DANIEL HARRIS – DAVIS & ELKINS COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 1162

Website – https://senatornation.com/sports/mens-basketball

Email – harrisd2@dewv.edu

Twitter/X – @coach_d_harris

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Daniel Harris is entering his second season as the head men’s basketball coach at Davis & Elkins College and his fourth overall with the program in 2025–26. He guided the program to its fourth consecutive Mountain East Conference Tournament appearance, where D&E earned a 63-61 first-round victory over ninth-seeded Wheeling.

Prior to Davis & Elkins, Harris served as director of basketball operations under Head Coach Lennie Acuff at Lipscomb University for two seasons.  He also served as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville University. Harris gained additional experience as a recruiting coordinator with Hoop Group in Reading, Pennsylvania.

As a player, Harris began his collegiate career at Hillsborough Community College, where he was team captain, team MVP, and recipient of the Coach’s Award. He then transferred to Division I Quinnipiac University, where he started 50 games, shot over 40 percent from three-point range, and earned team MVP honors as a junior. He was a team captain as a senior and a nominee for the NABC Allstate Good Works Team. Harris was also active in student leadership, serving on Quinnipiac’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

On this episode Mike & Daniel discuss the necessity of engaging in uncomfortable conversations, recognizing that such dialogues may not be readily embraced by all, yet can yield invaluable long-term benefits. Throughout the discourse, we explore Harris’s journey from player to coach, highlighting the pivotal experiences and mentors that have shaped his coaching philosophy. We also examine the challenges he faces in leading a program striving for excellence within a competitive league, while concurrently fostering a positive team culture. Ultimately, this conversation encapsulates Harris’s unwavering commitment to personal growth and the development of his players, underscoring the transformative power of basketball as a vehicle for life lessons and character building.

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Grab a pen and some paper before you listen to this episode with Daniel Harris, Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Davis & Elkins College.

What We Discuss with Daniel Harris

• How uncomfortable conversations in coaching foster growth and understanding
• The value of mentorship received from his family and coaches throughout his journey in basketball
• The transition from assistant to head coach presents unique challenges, particularly in maintaining open communication with players
• Building a strong coaching staff and delegating responsibilities effectively is paramount for achieving success in any program
• Setting NCAA tournament participation as a program goal
• Engaging with players beyond basketball is essential for fostering trust and a supportive team environment
• Effective practice planning necessitates collaboration among coaching staff to harness diverse ideas and strategies
• Building a strong network is essential for a successful coaching career in basketball
• Keys to maintaining a consistent team culture
• Coaching requires adaptability and learning from both successes and mistakes throughout one’s career

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THANKS, DANIEL HARRIS

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TRANSCRIPT FOR DANIEL HARRIS – DAVIS & ELKINS COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 1162

[00:00:00] Narrator: The Hoop Heads Podcast is brought to you by Headstart basketball.

[00:00:20] Daniel Harris: One thing that I learned is being okay with uncomfortable conversations and being okay with them not liking me in the moment, and them understanding that, yeah, you might not like me right now, but you’re going to love me when it’s all said and done.

[00:00:39] Mike Klinzing: Daniel Harris is entering his second season as the head men’s basketball coach at Davis & Elkins College and is fourth overall with the program in 2020 5, 26.

He guided the program to its fourth consecutive Mountain East Conference tournament appearance where Danny earned a 63 61 first round victory over ninth seated wheeling. Prior to Davis & Elkins Harris served as the director of Basketball operations under head coach Lenny Acuff at Lipscomb University for two seasons.

He also served as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville University. Harris gained additional experience as a recruiting coordinator with Hoop Group in Redding, Pennsylvania as a player. Harris began his collegiate career at Hillsborough Community College, where he was a team captain, team MVP, and recipient of the Coaches Award.

He then transferred to Division one Quinnipiac University, where he started 50 games, shot over 40% from three point range, and earned team MVP Honors as a junior. He was a team captain as a senior and a nominee for the NABC Allstate Good Works team. Harris was also active in student leadership serving on Quinnipiac Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

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[00:02:23] Narrator: Hey, this is Monty Patel, head boys coach of EStem Public Charter School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and you are listening to the Hoop Heads podcast.

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Grab a pen and some paper before you listen to this episode with Daniel Harris, men’s basketball head coach at Davis and Elkins College. Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason sunk this morning. But I am pleased to be joined by Daniel Harris. Men’s head basketball coach at Davis and Elkins College.

Daniel, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:03:36] Daniel Harris: Hey, thank you, Mike. I really appreciate it. Excited to be on and excited to chat and get to know each other.

[00:03:42] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Excited to have you on. Looking forward to diving into all of the things that you’ve been able to do in your career thus far. Want to start by going back in time to when you were a kid?

Tell me a little bit about your first experiences with the game of basketball. What do you remember? What made you fall in love with it?

[00:03:56] Daniel Harris: Yeah. Man, basketball has been in, in, in my genes, in my blood, I guess since. Since I was two years old.  I was a big MJ fan, a big Michael Jordan fan. I would have my, my little MJ Jordan jersey on running around the living room with the basketball at my grandparents’ house.

And just kind of fell in love with the game early. And it’s kind of just been my life since now that I’m 30. And it’s just been, it’s been great. Just where it’s taken me, the people I’ve met.  when when I started again, two years old playing in the living room and  my parents always telling me, I’ve just always want to be like Mike.

And watching, I would go watch a couple of games the 98 series in Utah and just, oh, Michael Jordan fell outfall. And it had the sweatbands and everything. So I guess that was the start of the inspiration from a childhood standpoint. And it just kind of grew.

And it was blessed enough to. I have some really good mentors with my father as well. Just, well, that just really  furthered my love for the game. He played in, in high school and it was a really good athlete. It just kind of taught me as well, and again, like I said, I had really good mentors through how school and so forth.

So I guess that’s just how it started. And it just kind of grew into now being a, a head basketball coach.

[00:05:17] Mike Klinzing: Starting with MJ is always a good place to start. It’s a good, that’s a good way to butter me up too. So anybody who listens to the pod knows I’m a Michael Jordan Guy, so that’s a great, that’s a great way for us to get get started.

There’s no, there’s no better guy to emulate when you think about the total package of what it means to be a great basketball player. It’s just, I mean, there’s, there’s nothing better than MJ in every sense, the word from a skill standpoint, athleticism, mental toughness, I mean everything that you would want in a player.

Obviously Jordan has it, so it’s a good place to start. Yeah. And then secondly, going and having your dad be an influence on you. I know that, that a lot of people have that story, right, of, of, of their parents, their father in particular, in a lot of cases, having that influence. So when you think about the influence that your dad had on you first as a player, and then obviously I’m sure some of the things that he taught you, whether it was on or off the court, continue to influence you as a coach today.

So when you think about that. Impact that your dad had had on you? What’s one or two things that you still carry with you today that you feel like is reflective of the lessons that your dad taught you when you were a kid?

[00:06:23] Daniel Harris: Yeah, I think the first thing to start off with, with my father, he, he, he took me in when I was at two years old.

He’s my step, my stepfather, and I, he’s, he’s by far the best father figure that I could ask for. And  I think the biggest lesson that I learned through my career through basketball and just from him is just like, just giving back and loving, no matter who the person is, where they come from.

He didn’t have to take me in and, and really show me how to be a man and, and just mold me to who I am. So I’m grateful for that. And I’m, I’m blessed to have somebody that wanted to step into that, into that father role. And so my father, he, he’s, he’s one of the most inspirational guys.

I think. I get inspirational tweets and quotes and things every single day. He sends it to our family in our family group chat to me and my brother. And just the ability just again, to give back love. Love on people just be a kind person. I think that’s, that’s why I became a, a basketball coach in my family.

