Winchester Has Hands in Everything Early in K-State Tenure

By: D. Scott Fritchen

In this age of technological advances, things can move quickly, including how college basketball coaches and players receive their information. New Director of Video Operations Anthony Winchester plans to have them covered every step of the way. Currently, the 38-year-old Winchester, who officially joined the Kansas State coaching staff last Thursday, is handling many other daily duties to help the Wildcats initiate the Jerome Tang era in Manhattan.

"Right now, it's all hands on deck," Winchester says.

Winchester sits in the team conference room in an Ice Family Basketball Training Facility that buzzes with activity on Tuesday afternoon. The coaching staff is virtually inseparable and enjoys exploring various restaurants when it has a free moment.

For Winchester, the Midwest, and Manhattan, Kansas, feels like home. A native of Austin, Indiana, Winchester scored 2,256 career points at Austin High School to rank 21^st in Indiana high school history and finished as runner-up to Indiana Mr. Basketball after averaging 34.7 points and 13.5 rebounds per game as a senior in 2001-02.

Since then, Winchester, a 2006 All-American at Western Kentucky, has played basketball overseas, and has enjoyed stints on coaching staffs at Southern Miss and Pacific. His journey as a coach began as a graduate intern at Western Kentucky in 2008-09 followed by a stint as Director of Operations in 2009-10. He also served as graduate assistant at Loyola Marymount in 2018-19.

K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen spoke with Anthony Winchester about his first official week at K-State and his path that led him to join the Wildcats coaching staff:

FRITCHEN: Welcome to K-State. I'm sure this has been a whirlwind for you. How would you describe your experience so far and what led you to join this coaching staff in Manhattan?

WINCHESTER: It's been awesome to be here. I'm humbled and blessed. There've been times where I've been in a meeting or just here and you're looking at yourself and you're kind of outside of yourself looking down and it's insane to think I'm here. It's been awesome. My connection is actually Jareem Dowling. We go way back. We've been friends for a long time. We had always kind of talked about a lot of ifs — "if this happens…" — and we talked every day.

When he got the job, Coach Tang had his guys and life happened for a couple of spots, and I was able to slide in there. We had some conversations over a span of about two weeks and one thing led to another, and it happened pretty quick, and I was here the next day. I was the Final Four for a couple days and Coach was back here, and we talked during that time, and then when it slowed down, he offered me the job. I was here ASAP.

.@CoachJTang has added Anthony Winchester to his staff as Director of Video Operations.

Welcome @A_Winchester10 to the K-State Family!

🔗https://t.co/tx4b0jkKxm #KStateMBB x EMAW pic.twitter.com/uv8GO4urif
— K-State Men's Basketball (@KStateMBB) April 28, 2022

FRITCHEN: Some people might see the title "video operations" and just think it just entails recording a basketball game, but Director of Video Operations in this day in age, particularly with the ever-shifting technology, is a bigger job than ever before. How would you describe your role?

WINCHESTER: Well, right now it's all hands on deck. I have my hands in everything. So far, I've been working really close with Austin Carpenter and dealing with operations, the video, the gear, and kind of everything. There's a lot of player development-type aspects to the job on my side. I can break down film for our guys, have them look at it, and obviously right now it's slower with that, but once our guys get here in the summer, we'll have practices and I'll be breaking that down and helping them in any way I can. There's the job title, but the duties are really all hands on deck.

Everything is just a lot different technologically from even just a couple of years ago. Everything is wireless, and on your phone and iPad, and you can get film almost instantaneously. I can download a game and have it to our guys almost instantly after that game is over. The pace is a lot different with the technology. You're able to get it quicker and get it out quicker. We have some other things we're working on right now. There's a company that allows us to have everything on an app. We can have our scouts, our video breakdowns as well, and we can hit our guys with all kinds of things throughout the day that's going to help them on the court and off the court. The pace of the technology is the biggest thing. You're able to just get it out quicker and access it quicker. It's been huge. It really helps.

FRITCHEN: You've really hit the ground running. What is your schedule like right now?

WINCHESTER: It's a little different right now, obviously. We don't have our full roster, so we're still figuring that out. The hours are different from day to day. Coach has different engagements going to talk here or there, and recruiting, we had a couple weekends in April, and we had those weekends, and we've been having a lot of visits. The day today is a lot different than what it's probably going to look like in a month or two. But I love it. We're around each other all day. The guys that we have on staff, they're all just awesome. The things I can learn from them every day has been great. That's what I've been trying to do, is to listen and soak it up. Obviously, I have some input as well, but we have some dudes on staff. We have some dudes. It's been great for me. Absolutely there's chemistry with those guys. We've all gelled. We're around each other all day every day. It's been amazing.

