Head Coach Ray Harper

SEVENTH YEAR AT JSU

THE HARPER FILE

BORN: October 11, 1961, Bremen, Ky. HOMETOWN: Bremen, Ky. HIGH SCHOOL: Bremen (Bremen, Ky., 1980) COLLEGE: Texas: 1981-82, Kentucky Wesleyan: 1983-85 (Bachelor of Science)

WIFE: Shannon

PLAYING CAREER

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS: Basketball, guard, four letters (first-team all-state, two-time district player of the year) COLLEGE ATHLETICS: Basketball, guard, two letters at Texas (1981-82), two letters at Kentucky Wesleyan (1984-85); 1981 Southwest Conference Rookie of the Year, 1985 third-team All-American, 1985 all-conference

MILESTONE VICTORIES

No. Date Score 1 11/16/96 Ky. Wesleyan 68, Delta State 60 100 1/25/01 Ky. Wesleyan 96, SIUE 20 200 2/15/03 Ky. Wesleyan 71, Northern Ky. 68 300 3/4/06 Okla. City 76, Okla. Christian 69 400 3/9/13 Western Ky. 62, South Alabama 59 450 3/3/17 Jacksonville State 65, Belmont 59 500 11/29/19 Jacksonville State 71, Chicago State 62 550 3/3/22 Jacksonville State 78, Kennesaw State 67

On April 6, 2016, Gamecocks athletics director Greg Seitz announced the hiring of Ray Harper as the program’s 11th head coach and the fifth to run the Gamecocks at the Division I level. A veteran coach of over 20 seasons, Harper boasts an overall record of 550-203, with a .730 winning percentage, and a 119-76 mark in six seasons at Jacksonville State. Harper has been nearly unmatched in his success since taking over, becoming the program’s winningest Division I coach while directing four of JSU’s five 20-win seasons since the transition to Div. I in 1995. Of the four head coaches to steer the Gamecocks during the Division I era, Harper also ranks first in winning percentage and most winning seasons. He’s led Jacksonville State to three national postseason tournaments, including the school’s first two trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 and 2022. Harper guided JSU through its transition into the ASUN Conference seamlessly in 2021-22, leading to the program’s first Division I regular-season conference title with a 13-3 mark in the team’s debut season in the league. His 2021-22 squad finished 21-11 overall, earning a trip back to the Big Dance after its ASUN championship. For his efforts, Harper was named the 2022 ASUN Coach of the Year, the eighth conference coach of the year honor of his career, and first at the Division I level. The Gamecocks ended the three-year run of reigning league champion, Liberty, and emphasized that point during the regular season by handing the Flames their first home loss in their new arena on Jan. 29. It snapped LU’s 45-game home-winning streak of three years, which ranked second in the nation at the time.

The 2021-22 team was a special one led by a veteran core that returned via Covid-19 eligibility with a goal of winning a championship. Senior Darian Adams, who garnered

First-Team All-ASUN honors and was an NABC All-District selection, led the way with 477 points for the third-most in a single-season by a Gamecock. Fellow seniors Brandon

Huffman and Kayne Henry were also a driving force averaging right at 10 points per game while being the top two rebounders for the season. Senior transfer Jalen Gibbs joined junior Demaree King to create the best outside duo threat in the country. King led the NCAA in three-point field goal percentage at 45 percent with a school-record 84 treys in a season, while Gibbs etched his name in the record books with a Div. I program record 40-point game at Elon. The team earned a 15-seed in the NCAA Midwest Region, where they fell to Southeastern Conference champion and secondseeded Auburn in Greenville, S.C.

The 2020-21 season brought challenges unseen before in

Harpers long career, dealing with limitations and protocols forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. A delayed season didn’t start until late November, and games were played in nearly empty arenas with the lingering question mark of who would be available day-to-day with testing procedures. The

Gamecocks put together an 18-9 mark overall, bringing together 11 newcomers in a year that saw the least amount of available practice time. In what turned out to be Jax

State’s final season in the Ohio Valley Conference, Harper’s club returned to the tournament in Evansville, Ind., where they knocked off Murray State in overtime on their way to reaching the semifinal round.