I was just talking about this the other day. Teaching is in our genes. It started off on my mom’s side my great-grandmother and great-grandfather. One was a principal and one was a teacher in the same school. And then my grandmother, actually, she’s a principal, and then my grandfather on my mom’s side is a pastor.

 so teaching has just kind of been in our blood. And so I guess when you look at the teaching aspect on my mom’s side and then just the love of basketball, just kind of blended it together and to make a, a head coach in me. So just being able to teach the game of basketball life lessons to these young men as well as  just giving back to the community as well.

So just kind of fit in who I’ve molded over over these last 30 years with just, not just from my, my father, but just everybody from.  down the line of teaching, growing and just kind of giving back has just kind of been our, our family, our family genes. So I guess that’s just  I’m blessed enough to learn to learn all those lessons and just kind of pay it forward to all of our players that have come through Davis Elkins and through my coaching career.

It’s amazing how many people

[00:08:27] Mike Klinzing: that have teachers or coaches in their family background end up being teachers or coaches themselves. So my story similar to yours, my dad was a professor at Cleveland State and my mom was an elementary school teacher. And so I actually, when I went to school, I got a business degree and I got out and I graduated and I went out on some interviews and I got offered one job.

And so this was whenever, probably in maybe May or June after I graduated and they’re like, yeah, we want you to report on July 1st to work. And I remember going home and talking to my mom and dad and being like. They want me to put on a suit and go to work in July. Like, I mean, I’ve never seen anybody do that.

My dad might’ve taught a summer class or two where he wore shorts down and taught his class or whatever. Right. But I never saw anybody go to work in a suit in July. And so that was what prompted me. I’m like, I think I have to go back to school and get my teaching degree and end up doing that. Mm-hmm.

Which is what I, which is what I did. But I think when you have education in your background, I think that that, that teaching gene sort of gets passed along and obviously coaching, as we all know, is if not exactly the same as teaching. It certainly is a form of teaching. Mm-hmm. Maybe different than what you do in the classroom.

But again, in a very, very similar vein. Tell me a little bit about your development as a player. I’m thinking as you get into your middle school, high school years, what are you doing? What’s your plan? How are you putting together? Program for you to get better as a player? Were you super organized and had, Hey, I better do this, this, this, this?

Or was it more kind of haphazard? I’m getting to the gym, I’m getting my shots up. Just how’d you go about getting better as a player?

[00:10:10] Daniel Harris: Yeah, so  it, it’s funny and it, my whole career and what I wanted to do is to get into coaching. So me playing basketball was kind of the stepping stone for me to get to where I’m at today in coaching.

I just loved the Xs and Os of everything. So when in middle school it was funny, I remember this vividly in middle school, I would, I would have plays from my middle school head bicycle basketball coach, like, Hey, we should run these. And, and so it started off there, but once I got to high school I played for one a very is a hall of fame coach in the Tampa area Renardo Garcia.

He, he, he was my high school coach and very, very good in terms of just skill development. Really defensive minded coach and just knew how to get the best out of players. Coached a lot of great college players that came out of Tampa. And  again, I I, another thing just kind of, and I know this is kind of going off track a little bit, just vividly how much I wanted to get into coaching and just use basketball  in, in, in high school you had your dressed like a teacher day or be a, whatever your profession was.

Well, I dressed like Coach Garcia that I knew I wanted to be a coach. And so that, that’s just kind of where it all started. But  for me. I, I wasn’t mj, I wasn’t as six six. I wasn’t as athletic as mj, but I knew I could shoot the basketball. And that was one thing that I had, I hang my hat on.

I did a lot of things in terms of I did have trainers to get my, my body right. I did have coach Garcia open the gym for me to shoot. But what it really became is because when you get on the gun and you’re shooting, it just became a sanctuary, right?

You just listen to the ball, go through the net, no other problems. It was just a place for you to get away and just kind of deep dive into your game. And so that’s kind of how it, it grew.  I wouldn’t say I was just this most always organized. I’d get up at 6:00 AM or whatever at during that time as a, a middle school or high school player.

But I definitely put in the time and effort and it allowed me to. Be successful by playing basketball. And  it wasn’t an easy journey going through high school.  I wasn’t, and I had, I had recruitment coming out of high school.  my sophomore and junior year had division one recruitment, mostly because a lot of my teammates were playing at high levels.

And Coach Garcia was well connected. And I ended up getting hurt. Going into my, at the last, going in the playoffs of my junior year, I ended up dislocating my knee. And  that kind of set me back a little bit from a recruiting standpoint had a so, so senior year. And with that I, I got down to myself because I wasn’t getting the recruitment that I wanted.

 I thought my basketball career was over.  I said, man, I put all this time and effort in the injury kind of set me back and that was a hard. Hard moment, but I’m a true believer in everything happens for a reason. And good, bad or, or indifferent God kind of just moves you in the right direction, in the right path where he wants you to go.

And  I I I, I did, like I said, I didn’t, didn’t have much recruitment coming out of high school and going, going into my senior year, I actually was going to go to FMU where both my parents went. I had, I was about to sign up for housing. I was about to just go as a regular student. And Coach Garcia just said, he’s like, Hey, just go to Hillsborough Community College.

 go play open gym, see what happens. And crazy enough we were just talking about this together. Now I’m on the way. I get a, an a fender bender. So I get hit going to the workout and I’m like, God, I mean this. You can’t, you can’t make this stuff up. But I’m late to the workout. I’m late to the pickup.

I tell the coach, I say, Hey, I got an accident, but I’ll be there 20 minutes later. Got there and. Crazy enough, do my shoes on and just played right? I didn’t have any, I was just, just playing, just saying, Hey,  what, whatever happens, happens. And played really well in the open gym, and the coach looked at me, he’s like, I’ll just give you a full ride to Hillsborough Community College.

And I was just so excited about that. And he gave it to me right on the spot. And that kind of changed my trajectory again.  again, it wasn’t, it wasn’t clean cut. But again, it, it, I was blessed enough to get that opportunity to go play at, at a really good community college with Coach Worlds.

I think the one thing that I’ve had really good coaches, not just on the basketball side of things, but just really good men that taught me different things along the way. And Coach Worlds was, was a really, really good inspiration to me in my coaching world and in in also my basketball world as well.

And, and I was blessed enough to do really well in those two years at, at Hillsborough Community College and was able to go play division one. So again, it wasn’t a the normal way that most people would say. But again, I think God has a way of just putting you in the right places and putting in the right path to your destiny, especially if you really stick your stay to it and don’t get down on yourself.

 go through some adversity. Life is never, it’s never easy, it’s never a straight path. It’s always some ups and downs and some mountains and some valleys. You just have to keep, keep going through it. So but yeah, I, like I said, it, I’m blessed and again, it’s not, it’s never going to be easy. And I know I got a long way ahead of me now as a head coach.

What now? because of the, I’m sure the road is, is going to be ups and downs as well, so,

[00:15:28] Mike Klinzing: well, Daniel, I always ask some version of this question, but I already know the answer based on what you’ve just said. And the question that I always like to ask is. Did you see yourself as being a coach from the time you were very young as a player?

And obviously the answer for you is yes. I always say there’s kind of like two paths. There’s somebody like you who’s given plays to your middle school coach and saying, Hey coach, we should do this. And thinking like a coach almost from the time that you start playing. And then there’s other guys who just are focused on, I’m just playing.

I’m just playing. I’m just playing. And then all of a sudden they’re playing career ends and they look around and they’re like, okay, I want to stay involved in basketball. Maybe now. That’s when I shift my focus to coaching. So as you’re going through your high school experience, your exp experience at Hillsborough, your experience at Quinnipiac, are you having conversations with your coaches, not just about like, Hey, what do I have to do?

