Dayton loses women’s basketball assistant coach to N.C. State

Harris will join North Carolina State women’s basketball head coach Wes Moore’s staff as an assistant coach. Harris played two seasons at N.C. State from 2007-09 after starting his career at Elon College.

Harris joins a program that finished 26-9 last season and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007 before losing to Mississippi State.

"It's exciting to bring Simon back to NC State," Moore said in a statement. "As a former Wolfpacker with strong ties to our athletic department, he can speak from experience about the awesome opportunity to be a student-athlete at NC State. Simon brings a lot of energy to both on-court coaching and the recruiting process. He's had great success at the University of Dayton and we feel as though he will be a great addition to our program and help us as we try to build on our Sweet 16 season of a year ago."

» LOOKING AHEAD: Green excited about Dayton’s future

Harris arrived at Dayton in 2011, taking a job as a graduate assistant on Archie Miller’s staff. He remained with the men’s program through the Elite Eight season in 2014 and then joined women’s basketball coach Jim Jabir’s staff. He stayed with the women’s program when Green was hired in 2016.

When the Dayton women’s team advanced to the Elite Eight in Albany, N.Y., in 2015, Harris marveled at his luck.

“My dad (Larry Harris) coached for 30-plus years, and he went to one (Sweet 16) in 2005 with N.C. State,” Harris said. “He called me the other day right after the Kentucky game and said, ‘I can’t believe it. This is ridiculous.’ It’s been awesome. I’m just glad Coach Jabir gave me an opportunity and Archie gave me a start to my career.”