University of Evansville basketball coach Marty Simmons announced today that Carson Harris has been promoted to assistant coach, and former Aces' standout Lucious Wagner has joined the staff as director of basketball operations. Harris's promotion and Wagner's return to UE came about after assistant coach Ben Wierzba was chosen earlier this month as head coach at the University of Illinois-Springfield.
Harris joined the UE staff last year as director of basketball operations. Wagner is a 2005 UE graduate who was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team and MVC 'Most Improved' Team.
"In Carson, we're excited to have a guy of his caliber as an assistant coach because of his recruiting contacts and his background as a player and a coach," according to Simmons. "He certainly understands our program after being in the director of operations role last year. Carson has great rapport with our players, he understands the game exceptionally well, and he'll be a big asset to have out on the road talking with recruits and their families about our university and our community."
Harris will be joining assistant coaches Jimmy Elgas and Chris Hollender. A three-time all-North Central Conference guard at Lafayette Jeff High School and a three-time all-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference selection at Manchester (Ind.) College, Harris stayed on at Manchester as an assistant coach for two years following his graduation in 2001. He then coached three years at Earlham College and three years at DePauw University before making the move to the Division I level last summer. In his role as UE's director of basketball operations during the 2009-10 season, Harris was involved with many aspects of the program, including budgeting, travel, practice scheduling, academic advising, film exchange and on-campus recruiting.
Wagner was redshirted as a freshman at Evansville in 2000-01, and eventually became a three-year starter and team captain as a senior in 2004-05, when he led the Aces in scoring. He was chosen for the five-man MVC 'Most Improved' Team as a senior after raising his scoring average from 8.8 as a junior to 14.1 as a senior. Wagner was also an honorable mention choice on the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team. He went on to play one year in Holland, Finland and the Czech Republic, and split a season playing in Lebanan and Iceland. He and his wife, Sara, settled last year in Anderson, Ind., where Wagner began his own business, Wags Basketball & Fitness, LLC. The Wagners, who met while both were attending UE, have a two-year-old daughter, Sydney.
"We're very happy to have Lucious come back to UE," Simmons added. "He's a terrific young person. He will be a great role model and example for our players, having played here just a few years ago and then going on to play professionally. With his knowledge of the game and his personality, I really think Lucious is a bright young star."
Added Wagner, "As soon as I heard about the opportunity to come back to Evansville and work with Coach Simmons, I jumped at it. I've considered Evansville my home ever since I was a student here. I told Sara how great the campus looks, and how many changes have taken place in the community since we were in school. We're both excited to be coming back."
The Purple Aces' season is a little more than five weeks away, beginning with an October 30 exhibition game against DePauw University. The regular season opener is on Homecoming weekend, November 13 against Oakland City University.