What’s my role? How are we trying to wing it, but on a deeper level in terms of, Hey, why are we doing this? Or what’s happening behind the scenes that we’re, we’re trying to build this, in other words, are you asking them coaching questions in addition to kind of looking at it as a player?

[00:16:35] Daniel Harris: I think there’s yes, yes and no.

So to start off again, I did want to be a coach coming out in, in high school. That was a dream that I really wanted to do. And it’s a loaded, a loaded question and answer. So when I actually was recruited out Hillsborough Community College the one thing that it, it wasn’t about the facilities, it wasn’t about who is returning or whatever.

It was about one thing. I said, can you help me get into coaching? Can you help me? What’s the next step after I give you my two years? Who has the most connections in the coaching world to help me build what build and get as high as I, as I possibly can? And so when I was actually recruited, I was recruited by Bethune, Cookman, FA, MU, and of course Quinnipiac.

I went on visits and that was the one thing I said, I don’t care about anything else. What can you do to help me once I graduate, get a GA job or whatever. And Coach Moore than that Staff, coach Moore, Eric Eaton. And, and that whole staff was so well connected. And Coach Moore is actually the, he was the assistant at UConn.

Well, he, he’s still at UConn with Dan Hurley and just helped me propel my, my coaching career. So I kind of tailored all of my recruiting towards coaching. Right. And I think that’s, not most people do that, right? No. Just because I knew, yeah. I knew that’s what I wanted to do. But going back to your other question about were I having those conversations?

I think a lot of that, going back to Hillsborough, I kind of know I’m jumping over the legs, but going back to Hillsborough. In my freshman year, I actually got hurt again. I tore some ligaments in my hand and I was out the entire year. But what that did was it allowed me to see the other side of coaching, because in high school you don’t really see it  you don’t see that at the college level.

So Coach Worlds and I basically became his assistant for a whole entire year while I was rehab, rehabbing my hand. And I be, I did stats. I was watching film I was doing everything that really his assistant was doing. I just became another assistant. And so when I rehabbed my hand and really the, really, the thing that when I hurt my hand again my freshman year, I was down at, I didn’t think I was really a Division one basketball player at the time.

I went to Hillsborough Community College. I thought I was maybe a division two. Maybe division three basketball player. But I worked my butt off to rehab that whole summer. I was going two, three times a day in the gym. I was helping coach rolls with with recruiting and doing stuff.

And I basically turned myself back into a division one basketball player that summer, going for my freshman to my sophomore year. So the cool thing is I got to step out of being a player my freshman year going into sophomore year and seeing that coaching world, seeing what the behind the scenes.

And then when I became at Quinnipiac seeing what it took to be at the division one level as a player, I said, man, I just have to focus in on being as best of a player as I possibly can for Coach Moore, because I had to fulfill my duty. He asked me to do the best I can be on the floor, make shots.

So then. When it’s my time to ask, Hey, how can you help me get into coaching? He’s going to do it. ? So that was kind of always my, my, my thought process is like, Hey, we, this is the relationship, here’s the agreement. And so again, my, my life has always been tailored towards coaching, tailored towards getting better, tailored towards just learning the game.

And again, it wasn’t conventional, it wasn’t the original way. And, and shoot, even me being here wasn’t conventional as well. So I, again, it, I’ve, I’ve always been a teacher, always been a coach at heart, and I’m, I love every single moment of, of doing that.

[00:20:16] Mike Klinzing: During that freshman experience, what was the piece of coaching?

If there was one that you could narrow it down to that you were like, man, I love. This aspect of coaching. because obviously as you said, as a player, right? You’ve seen and you’ve watched your high school coach, you’ve maybe seen and watched other coaches. You have a feeling  that that’s something that you want to go, you obviously got the education in your background, but until you really step in and kind of go behind the scenes, nobody really knows for sure all the stuff that goes on, especially at the college level, right?

Yeah. I think there’s a, yeah, even players, I know that when I was playing, I had the perception of, hey, coaches are showing up at practices at three, coaches are showing up at two 30 and practices done at six and I’m taking a shower and they’re still hanging around just till I get out of there and then they’re going home at six.

That, that was my perception again as a player, so, right. What’s something that you loved immediately? You were like, Hey, yeah, this is what I want to do.

[00:21:12] Daniel Harris: Film breakdown  of practices and making, helping give suggestions and learning.  again that, because I couldn’t shoot, I had my, my right hand.

It was my shooting hand, so I couldn’t really do anything. It just my left hand. And so film breakdown was great.  doing stats of practices and stuff like that.  also the recruiting piece of it I kind of liked, coach would always say, Hey, go watch this gimme game film of a high school kid and I’ll watch it.

I’d be like, yeah, he’s pretty good. Or I knew about him because he, the Tampa area.  I just kind loved the film breakdown and the recruiting part of it.  luckily I didn’t have to do all the operational stuff because that, nobody likes doing that. But from a basketball standpoint everybody loves breaking down film scouting reports  watching practices and helping the for me.

When I got hurt, I wanted to give back because as a freshman I couldn’t be on the floor. So I might as well, what other way can I, can I benefit or help the program and help the guys that were on the floor.  in practice I still came to practice. I’ll run the clock and just seeing everything from a coach a bird’s eye view or coach’s view to help the guys that were on, that were on the floor and still be able to be an impact in the program even though I wasn’t on the floor at that time.

So  and again coaching is, there’s a lot more to coaching than mo what most people see. Right.  like you said, it ain’t just showing up to practice at, at two 30 and getting out of there at five 30. It’s a full, full 24 hour thing. And there’s a lot more that goes into coaching.

And, and it’s, it’s really fun. And again, it’s, there’s, there’s just so much to do behind the scenes. But again, I enjoy every single moment of it and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

[00:22:57] Mike Klinzing: Talked a little earlier about just your decision to go to Quinnipiac and how it was based upon the connections and what could eventually happen when you graduated in terms of helping you to get that first coaching job.

So when you get to graduation and now it’s time to start looking and figuring out what’s going to be next, where are you going to go? Explain to me how those connections helped you and how you end up at Jacksonville.

[00:23:24] Daniel Harris: Yeah. So. Like I had mentioned earlier I all, I told all the assistants, Hey, this is what I want to do.

And it was a weird time at that time because  we had two really bad seasons when I was at Quinnipiac. And unfortunately that staff  was let go my senior year, but they still looked out for me even though they were still looking for jobs themselves. So what happened was two of my teammates Aaron Roberton and Ace Robinson, they’re both twins.

They were there for two years. They, they were, they were freshmen when I came in as a junior. They played at Putnam Science Academy, which is in Connecticut. And I had a car and they wanted to go work a camp. So they, they, they used me to u to get me to go. They used my car, they used me and my car to get to go work the camp.

Like, Hey, you want to go work this camp at Putnam? I was like, yeah, why not?  we weren’t doing anything. That’s after the year and went up there, helped work the camp, did a really good job with the kids. And Putnam science staff was there. Loved what I did in terms of just just coaching and interacting with the, with the kids.

And so really met with that staff and the Putnam Science guys. They, they put my name out there, like, Hey, we got a guy that’s just finished playing that once to get, be a ga. And within about a week I had about three or four GA offers from Jacksonville. Gardner Webb was able to get an interview at Texas Tech with Chris Beard.

And just by doing just by doing a good job, right? Not, not really knowing those guys.  just being myself again, I knew I wanted to be a coach, so I’m like, man, this is, this is just me being who I am and able to build that relationship. So I credit the twins also for using me in my car  to go work that camp.

But  and that, that turned into some GA opportunities. And I got to get, get to know Dan Bere, who’s the assistant coach at, at Wright State, who was the ga, the assistant at Jacksonville. And that staff and I was able to work under Tony Jackson and that staff at Jacksonville. So and again, even the corn Piac guys really put my name out there for me and had I had a lot of interviews, a lot of different opportunities.

