Russell White was named the men's basketball coach in July 2019. The 13th head coach in program history is a 1994 graduate and competed with the basketball and golf teams while attending CLU. In 1995, White got his teaching credential from Cal Lutheran.
Before coming home to Cal Lutheran, Coach White was the head coach at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino for 13 seasons. During his tenure, the Celts went to the playoffs 12 times, including seven CIF semi-final appearances, seven state championship appearances, two CIF Southern Section titles, and two state titles. The Celts accumulated more than 22 wins per year.
Coach White has coached several players that went on to play professionally: Drew Housman (Calabasas/Harvard/Israel), Jerramy King (Crespi/Long Beach/Philippines), London Perrantes (Crespi/Virginia/NBA G-League/Greece), DJ Ursery (Crespi/Pacific/Chile), Max Heidegger (Crespi/UCSB/Windy City Bulls), De’Anthony Melton (Crespi/USC/Golden State Warriors), Brandon Williams (Crespi/Arizona/Dallas Mavericks), Patrick Renane (Cal Lutheran/Spain), and Lojong Ladu (Cal Lutheran/Sweden).
Immediately upon graduation from Cal Lutheran, White coached lower levels at Chaminade High School from 1994-99 and was the head coach at Calabasas from 1999-2006. He then accepted the job at Crespi in 2006, where he is the winningest coach in school history. He was named California State Coach of the Year in 2015 for Division 4 and then for the entire state in 2016.
He and his wife Tara live in Thousand Oaks and have two sons: Peyton (a sophomore hooper at Nevada) and Spencer (an 8th grader).
Yearly Team and Individual Highlights:
2025-26
Qualifed for SCIAC Tournament for the 5th year in a row
2nd team All-SCIAC: Jaden Young
1st in the SCIAC:
- Assist %: 63.8% (10th in the nation)
- 3 point attempts per game: 29.5 (21st in the nation)
- 3 point makes per game: 10 (27th in the nation)
- Bench points per game: 35.4 (9th in the nation)
2024-25
SCIAC regular season co-champions: 14-2 (22-6 overall)
Ranked as high as No. 18 in the nation
NCAA Tournament qualifier (3rd year in a row)
1st Team All-American: Devon Lewis (1st Kingsmen ever)
1st Team All-SCIAC: Devon Lewis and Desi Burrage
2nd Team All-SCIAC: Tommy Griffitts
1st in SCIAC:
- FT%: 77.4% (13th in the nation)
- 3 point attempts per game: 30 (13th in the nation)
- 3 pointers made per game: 11.7 (7th in the nation)
- 3 point %: 39.2% (4th in the nation)
- Points per possession: 1.17 (7th in the nation)
- Effective FG%: 57.8% (8th in the nation)
- True shooting %: 60.4% (5th in the nation)
2023-24
SCIAC regular season champions: 15-1 (23-5 overall)
Ranked as high as No. 8 in the country
2nd most wins in school history
No Kingsmen ranked in top 10 in the SCIAC in any category (went 15-1)
School record 17 game winning streak
1st Team All-SCIAC: Devon Lewis, Brock Susko, and Desi Burrage
SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year: Desi Burrage
Assist %: 15th in nation; 1st in SCIAC
Scoring Defense: 21st in nation; 1st in SCIAC
Defensive Rebounding: 25th in the nation
Hosted NCAA Tournament pod (1st time in school history)
2022-23
Won SCIAC Postseason Tournament (1st time in school history)
SCIAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player: Devon Lewis
2nd team All-SCIAC: Devon Lewis
NCAA Tournament qualifier (1st time in 22 years)
2021-22
Most wins in prior 6 seasons
Qualified for SCIAC Tournament for first time in 6 seasons
SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year: Jacob Alonso
1st Team All-SCIAC: Jacob Alonzo and Mason Johnson
Turnovers per game: 21st in nation
Assist to Turnover ratio: 17th in nation/1st in SCIAC
Turnover %: 13th in nation/1st in SCIAC
Coach White has also been on The KYP Podcast, which is hosted by Nick Sainato, on July 13, 2020. He has been on the Elevate Your Game, with Todd Wilson on Sept. 25, 2023. He was also on the D3Hoopsville podcast on Jan. 15, 2023 as the Kingsmen cracked the top 20 for the D3hoops.com poll for the first time in years.
What are they saying about Coach White:
Palmer Chaplin - Former Player - 2019-20
"Coach White is passionate beyond measure. He loves basketball but he loves coaching young men into great players and great people even more."
Brandon Williams - Dallas Mavericks
"Coach White has been and is a great coach, everybody knows that. But it was him teaching me and how to be a man which is an equal talent that he has and has nothing to do with basketball."
De'Anthony Melton - Golden State Warriors
"Coach White pushed me to be better every time I stepped on the court. Being coached and being pushed is undervalued. Coach White helped me establish my foundation to lead me down the right path to be successful."
Logan McCullough - Former Player - 2019-23
“Coach white taught me not only how to be the best version of myself on the basketball court, but the best version of a man I could be off the court. He gives his players the tools to strive on and off the court and it’s his best quality. I was a part of his first 4 years as a college coach as well as his first SCIAC Tournament championship and I cannot wait to see what he continues to build at CLU.”
