James “Satch” Sullinger and his son, former Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger, coaching together on the Carmen’s Crew sideline at The Basketball Tournament in July. Photo Credit: Ben Solomon
Before former Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger led the 2012 men’s basketball team to the NCAA Final Four, earned a first-round NBA Draft selection or played professionally in the U.S. and China, he was constantly picking his dad’s brain.
James “Satch” Sullinger was the head boys’ basketball coach at Northland High School in Columbus for 11 seasons, in addition to being his three sons’ first coach. Although his wife Barbara Sullinger tried to set boundaries around teaching basketball in the house, the sport was a part of everyday life in the Sullinger family.
“At home, I didn’t talk basketball unless they asked me questions — and all three of the boys asked me questions all the time,” Satch Sullinger said. “We’d sit and watch basketball games, and they would talk and come up with their opinion. They would challenge my theories, and eventually, they proved themselves right and I grew as a coach, or I proved myself right, and they grew as players. But the bottom line was we were growing together in that household.”
Jared Sullinger said growing up in such a basketball-obsessed environment crafted his understanding of the game.
“Even though he tried to set that rule, I’m glad he avoided that rule as much as possible because I got to learn as much as possible,” Jared Sullinger said. “With the philosophies and everything my dad taught me, and then what my brothers taught me from their experiences, I got to blend three basketball IQs into one and make my own.”
Decades later, Jared and Satch Sullinger remain closely linked on the basketball court, and this summer, they got the opportunity to coach together for the first time.
Jared Sullinger has served as the head coach of Carmen’s Crew, the Ohio State alumni team competing in The Basketball Tournament, since 2019, when he took over while dealing with an injury.
After leading the team to its first and only tournament title in 2019, he has continued coaching the Buckeyes alumni in the summer while playing in China during the regular season.
As Jared Sullinger’s coaching career took off, his father’s career nearly ended. The famed high school coach left Northland after the 2011 season and remained off the court for over a decade due to health concerns.
It wasn’t until Satch Sullinger underwent regenerative medical procedures with QC Kinetix — a center that offers nonsurgical pain management therapies — that he was ready to return to coaching. Once he felt able to coach again, his son invited him to join the Carmen’s Crew coaching staff for the 2023 tournament.
“I didn’t know how much I missed it,” Satch Sullinger said. “I told my wife, ‘I got that nervous stomach.’ I haven’t had it in 12 years — I love it.”
Just as the Sullinger family shared basketball conversations during Jared Sullinger’s childhood, the father-son duo got to combine their ideas this summer, which allowed them to dominate Team Overtime and India Rising before falling 72-63 to Friday Beers in the regional final July 29.
“It’s like an auto mechanic garage,” Satch Sullinger said. “My job is to go underneath the hood of the opponent and pull wires so that their engine doesn’t run, and Jared’s job is to go in under the hood and put the wires back that the opponents are trying to unplug to stop us from running. So, we both are doing the same thing, the only difference is, I’m pulling wires and he’s plugging them back in.”
Satch Sullinger applauded his son’s ability to read plays and described him as an “offensive mastermind.”
Jared Sullinger said he credits much of this strategic knowledge to coaching greats like Thad Matta, Doc Rivers and Brad Stevens, but explained the importance of his father’s principles.
“One thing that I’ve loved about having him around was he gives you this old-school, almost military-type discipline, where he just keeps beating in your head the simple details of the basketball game,” Jared Sullinger said. “I just think his basketball philosophy of details every day — that changes the game of basketball for you and changed the game of basketball for me.”
While Jared Sullinger’s playing career is ongoing, and his future in coaching remains to be seen, Satch Sullinger said he foresees his son “having a sideline at the highest level.”
“I just want to develop basketball players,” Jared Sullinger said. “If you can learn something from me, I did my job. Winning is the ultimate goal, but when they leave my hands and they go to the next coach, I want that next coach to be like, ‘Man, you’re really a smart basketball player.’”