But Jacksonville was the perfect, the perfect. Place for me because it was closer to home.  Jacksonville and Tampa is like two and a half hours away. I was back in Florida. I will be able to be around my family. And so that’s ultimately why I chose Jacksonville. And again, I was grateful for that opportunity.

Learned a lot  from that staff and again, was able to continue to continue my, my career. So again, unconventional, right? When you talk about  again, just God putting you in different places, different situations. And, and again, those, the Robertson twins are great people and are really successful.

Just allow me to go work at camp with them and, and meeting the Putnam Science staff and kind of blossoming from there. So again, very, very unconventional And I guess this normally, I guess this is how my, my, my path has always been since day one. So.

[00:26:23] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, there’s a great lesson in there, Daniel, that has kind of come through in the podcast and other interviews too, and that’s, and you talked about it like I was just being myself, doing something that I loved, working as hard as I could.

Not with the idea that you were being auditioned for some other job, right? You’re just there at the camp. You’re doing what you do, you’re doing what you love, you’re working as hard as you can, and as a result of that, somebody notices not because again, you were trying to put on a show for somebody to try to get a job.

You’re just doing what you do. And yet at the same time, so often I hear those stories that that is what leads to the next opportunity, right? It’s the guys who have one eye out the door that are looking for that next position, and maybe they’re not as focused in on what they can do to help. In your case, what can I do to make this camp the best experience for the kids that are there?

Or if I’m working on a staff, what can I do to make this experience the best? How can I help my program? I can’t be worried about what’s next. I have to be worried about what, what is right in front of me? And that’s definitely a lesson that has come through on the podcast numerous times. So in that way, it’s interesting again that you followed that sort of non-traditional path.

But in this instance, it’s a case of where Yeah, man, when you’re doing your thing and you’re doing it well, people are going to notice that. And then that’s what leads you mm-hmm. To that next opportunity. And again, as you said, yeah, so much of coaching and being able to advance in your career as the people that  and they have to know you in a positive way because mm-hmm.

You’ve done the things that you’re supposed to do wherever you’re at and have gone above and beyond. And again, that’s a great example there that you just shared from, from your story.

[00:28:07] Daniel Harris: Yeah. And to be honest, it’s a lot of that is just being a good, a good person and just giving back like even the Robertson twins, like they were, they were freshmen, they were from DC so they didn’t, here’s a funny story.

They didn’t even know how to drive a car, and I taught them how to drive Right. And taught them how to do certain things that they just, they, because of some things that they just didn’t get taught and just say, Hey, I’m just going to be a good teammate, right? This is just who I am. I’m going to give back.

And it ended up being paid forward just by me going to that camp, right? Because they knew that I would do a good job there as well. So, you’re right, I think a lot of times it’s just about being a good person and being a good human being being a servant leader. And just giving back and not just, not just being about yourself.

Because I think at the end of the day, if you’re just, you’re, you’re serving other people. And I learned this from Coach A Cuff who’s also my boss. If you’re just serving other people and doing things for others, . Everything will end up coming back to you in some type of way. And I’m a true believer of that.

[00:29:08] Mike Klinzing: Get to Jacksonville. How’d you balance the academic side of getting a master’s degree and yet pouring yourself a hundred percent into your passion of coaching and doing all that? I know what, I’ve talked to other guys that have gone through the route of being a GA to just talk about, again, the lack of sleep and just the amount of time that they’re putting in to make sure they’re taking care of their academic side of it, but also putting in all the time and doing the things that we just talked about two minutes ago in terms of giving your all to the program to help it to be successful.

So how’d you navigate that and balance those two things?

[00:29:42] Daniel Harris: Well, the fun, the funny part about Jacksonville is our, my, where I live was upstairs, so I was always in the office. It was literally, I worked in the office and we would come in the office and at eight, eight o’clock in the morning, be there all day.

And I would just go straight upstairs and sometimes I would just stay in the office and get my schoolwork done, so I wouldn’t go back, go back home until nine, 10 o’clock at night. So that’s kind of where I learned my, my work ethic in the coaching world. And I had, again, I was so blessed to have really good mentors and leaders.

The director of Operat, director of Basketball Operations at the time that I was there was Jared Rhode. Just kind of showing me the way of how this coaching world and how you, how you’re supposed to conduct yourself, especially at the division one level.  even the GA that was, we had two GA’s at the time.

My, my first year there Bradley Faye, who’s actually the director of basketball operations at Appalachian State, again, just showing me the ropes, right. And then with the balancing the academics, the good part was I didn’t have to go to classes all online. So I could manage being in the office all day doing my cl  my classes online.

Which was, which was nice. So that was a really good perk. I think it would’ve been a little bit hard if I had to go to class at certain being in person. But at the, at the end of the day being a student athlete.  you have to time manage, you have to be able to go know when you’re going to class, know when you’re, you have your homework done you have study table, you have practice and all that stuff.

So it was a pretty easy transition. It just in a different way. Right.  I just knew I had to go to the office, get my work done, and had to if I wanted to. At the time, I still, I’m a huge video game guy, so I had to cut back on, on playing Fortnite and all that. Just make sure I get my schoolwork done.

But just time managing that and those are those lessons that you get taught throughout those from middle school to high school, to college making sure you’re on top of your grades, making sure you’re getting everything done in the right amount of time and things like that.

So, again, I think a lot of guys even I tell our, our student athletes now, like, all the lessons that you’re learning in college right now, a lot, not quite honestly, a lot of times the content, what you’re learning in college. You might not even ever use, but it’s the time management, it’s the organization.

Can you get stuff done on time? Can you turn in a paper on time?  things like that is, those are the lessons that you people want to see in the workforce. And so all those things kind of came together as I was a ga. And again, like I said, I was blessed enough to have really good mentors and friends at Jacksonville that really helped me grow into a really good basketball coach.

[00:32:18] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s a great lesson to pass along to players. And it’s funny that you just talking about time management and that hey, it might, it’s not necessarily always the exact things that you learn, right? In college in terms of the academic content matter. Sometimes it’s just you do, you learn, how do I manage my time?

You learn how do I navigate this situation? How do I figure this out? How do I learn how to learn? I had this same exact conversation. My wife and my youngest daughter, my other two are in college, but my wife and my youngest daughter were sitting at dinner and she was talking, complaining about some math problem or something that she had to try to figure out and whatever, and we’re like, well, yeah, you have to figure out the math problem.

That’s a part of it, but it’s more of figuring out like, how do I figure out this math problem? because you may not have to figure out this exact math problem and whatever your job ends up being, but you’re going to have to figure out problems no matter where you are. And that’s what school is all about, is figuring out, Hey, how do I do this stuff?

And not, how do I do calculus, but how do I figure out how to solve a calculus problem? What’s the process that I go through? And I think that’s the same thing again, when you start talking about lessons that you yourself learned going through that GA experience, and then things that you’re trying to convey to your student athletes.

Now as a head basketball coach, those are all lessons that impact kids long after they’re a part of. A basketball team and you hope that when they get to their work life and their family life, that that’s ultimately what ends up having having a big impact on them. Do you consider yourself to be a big note taker in terms of, as you’re going through these experiences, are you, how are you collecting things that are starting to shape who you want to be as a coach and what your philosophies are and thoughts of, of how you’re going to put together a program or how you’d like your teams to play?

Obviously, as a ga you’re probably not at that point immediately thinking I’m going to be a head coach in the next year or two. But in the back of your mind, right, you’ve known that this is your career,  that at some point you’re going to start to head that direction. So how do you go about, what’s your process for kind of keeping things together that you collect along the way in your various experiences?