FRITCHEN: You've worn some different hats over your career — director of basketball operations and video coordinator and assistant coach. How enjoyable has your career been to this point?

WINCHESTER: It's been great. I played in college and then I played overseas for a little bit and then I had an injury to where I had to take a few years off and that's how I got into coaching initially at Western Kentucky. I always knew I'd go back overseas and play. I had another good career overseas and played for some time, and then after that, I knew coaching would always be a thing. Eventually, I got into coaching at 33 or 34 years old. I knew that it'd be a process and I knew I'd have to work to climb the ladder, so I was able to take some different jobs and opportunities to where I could pick up and go, and travel, and it's been a blessing. It's been great to learn from different coaches and to be in different situations. I was in Los Angeles and went to Mississippi and went back to California and then back to Mississippi. And now I'm here. I grew up in Indiana, so for me, this is like home, honestly, being back in the Midwest. It's been a blessing.

FRITCHEN: Who are some of the coaching influences you've had in your life?

WINCHESTER: Well, obviously there were great coaches I played for. I was recruited by Dennis Felton at Western Kentucky before he went to Georgia, and then Darrin Horn took over and I played for him for three years. Those were a couple guys who had a big influence on myself as a player. Once I began playing overseas, I played for a couple guys in Puerto Rico and Spain who were big time coaches — Paco Olmos in Spain, and Sito Alonso, who was the Puerto Rican National Coach for a few years. Honestly, who had the biggest influence was probably my dad. He coached me growing up until I got into high school, and then I got to where I was pretty good, so at that point he decided to be a fan. If there's an influence in my life as far as person or coach, it'd be my dad, absolutely.

FRITCHEN: Growing up in Indiana, was basketball your first love?

WINCHESTER: Absolutely. I grew up in a town with about 300 kids and there were probably 80 kids in my high school and basketball was huge there and it's always been like that. We've always had great teams. When I got to high school, we had a class system, but before that there was only one class. Everyone has always cared about basketball. It was just always a thing that I did. I remember playing in the driveway and in the house — I always had a ball in my hand. My dad had me at a young age, too, and so I'd be 11 or 12 and I'd go with him to open gyms. At age 13 or 14 I was playing with older guys on the outside court at the Firehouse. We'd walk down and play there. That's where I fell in love with it.

FRITCHEN: When it comes to Kansas, outsiders might think of Wizard of Oz. When it comes to Indiana, folks might think of "Hoosiers." Is that fair?

WINCHESTER: It's legit. It's legit. I grew up an hour away from the original town from the movie. The team in the movie is based off Milan, Indiana, a small town most famous for its state championship basketball team in 1954. The gym, you can still go to that gym. You can take a tour of it and shoot on the goals. They'll have some games in there every now and then. It's a thing. It's legit. High school basketball is different in Indiana, especially in those little towns. That's where everybody goes on a Friday night.

FRITCHEN: When you think of your own journey to this point, what are you most proud of?

WINCHESTER: I think I've always done it the right way. I was never handed anything. In high school, I had good size and good skill, but there was a point when I was being recruited, there was always a knock here or there — "he's a little slow," "he's a little undersized," — and I always had to work for everything. For me, hard work is all I know. If you're going to accomplish anything, you have to work hard. That's how I've done it in the game as a player and now as a coach as well. I'm here to learn and I'm going to work hard to learn.

That's one of the reasons that I came here. I knew what Coach Tang was putting together and I knew his past. He's been doing it for a long time, and he's been doing it at the highest level. That's where I want to get. You have to learn first, but I've always had the approach that I'm not going to be outworked. That's what I'm proud of the most. It's not anything tangible like "I won this," but rather it's hard work, and to me that's very important.

FRITCHEN: You've been a lot of places. How would you describe the buzz in Manhattan and at K-State so far?

WINCHESTER: It's been absolutely amazing. I've always heard that the fans here were passionate, but once you get here, and you go eat at a restaurant at dinner, people are coming up to Coach, or even coming up to me, and they want to meet you, and they want to talk to you. We found a place downtown that has the best chicken and biscuits and I'll be back there soon. I have a feeling that's going to be my go-to spot.

We were walking on campus with Coach one day and he couldn't even hardly move because all the students wanted to take pictures. On Twitter, I posted something the other day, and it just absolutely took off with all the fans commenting and retweeting. It's just been awesome. The town has been great. It really has. Like I said, I grew up in Indiana. Obviously, the town I grew up in was much smaller than this, but 20 minutes down the road, it's just like it was in Indiana as well. I enjoy it.

Kansas State University Athletics

Winchester Has Hands in Everything Early in K-State Tenure

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