
Gene Banks is in his third season with the Wizards as assistant coach/player development, with over 30 years of top-level basketball experience to the staff, including stints playing and coaching in the NBA, CBA, NCAA and overseas.
Banks came to basketball prominence as a legend at West Philadelphia High, where he earned All-America honors three seasons and became one of the top recruits in the country as the MVP of the 1977 McDonald’s High School All-American game and the prestigious Dapper Dan Classic for High School All-Americans. Banks then attended Duke University, and finished his collegiate career with averages of 16.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, while earning First Team All-ACC honors as a senior and Second Team honors his first three seasons (including recognition as the ACC Rookie of the Year after helping the Blue Devils reach the NCAA championship game). Banks was a two-time NCAA All-American, led the ACC in scoring as a senior, and graduated from Duke with a degree in History. After serving as commencement speaker at graduation, he was later inducted into the Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
Following his career at Duke, Banks was selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the second round (28th overall) of the 1981 NBA Draft. He went on to play four seasons (1981-85) for the Spurs before being traded to Chicago, where he would play the final two seasons of his career (1985-87). Banks compiled career averages of 11.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in 468 NBA games, with his best year coming in 1982-83 when he averaged 14.9 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting .550 from the floor in 81 games for the Spurs.
Banks also played and served as player/coach overseas in France, Israel, Italy and Argentina and played in the CBA (including La Crosse, where he played under Flip Saunders). He has coached the women’s program at Bluefield State and spent two seasons as the head coach and athletic director at Bennett College.
Banks has been active in the community throughout his playing and coaching career, serving as a motivational speaker and mentoring underprivileged youth through his work with the Gene Banks Foundation. He has two sons and three daughters, all raised by Banks as a widower after his wife, Isabelle, tragically passed away after battling Multiple Sclerosis.
For two decades, Joe Connelly has helped develop many of the top high school, college and professional basketball players in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area.
Recognized for his work in developing young and rising basketball players, Connelly was named the Wizards' assistant coach/player development on January 25, 2012.
Over the past five offseasons, Connelly has conducted offseason player development programs for many NBA players, including Washington Wizards' guards John Wall and Roger Mason, Wizards' center Hamady Ndiaye and New York Knicks' forward Jared Jefferies.
During the 2010-11 season, Connelly worked in player development with the Dakota Wizards, the Wizards' NBA D-League affiliate. He tutored Ndiaye, who appeared in 11 games and averaged 4.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 18.4 minutes per contest.
Prior to working in player development, Connelly launched the Baltimore Freedom Academy's high school basketball program and served as the team's head coach from 2005-2009. He also served as an AAU coach and was also instrumental in grassroots basketball programs throughout the Baltimore area from 2001-05.
For more than a decade, Connelly served as an assistant coach at Towson Catholic High School in Baltimore and tutored four-time All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks.
Connelly earned an undergraduate degree from Morgan State in 1995 in history and graduated with a master's degree in teaching from John Hopkins in 2000.
Connelly's brother, Pat, is the Wizards' director of player personnel and has been a member of the team's basketball operations department for six seasons. His brother, Tim, was named the assistant general manager of the New Orleans Hornets in 2010. Tim previously worked with the Wizards from 1999-2010, where he most recently served as Washington's director of player personnel.