[00:34:31] Daniel Harris: So one, I want to do a better job of this of, of keeping my notes.  I’ve actually started doing memos in my phone because I hate writing. Like, I, I physically hate writing something, so I’d rather, like, even in text messages, I’ll just say, Hey, sir, you send this. So I’ve been doing memos and just say, Hey the daily memos on my journal of just, Hey, this is what has gone on today or whatever whatever I had to go through my, my daily journaling, I guess you can say, but just talking to my memos.

But I do, I do need to do a much better job of that.  I do have a book of notes that I’ve had from plays thoughts or, or different things of how I want to build the program.  and I have, if you look at my desk right now, there’s papers all over the place.

So I have to get a little bit more organized and keeping everything  kind of more organized, but that that’s.  that’s one area that I do want to continue to get better at, but no. For me, a lot of it is just taking little bits and pieces of all the different people that have been in my life from my father, from Coach Garcia, my high school coach, coach Worlds shoot, my first, my first four, my first four coaches were, were all defensive minded coaches.

Like, it wasn’t about offense. And so when I was a GAA at Jacksonville, and even at Tony Jasick was a defensive minded coach. I was just so def I was really good defensively, like from my mind I was like, man, one area I have to get better at, I is the offensive end. And I know I could teach defense that that’s, I see the game in a defensive way.

And it’s like, okay, I have to get better offensively. And I’m sure we’ll talk about this, my next step with coach, with Coach Acuff. But taking little things from different people which kind of molded me into the coach I am. And, and again, I’ve had really, really good mentors. Probably In my opinion, some of the best in the country.

And just being able to mold me and who I am today. And as a basketball coach,

[00:36:28] Mike Klinzing: what’s one thing you believe in that’s a non-negotiable on each end of the floor? Gimme one thing offensive defense that you’re like, my teams always have to have this.

[00:36:39] Daniel Harris: Yeah. Well, first of all, you have to have some toughness about you on both ends of the floor.

I think.  when you defensively  being able to guard your yard guard your man staying out of rotations is really, is really important to us.  especially now, I think, especially the team that we have this year, I think we’re going to be pretty good at that. And then offensively, just taking my non-negotiable.

Taking great shots. Right.  taking great shots. I mean, it’s not going to be perfect every single time I get that. But being a good teammate and just getting it to the right open guy, I’m really big on making sure that our guys know what a great shot looks like. And again, it’s not going to be perfect, but as long as they know, because trust me, even in practice right now, they know when they take a bad shot and it, it’s, they’re my bads, ?

And so  again, can you be tough enough defensively no middle drives we do keep the ball on the outside, so again, we that’s a non-negotiable. We don’t want anything getting towards the middle, but just being tough and physical defensively I think you just have to, you have to have that, that, that dog in you.

If you want to be a really good defensive team, and of course just getting great shots just being a teammate, in my opinion.

[00:37:49] Mike Klinzing: The good shots perspective, how do you teach that day in and day out in practice and through the use of film and conversations, what does that look like for, let’s say a high school coach who’s listening who says, man, I want to teach my guys to take better shots.

What advice would you have for somebody in that situation?

[00:38:05] Daniel Harris: Yeah, so a lot, I think film is the best teacher. because film doesn’t lie, right? And then we showing, okay for us we want to get layups first hand at the backboard, layups and then range room and rhythm threes with the right guys  wide open ones.

So for us saying, Hey, these are the kind of shots that we’re really good at and that we want. And a lot of times, I personally, I don’t like showing NBA guys to our guys because I think tho the NBA guys are just that much better, right? I think they, they are, they are at a whole nother level.

But I like to show. Mid-major guys, mid-major player guys mid-major plus us being at division two, a lot of our guys, they want to go play division one. I was like, okay, yeah. Alright, this is where you can possibly go.  I love, I’m a big Aun guy. I’m a big, so, so kind guy. I love watching mid-major basketball.

So I show, okay, this is the kind of shots that I want our team to take. And giving them that. And then when we’re, and our guys were in film okay, hey, this is a shot you took. Is this a good shot or a bad shot? Most of the time they’ll, and if it’s a bad shot, they’d say, yeah, this is a bad shot.

Why is this a bad shot? And he said, well John Doe was open here in the corner. All I had to do was one word. Right. And just showing them, and then showing them also when they take a good shot, right.  also reinforcing, you did a good job here. Right. And just continue to do that. I think when you’re, you’re teaching and growing, you can’t always.

Bad. You’re a kid, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. You have to show them when they do something good. So now that they can hold onto that and try and replicate that again. And so  for us, and again, our, our team is we’re in week five, week six right now. And actually we haven’t even talked about offense yet.

And we’ve just been straight defense. But  I was telling my assistant coaches, I said, man, just watching our team, they’re actually moving the ball and they’re moving the bodies without, without any us coaching it just now. And every once in a while in practice right now, I say, Hey, was this a good shot?

You shot that over two people. I said, who was open? He said, oh, Vegas was open. I shoulda threw it there. Yep. And then we go watch that in film. So I think a lot of times it’s both showing. For kids now, showing them, okay, where do I want to showing them players of where they want to be. So if I’m a high school coach, showing them college basketball players taking good shots, right?

Telling, showing them what kind of shots they’re going to get the next level so they can see, okay, this is what I have to work on and this is what coaches are, are, are looking for. And then, and of course as well making sure that you just show them good and the bad. Because at the end of the day you want those guys to learn and continue to get better.

[00:40:41] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I think that’s really important when you talk about the balance between, hey, this is what we want and hey, this is what we don’t want. Because I think that tendency sometimes is to get into, Hey, this is what we don’t want. Thinking that that’s the best way to correct. But there’s also when you give praise and the kids see themselves doing the things correct, they know they’re capable of doing it.

And I think that you have to be really intentional as a coach to. Balance out those two right balance out, Hey, here’s the positive film of what we’re doing and this is what we want. And then, hey, here’s some instances where we didn’t quite get exactly what we’re looking for. How can we make this a fix and how can we, can we make it better?

And I think that’s a, there’s, that’s a big piece of, of being successful in terms of your player development, right? Helps each individual kid to be better. And then it also helps your team collectively when everybody grows.

[00:41:30] Daniel Harris: Yeah. And I and I think there’s a thing when you’re, when you’re a toddler or when you’re young and five years old your parents always, oh, you did a good job.

You did a good job, you did a good job. We still have that as adults, right? We still want to be told that we’re doing a good job, but that we’re, we’re, we’re progressing, right? At the end of the day, that’s, that’s what life is about, is just always getting better and progressing. So having that positive reinforcement is, is really important.

And making sure that you’re still building confident into your players. But again, like, and again, there’s a balancing act that, that, that has to be done. Sometimes you might have to get on them, right? And say, this is not how we’re going to do things. But at the same time, showing them that positive reinforcement that you’re capable of doing it.

Because I think a lot of times what happens is some coaches might make, you’re still not doing this, you’re still not doing this, you’re still not doing this. Now the kid has that make, can I even do it right? And just still showing them that positive reinforcement, that they’re capable and they just have to replicate it over and over again.

[00:42:27] Mike Klinzing: You mentioned Coach Acuff earlier and after Jacksonville, you get an opportunity to go and work for Coach Lips, Lipscomb work, work at Lipscomb for Coach Acuff and anyone who’s in the basketball space knows his reputation as a coach and what he’s all about. So just tell us a little bit about the experience there.

What are some things that you took away from your time working with him for him that impacted you as you went into your first experience as a head coach?

[00:42:57] Daniel Harris: Yeah, man, I was, when you talk about. A, a mastermind of a basketball coach and just especially on the offensive end like I had mentioned, all of my coaches that I had that I previous worked for or played for all defensive minded coaches and coach Uff is an offensive guy that is, everybody knows that.