Harper claimed his 500th career victory on Nov. 29, 2019 with a 71-62 win over Chicago State in Niceville, Fla., at the

Emerald Coast Classic. With 13 wins on the year, Harper pushed his career mark to 511-183 and JSU record to 13-19 while leading the Gamecocks to a fourth consecutive appearance in the OVC Tournament. With Jax State claiming the No. 7 seed in the 2020 OVC Tournament, Harper put the Gamecocks into the OVC’s postseason tournament for the fourth-straight season after JSU had made the OVC Tournament just three times from 2006 to 2016. Harper, yet again, set a single-season record for wins in his third season at the helm, leading JSU to a 24-9 mark in 201819. The 24-win year marked the first time a Jacksonville State head coach led the program to three consecutive seasons of 20-or-more wins at the Division-I level, and the first time since legendary head coach Bill Jones accomplished the feat in 198990, 1990-91 and 1991-92 during the Division-II era. In addition, the 2018-19 season set a record-low for losses. The 2018-19 season also yielded the Gamecocks’ best ever finish in conference play, going 15-3 to lock up the No. 3 seed in the Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championships. Prior the the third-place finish, JSU’s previous-best conference record was 12-8 during the 2005-06 campaign. Harper has now helped Jacksonville State to three-straight OVC Tournament berths - the longest streak for conference tournament appearances in the program’s Division-I history. For the third season in a row, JSU earned a win in its first contest of the OVC Championships to advance to the tournament’s semifinals. Not only did the 88-81 win over UT Martin keep the first-game streak alive, it also pushed Jacksonville State’s overall winning streak to eight-consecutive victories - breaking the record for the program’s longest winning streak of the Division-I era at the time. In his second year as head coach in 2017-18, Harper led Jacksonville State to 20 wins in back-to-back season for the first time in the program’s Division-I history and for the first time since Jones accomplished the feat in 1990-91 and 1991-92. The Gamecocks’ 23-13 record represented just the third 20-win season in their D-1 history and the second under Harper. The 2017-18 season also brought Jacksonville State its second appearance in a national postseason tournament. After leading

HEAD COACH RAY HARPER

COACHING CAREER

2016-present: JSU (Head Coach) n 21-22 ASUN Championship n 21-22 NCAA Tournament Appearance n 17-18 CBI Semifinal Appearance n 16-17 OVC Tournament Championship n 16-17 NCAA Tournament Appearance 2012-16: WKU (Head Coach) n 13-14 NCAA Tournament Appearance n 13-14 Sun Belt Tournament Championship n 12-13 NCAA Tournament Appearance n 12-13 Sun Belt Tournament Championship n 89-64 record 2012: WKU (Interim Head Coach) 2009-12: WKU (Assistant Coach) 2005-08: Oklahoma City (Head Coach) n 07-08 NAIA National Championship n 07-08 SAC Champions n 07-08 SAC Tournament Champions n 06-07 NAIA National Championship n 06-07 SAC Champions n 05-06 NAIA National Runner-Up n 05-06 SAC Champions n 05-06 SAC Tournament Champions 1996-2005: Kentucky Wesleyan (Head Coach) n 247-46 record n 03-04 NCAA D-II Tournament n 02-03 NCAA D-II Runner-Up n 02-03 Great Lakes Valley Championship n 01-02 NCAA D-II Runner-Up n 01-02 Great Lakes Valley Championship n 00-01 NCAA D-II National Championship n 99-00 NCAA D-II Runner-Up n 99-00 Great Lakes Valley Championship n 98-99 NCAA D-II National Championship n 98-99 Great Lakes Valley Championship n 97-98 NCAA D-II Runner-Up n 97-98 Great Lakes Valley Championship 1991-96: Kentucky Wesleyan (Associate Head Coach) 1987-90: Kentucky Wesleyan (Assistant Coach) 1986: VCU (Graduate Assistant)