http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06082/675201.stm

Quote :

"Larry Harris hears his name on various radio talk shows, sees it on Web sites and in print that he's a candidate for the men's basketball coaching job at Duquesne University, but he has yet to hear from athletic director Greg Amodio. "I've left a message for Greg, but I haven't heard anything from Duquesne at all," Harris said yesterday from his office at North Carolina State, where he has been an assistant coach the past 10 years. "I've gotten e-mails from Duquesne people and Pittsburgh people saying they would like to see me become the coach. I'd love to have [the job]. I want it." Harris, a Division I assistant coach for 21 seasons including a stint at Duquesne from 1986-93, was the all-time leading scorer at Pitt with 1,914 points when he graduated in 1978. He currently is third behind Charles Smith's 2,045 and Clyde Vaughan's 2,033. "I think we had things going in the right direction when I was at Duquesne," he said. "I left Duquesne to develop and mold myself into someone who could come back and coach there. I really believe Duquesne is a great job. I know it's a great job. "You can go get players at Duquesne." Duquesne is searching for a coach to replace Danny Nee, who resigned at the end of a 3-24 season. Another name that has surfaced often in the past month in connection with the job is Jim Christian, coach at Kent State University. "You have to go through channels and get permission from my athletic director [Laing Kennedy] before you can talk to me," said Christian, who is 89-40 in four seasons at Kent State. "Duquesne has not talked to my athletic director. Until that time, it's not serious." Kent State was 25-9 this season including a 79-64 loss to Pitt in the first round of the NCAA tournament. "You're always looking to see who has interest in you," said Christian, 40, an assistant at Pitt (1996-99) and St. Francis (1992-94). "I would never say I'm not interested. I'm always willing to talk. You owe it to yourself to explore all your options." Kent State is a member of the Mid-American Conference, and Duquesne is in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Christian, whose contract runs through 2012, is familiar with the A-10 because he played basketball at Rhode Island. "The beauty of that league is they get more than one bid to the NCAA tournament. We haven't done that," he said of the MAC. "The Atlantic 10 is a league with teams in cities that are talent-rich in basketball. The MAC schools are in smaller towns." Other potential candidates for the Duquesne job are Ohio State assistant John Groce, Wake Forest assistant Jeff Battle, interim Cincinnati coach Andy Kennedy and Murray State coach Mick Cronin."

Larry is 50 years old, that's 8 years older than our head coach. Larry's been wanting to be a head coach for a while. If he gets the job, then that's great for him. We'll take a hit on the recruiting side, but hopefully we can get someone good to take his place.

3/23/2006 9:40:17 AM

This sucks for us.

3/23/2006 9:45:02 AM

Is he the big black guy?

3/23/2006 9:49:10 AM

Yes.

3/23/2006 9:49:36 AM

I was thinking he'd stay around until his son graduated from Elon...but now that I think about, his son is probably a junior or senior now...so it's about time to move on.

3/23/2006 9:50:37 AM

rats jumping from a sinking ship

3/23/2006 9:50:49 AM

That only took 10 minutes. Longer than I expected.

Idiot.

3/23/2006 9:54:10 AM

Good catch guys. I am obviously off the ball this morning....

[Edited on March 23, 2006 at 10:16 AM. Reason : Thanks for the correction.]

3/23/2006 9:56:32 AM

^Was it Harris? I thought it was Hunter that Herb sent up to learn it.

And in any case, this doesn't mean a change is going to happen. Whichever one of them it was, Herb asked them to study it and help implement it. The offense was entirely his call.

[Edited on March 23, 2006 at 9:59 AM. Reason : ]

3/23/2006 9:59:00 AM

^^Wrong.

Herb hired Larry Hunter who helped implement the offense. Larry Hunter coaches at like Western Carolina now. Larry Hunter was a good coach at the time because he had like 20 years of head coaching experience when he came in and helped a young Herb run a team. But a lot of the players didn't like Larry Hunter and it's even been mentioned that he was a closet racicst.

Larry Harris is our top assistant who does a lot of recruiting for us. He has a great relationship with the players and is a pretty good assistant coach too. He'll be a great head coach wherever he goes.

[Edited on March 23, 2006 at 10:01 AM. Reason : .]

3/23/2006 10:01:05 AM

it was Hunter, not Harris.

3/23/2006 10:01:19 AM

I guess I was hoping for a change to an inside-outside offense....

3/23/2006 10:17:29 AM

Larry Harris is the man

i was hoping if Syndek left, he would be able to replace him

3/23/2006 10:43:54 AM

harris IS our recruiting

all the guys have him in their phone and everything, he calls them alot to check up on em

this could be huge, a sign maybe as well

3/23/2006 11:07:43 AM

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"Syndek"

He needs to get a head coaching job. He has served way too much time as an assistant. Don't be sad.

Quote :

"Ohio State assistant John Groce"

This is another old Herb assistant getting ready to be a head coach.

3/23/2006 11:07:53 AM

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"harris IS our recruiting"

That's inaccurate. I'll admit that he is a large part of our recruiting...he is not all of it. Herb still makes the final pitches, and Larry doesn't go with him everywhere. Larry is a great compliment to Herb as a recruiter. He can relate to them in ways that Herb can't. We'll just have to make sure that whoever takes his place can do the same thing. Unfortunately, I don't think Phelps can. So do we move Phelps up or hire an assistant from somewhere else?? I'm sure Archie would love for Phelps to move up...then he slides up another level on the bench.

3/23/2006 1:50:41 PM

BTW...I'm also hearing that Larry won't get the job.

Good for us...sorry for Larry. He still loves it here, but would love a head coaching job.

3/23/2006 2:33:33 PM

Harris getting the Duquesne job would be good for him AND us. It could give us a chance to bring in a fresh mind to the program and maybe change things up, which would probably make a lot of people happy

3/23/2006 2:49:03 PM

duquesne is garbage and has been for a while, a dead end job i fear for mr harris

3/23/2006 3:02:49 PM

a shitty campus as well. the place is seriously on top of a highway.

3/23/2006 3:26:53 PM

If this happens, JoCo and Archie are going to get promted. We'll have a fucking assistant coaching staff consisting of Archie, Jordan Collins, and then Herb can hire on Tim Wells. Man get Herb a bandana and they can be the funky bunch

3/23/2006 4:38:55 PM

Duquesne hired Northeastern's old head coach so it looks like maybe we will keep Coach Harris for at least one more year.

3/28/2006 6:56:39 PM