And he just, his language, his ability to teach. I think for me,  and again, I, again, taking bits and pieces from everybody, all of my other piece coaches that I had before Coach a cuff were hard, nose, tough didn’t really give a lot of positive reinforcement. Coach A cuff on the other hand was the one that showed me you can give positive reinforcement and still get the most out of ch out of kids and players.

So that’s where I get a lot of  that balancing act in those two years at Lipscomb were unbelievable.  I was there his first two years where he was really building it, the program back up Lipscomb has been a very good basketball program. Even when coach, coach was Alexander who was before coach Alexander, I think it was Coach Alexander who was at Belmont.

 it was a really good program and then coach Jacobov was able to take you. I was, those, those there, those first two years where he was building it. We actually, my first year we ended up going to the ASUM championship against. And then just seeing them, what they did the last two years going to the NCA tournament and really winning 20, 25 games.

But just learning the terminology learning the Princeton offense, learning how to teach the offensive end. What is a good shot? What are we looking for, playing off of two feet. Just so much knowledge was gained in that two years and crazy thing. And that was during that COVID year too. So we were at home, right?

Just being able to soak up so much  from him. I’m just so blessed. And also just being, he, just his ability. To care about his players, to love on them.  coach also was, I was also blessed coach Kevin Carroll, who’s actually the head coach at Lipscomb right now, was the assistant.

Those two years that I was there, that staff was unbelievable. So I credit those guys, those two years, just the amount of knowledge and drill work and concepts offensively that I was able to bring here to David Sun Elkins as, as an assistant. I, I couldn’t have been, I think those two years is where I made a, a massive jump in the, in, in terms of, of teaching teaching offense, and then as well as that positive reinforcement of giving to our players.

And again, that staff coach Kevin Kevin Carroll, Tyler Murray, coach coach Acuff and Roger Strom were all phenomenal coaches. And, and again, I learned so much for them and grateful that I was there for those two years.

[00:45:39] Mike Klinzing: To be able to take those lessons with you, right? And something that you can internalize and as you said, coming into that as sort of a defensive minded guy, right?

Somebody who had spent more time with coaches who put the focus on that into the floor. And then to be able to come and work under Coach Ako and see, again, a totally different, this is one of the things that I always find fascinating, right? Is that when you go through your career first as a player and then you get into the coaching world, and if you’ve only had a couple of experiences, like I always say, for me, I played for one high school coach.

I played for one college coach, and then I got my first coaching job. I was like a JV high school basketball coach. And so the only thing I knew from a basketball standpoint is, and I wasn’t like you, I wasn’t a kid who was thinking I was ever going to coach. Like I was just focused on trying to be the best player I could be.

So the only thing I knew when I became a coach was what my high school coach did and what my college coach did. And so. All the drills, all the philosophies, basically anything that came from those two guys was all, was all I knew. And so, mm-hmm. When you go through your career and you get those different experiences and you get to see like, Hey, here’s a guy who does it the hard-nosed way.

Here’s a guy who does it with praise. Here’s a guy who does it with defense. Here’s a guy who does it with offense. And then that doesn’t even obviously get into all the different philosophies of how you play offensively versus how you play defensively in, in all the Xs and O stuff. But just to be able to have those varied experiences and then to be able to take bits and pieces of them to grow yourself, but then also as you’re trying to grow into who am I becoming as a coach?

because clearly earlier in your career, you’re very much influenced by the people that you’re around, whether coaches that you played for as a player or guys that you’ve worked for earlier in your career. And that as you go through and you gain more experience like you did. You start to get things that you’re like, Hey, I like this, or Hey, I want to take that.

Or, Hey, maybe that’s not the right thing that works for him, but it may not work for me. And so you start to kind of build your coaching philosophy. So after Lipscomb, obviously as you said, you’re there, you gain all that knowledge. The COVID situation clearly puts a damper on some of that time there, but as you said, it’s still an opportunity to grow.

Talk about the opportunity at Davis Elkins. How does that come across your desk and what’s the process for making the decision to go and take that job as an assistant coach?

[00:48:01] Daniel Harris: Well, again, going back my, again, going back to how I got here yeah, you have to rewind all the way back to high school. So when I was a senior, when I talked about I didn’t have a lot of recruitment, I, I did take a, a, a visit to Edgar College, which is in St.

Pete. And. My coach, coach Ryan, who was on the visit. So the kid that was my host on the visit was Woody Taylor. Woody Taylor had just finished. He was a point guard at Eckard. They were winning a lot of games. He had just graduated. But again, remember I talked about everything that I did in my recruiting process.

I wanted to be into coaching. So when I told coach Ryan, I said, Hey, I want to get into coaching. This is, I do, he set me up with Woody Taylor, which who is my host at Ecker. So got to know him. And to fast forward a couple years, he got into coaching. He was at Marshall as a ga, he was at Salem, and then now he is the assistant at UNC.

Asheville was up through Cookman, but he, he’s a really good assistant. And when I was at Lipscomb now to fast forward, I say, Hey I reached out to my contacts. I, one thing I did not like is the operational stuff, like getting the food and getting all the buses.  I love the basketball piece of it.

But I really wanted to get on the road. I wanted to be an assistant. So I reached out to my contacts, reached out to Woody. Me and Woody stayed in touch through all those years from 2013 all the way up. And it was funny, I was at I had a couple of offers division three school to go be an assistant in Woody was actually really close friends with Coach Ma Dragon coach Ma, dragon.

They were both in Daytona at Daytona Beach or Daytona at the same time. Woody was at the Cookman when Coach Ma Dragon was an assistant at Emory Riddle and also at DME Academy. And so that’s how that connection worked. But Woody’s like, Hey look, I got an opportunity at Davidson Elkins, right? It’s in West Virginia.

I’m like, oh man, West Virginia. I dunno if I really want to be in West Virginia. But and he’s like. First of all, the one thing he always told me, he’s like, one, don’t ever chase the money. Right? That was one thing that I’ve, I’ve learned especially as a, as a early coach, is never, you’re never going to make a lot of money early.

You’re never going to make a lot of money early. And you want to be under good people and learn from great people and work for great people. And and I said, all right, Woody, I’m trusting you on this. Like, I’m going to go to Davis now because the Coachman dragon. And so going back to that, I say all that, that’s why a lot of these connections the coaching world is all about connections, right?

And well, and making sure you stay in touch with all of them. And that’s how I actually ended up here at d and e with the connection that I had all the way back from high school and a recruiting visit. Right.  I stayed in contact. But man, what a, what a blessing it was to be able to work for Coach Mon Dragon.

He was, when he took the job here at 28. Two years prior.  DE was not a very good basketball program in historically. Just, just quite honestly horrible. And I just to see his vision that first year, to see the vision that he had.  the players that we had, we had really great dudes.

They were just so tightly knitted.  we didn’t, even in my first year here, we didn’t win a lot of games. We won I think eight games. We had a lot of injuries. But going, it’s, it’s funny going back to what you had mentioned earlier, is about just being where you are and working really hard and not looking for the next opportunity.

And so I just enjoy being with Coach. He’s a, he is a coach mon. He’s a great human being, great to work for. We were just on so much, we were synchronized in a lot of different areas.  just we had, I told, I told my assistants the other day my, like, probably about. A month into the season.

 we had some really bad practices my first year as an assistant, and we’re like, I know I get a lot of my ideas in the shower. So I wake up, I go to the office and I look at Coach Morag and I say, Hey, coach, I got an idea. He is like, he coach comes to me, he’s, Hey, I got an idea what we should do for practice.

And I looked at him, I said, I know what your idea is, coach. I, he’s said, no, you don’t. No you don’t. I said, I under hundred percent know what you’re going to ask me. He said, all right, write it down a piece of paper. So I write my idea down, I folded it up. I said, all right, coach, you tell me what your idea was.

He’s like, how about we get into practice gear, we practice today? And I turned it over and I said. We’re, I said, practice with the team. And so that was kind of the synchronized and the synergy that we had during my three years with coach. And just being able to learn from him. He was a defensive minded coach, but I was able to bring some of that, the line, the Linea cuff offense in and the teachings that helped us kind of build this program and mo those three years with him were phenomenal.

And just being able to build it from ground up and really changing how DE is perceived in the league and, and just the respect that we’re starting to get. We’re not done. We’re still going to continue to grow and build this thing. But man, I was just so blessed to be able to be around him and learn from him.

And again, for him giving this opportunity to be here.

[00:53:04] Mike Klinzing: Tell me a little bit about switching from one area to the country, which you’ve done.  again, you’re Florida, you go to Lipscomb, and then you’re, then you’re in West Virginia. In terms of, I always think about this when it comes to recruiting, right? And being able to have connections and context, and obviously the recruiting world much different even from when you started as a college coach.

Mm-hmm. Right? The portal, not nearly as much of a factor. NIL didn’t exist back when you started, so there’s all these different things that have come into play, but I still always feel like, man, it’s have to be an adjustment to go from, here you are in Florida, you got all these contacts,  people, you got people you can reach out to.

Boom. All of a sudden now here you are in West Virginia and you’re like, I don’t know any high school basketball coaches in West Virginia. I have to make all new contacts with a a u guys and all that stuff. So just tell me a little bit about that kind of adjustment going from job to job.

[00:53:54] Daniel Harris: Yeah, so the funny part was that when I was an ops guy at Lip Stone, I didn’t really do a lot of recruiting.

I was just, I was not really reaching out and I wish I right. Looking back, I wish I did use that, that D one tag to recruit. But because Coach Mon Dragon was actually from Florida, I was from Florida, we recruited the state of Florida heavy and got a lot of guys up to West Virginia and we, the Florida guys did us very well.

But you’re right.  we like everywhere you go getting those local connections for us.  West Virginia, Maryland Virginia is really important for us from that local standpoint. And but the good thing about kind of moving all over the place in, in the coaching world is the bigger your, your network and the bigger your contacts are, the normally the better players that you can get or at least have an idea who they are.

And so for me, I’m still growing that. I’m still learning that.  and the recruiting piece is, is fun.  it’s, it’s, and again, for us it’s a little different.  us being in West Virginia in the mountains, it, it does take a certain type of kid and that will enjoy being here.

 and we’ve had really good players that wanted to stay in our program and just fell in love with what we were doing and what the school is doing as well.  you really just have to get to know the kids and their families to make sure it’s a right fit. And so it’s not, it’s not always going to be perfect.

But we, we definitely have had again, really good players that have helped us build this thing. Over the years. But yeah, recruiting is, is never, there’s no, there’s no black and white to recruiting. You really, you really have to make it your own in terms of how you recruit  your own swag, your own way of doing it.

And again, you just have to be yourself in the recruiting process with, with kids.

[00:55:35] Mike Klinzing: Makes sense. Tell me a little bit about the transition from assistant to head coach. What’s that like for you? First of all, just making the transition from assistant to having your first head coaching job. And then I always think that there’s some guys take over a program like you did where you go from an assistant to a head coach, where now the players saw you in one role.

Mm-hmm. Now they have to transition to seeing you. In a different role, which I know there’s always challenges there. And then you also have some guys who get a job from the outside and come into a whole new program. So those players didn’t see them as an assistant, they just see them as the new head coach.

So just tell me a little bit about that transition for you from assistant to head coach and how you had to navigate going from again, right, as the assistant, you’re the confidant, right? Players are coming to you, they’re talking to you about this, that the other thing. Suddenly as the head coach, all those conversations go silent, right?

Nobody’s, nobody’s coming to you with, Hey, what can I do to get more? It’s, it, it becomes a little different. Just talk to me a little bit about getting the job and then how you navigated the transition from assistant to head coach within a, within the same program.

[00:56:45] Daniel Harris: Honestly, it was very, very frustrating. I hated it at first.

I hated the fact that. They didn’t come to me with their problems and issues. I really love those conversations. I love being able to sit down and say, Hey, what’s going on? Right? And now for me this year, I’ve made a more conservative effort. Hey, let me go out and see how you’re doing, meet you at your dorm room, go to lunch.

Take them to lunch, and be a little bit more  proactive in that way. But as an assistant, it comes to you. Right? And so It was really hard for me to not get those conversations anymore. And it, that, that was a struggle to be honest, because I’m like, man, why? Why am I not, why are they not coming to me with their problems?

How can I help them? Because I want to help, right? And I think a lot of times, guys, they’re so worried about, oh, this is going to affect my playing time, yada yada, nine, nine times out of 10. It’s not if you’re having some type of issue with. Outside or, or non basketball related, even basketball league come talk to me.

Literally, I have an open door like I really want the guys to come talk to me. So I did struggle with that a lot last year with not being able to be that confident that comforting voice. And then kind of always being the guy that always put out the punishments as the assistant you can give the, you can give all the suggestions you want, right?

Like it, but it’s the head coach’s choice to either go with that suggestion, but they have to execute that suggestion as well. So if it’s putting them on the line for, because they’re late or whatever it may be, I’m always the discipline guy. So they don’t really, they don’t feel like they can always come talk to me and open up.

So especially this year, I’ve been really more intentional in that way because I want our guys to feel like, man, I’m still, I’m still a human being. I’m still a great person to be around just because I’m hard on you and want you to be good, or we’re, we’re disciplining you. Doesn’t mean I don’t love you and I don’t care about you.

And so that was the hardest thing. I think the next hardest thing going from an assistant to a head coach was just the amount of decisions that you have to make on a daily to day basis.  from recruiting, from gear, from all the administrative stuff. Okay, what does this look like?

How are you going to do this? How are we going to build this?  there’s so many decisions that are made and it, it, it got mentally draining last year because I wasn’t prepared for the amount of decisions that had to come with being a head coach. So and again, that’s why that’s why the great ones are really good.

 the Coach Ks, the bill selfs, those guys are making daily, daily, daily decisions every single day. And they’re really good at it and that’s why everybody can’t be a great head coach because those decisions affect. 18 or 20 people that are underneath you. And so  those were some of the challenges.

But the good thing that when I took over and again, being here for three years the administration being having confidence in me to continue to lead this program.  the great thing is when we, when Coach Mondragon left, the guys that we had, we had a good core group of guys returning.

We had only really lost one guy to graduation. So the last year’s team, we added a few pieces and, but we added a few pieces. So that team was, they, they were used to me already in terms of how I, how I coach. And except for we, we had recruited two or three more guys, no new guys to come in the fold.

But it, it was a pretty, it was a pretty not easy transition, but it was, it was. It was kind of smooth it wasn’t like it was just something so something completely different.  we were doing some of the same stuff, teaching some of the same stuff in terms of like the strategy and how we’re going to build our defense and offense and stuff.

So a lot of our guys were able to pick up on all that stuff so it wasn’t like something brand new. But I think last year again, we had a really good group of, and we, our best player tours Achilles, halfway through the year. And I I truly believe if we had him, we probably would’ve won 18, 19 games and not go 12 and 18.

Like, that’s the difference in five or six games. And so we, we battled a lot of injuries last year, but again, we set, set a foundation of how I still want to continue to grow this thing. And  again, going back to Coach my dragon, he, he laid the foundation. In his five year tenure.

I’m just here to just to be, continue to build on it. And again, I’m blessed a lot of people don’t walk into a situation like that where they have a foundation of guys that have been here and I’ve been here for three years, we’ve laid it and now you’re just building, right?

And, and so I’m happy about that. And again, I made a lot of mistakes in my fresh in my first year as a head coach.  I look back over the summer, I’m like, man, this is what I could do a little better.  going into this year I’m a little bit different I’m a little bit, a little bit harder or pushing guys a little bit.

 I think last year I was like, man, do, do these guys really like me?  do they how they feel about me? Nah, you, I really don’t care this year as much, right? I still care as you, as a, as a basketball player, but I’m going to push you past your limits. So I think that’s where it’s a little bit different this year.

And the guys are responding, which is great. And again, I think our team is continu to take strides and we had really. Two really good weeks this past two weeks of where we’re going. So but yeah, the transition was different. It is, is definitely hard. You’re never ready to move six inches over and you think you are until you’re in that seat.

And so it has been great. And again, I’m blessed to be able to be a head coach of the Division two basketball program.

[01:02:17] Mike Klinzing: What’s something that you learned about yourself last year when you sat down at the end of the season over the summer and you’re reflecting on, Hey, this year, first year as a head coach, here’s what went well, here’s what maybe I would’ve done differently.

What’s something that when you look back now, you’re saying to yourself, I know this about myself as a head coach, no matter where I go, no matter what happens, no matter what kind of team I have, I know this one thing about myself as a head coach.

[01:02:46] Daniel Harris: One thing that I learned, I kind of touched on it, is being okay with uncomfortable conversations and being okay with.

Them not liking me in the moment. And under them understanding that, yeah, you might not like me right now, but you’re going to love me when it’s all said and done. And that, that was the hardest piece. Because I want in my nature, I want people to, I want to give back. I want people to like me, but understanding that, that that’s not always going to be the case.

As you’re a head coach, you’re not going to make everybody happy. You just can’t when you have 18 or 19 guys on roster, you just, it’s almost impossible to keep everybody happy. But you have to do it for the program. And you have to do it for where you’re trying to build this thing this thing.

And even for the kids, you, you just, you have to push them past their limits. And so  for me, I have so much more to learn. And I want to absorb, like this summer, just continue to listen to podcasts, listen to different people  in clinics, just because I want to be. As great of a basketball coach, I can be for Davis and Elkins College, right?

 I don’t want this thing to go back to where it was five years ago where we weren’t, we were barely winning five, six games like I that I want to win, have winning seasons. I want to win 20 games. I want to get, we’ve never been to the NCA tournament here. Like there’s things that still need to be checked off our list here at Davis and Elkin.

So I have to get better every single, every single day and every single summer.  one thing I think when you’re. I learned this big time is you have to put the right people around you, right? From a staff standpoint. And so the staff that I have this year is unbelievable.

Coach jc has been, who’s my full-time assistant now, this year has been a phenomenal, and then it was able to hire two other great guys, coach Jay, coach Ford, and Sam Roll, who actually played for me. Our staff is just so much better, so much well connected. And our guys see that, right?  I think that was a, a little bit of a struggle last year is our, our staff we weren’t as connected as we were.

 when you have a connected staff, your team becomes a little bit more connected. And so that was another thing that I learned is making sure that you put the right people around you to help elevate you, but also help you when times get hard to have your back at all times. So  that’s, that’s definitely one area that we’ve upgraded this year, and I will continue to keep an, an upgrade as I, as I become a head coach for years to come.

[01:05:14] Mike Klinzing: How do you designate roles for your assistants and figure out who does what? What does that look like from your decision making, and then also from the conversations that you have with your staff in terms of strengths that they bring to the table, things that they like to do. Just how do you designate who does what.

[01:05:31] Daniel Harris: I think a lot of times it’s just. I asked them, Hey, like, what, what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? And honestly, what do you want to do? I think a lot of times now I’m, I’m going to give them responsibilities that they don’t really want to do, to be honest. But like we had a staff, we had a staff meeting.

I said, okay, what side of the ball do, do you see when you just naturally watching the game on, on on TNT or an ESPN?  some guys naturally watch defense, right? Some guys naturally watch offense. And so I asked Coach jc, I said, what side of the ball do you see the best? He’s like, oh, I see the defensive side of the ball.

All right, you’re going to be my defensive quarter, because that’s the side of the ball that you naturally see. And then coach Ford’s like, I like seeing offense. Well, you’re kind of divvy those tasks and again, . For and then Sam is going to be our, is our rebounding and our hustle guy.

And he was a really good player for us. So sometimes just say, Hey, what do you really want to do? Or what do you see? And then of course also looking back, okay, what are their strengths and weaknesses are as a staff? What can they do? What can they learn? And then giving them some things that will help them be better coaches, better, better assistants and all of them want to be head coaches one day, right.

And giving them those tasks. I think even with Sam he, he was a really good player for us for five years. He averaged 18 and seven. He, he’s from Florida he stayed in the program you don’t see that much at all, is a guy that averaged 18 and stayed a, at a school for five years, especially division two school.

And I was blessed enough, he is the one that tours Achilles last year and he became like our third assistant. And we do have a developmental team, a JB team. And man, I’ve given him that, that role of, hey, you’re going to be a head coach one day. Because he has it, he has that it factor. He has that ability to command a practice.

So I’ve given him the responsibility of the JV program and he’s ran with it, and he, he’s going to be mark my words, mark October 3rd at, at 1245. Sam will be a really good basketball coach and the head coach one day. Because he just, he has that it factor. So giving those, those guys the ability to have some of those head coaching responsibilities or having some of those responsibilities that they’re going to see when they get that opportunity because that’s what they coach Mon Dragon did for me, right?

As, as, as I was learning under him.  there was times where he just, he said, yo, go make a practice plan. Go, go run practice, and I don’t care what you do, just run it and do it well. Right? And so giving those guys those responsibilities so that they can learn and grow so that they’re, they’re ready for their opportunity when their time is called.

So but yeah, again, our staff is phenomenal. And again, I’m so excited about this year coming up.

[01:08:13] Mike Klinzing: What does practice planning look like for you? Are you sitting down by yourself at your desk on the computer? Are you writing it down? Is it a, is it a collective effort between you and the staff? Just what’s the process for putting together a great practice?

[01:08:27] Daniel Harris: So last year it was by myself, and that was, that was, that was a lot. And so this year it is a collective effort. I have an idea of what I want to do but it is normally I, I make the practice plan of what I want to do, what I think needs to be done. Then we meet as a, as a staff and I say, okay, what do we do for practice?

And I get all their ideas and then I might go back and change it, right? Or put some different things in. So.  it is a collective effort in terms of what needs to be done. I mean, at the end of the day, I tell my staff, I said, you guys can gimme suggestions. I’m not going to always take them, but I’m going to listen.

Right.  if you continue to gain my trust in doing the small task, and then when it’s time for that suggestion, I’m going to trust that what you’re saying is a good thing for our program. And so I’m really big on, on it being a, a, a team thing from a staff standpoint  practices for us, I’ve kind of took in it’s structured.

I, I loved how Coach AOV structured his practices. So we always do about 20 minutes of skill development if his ball handling, passing, shooting the first 20 to 25 minutes and then we’ll go into our defensive fundamentals. We’re about 10 minutes of like closeouts or just working on different things.

And then we do our defensive segment, then we go into transition offense at the end. So that’s kind of how we structure practice. But  a lot of it, again, it, it’s taken those ideas. From my assistants. because they’ve been a really, they’ve, they’ve won coach jcs won at Point Park under Kevin Reynolds, who’s a heck of a basketball coach.

Coach Ford was really good at Macomb Community College. They were top five in the country the last two years and Sam has won here as a player. So they, they have that winning pedigree. So I want to listen to what they’ve, they’ve learned from their previous stops. And  the cool thing about, it’s like they’re bringing me so many ideas and so many different things that we’re applying to our program this year.

And it’s been phenomenal, right? Things that I never even thought of. I’m like, oh, that’s really good. And so we’re implementing that. And I think at the end of the day, as an assistant, you want to be, listen, you not necessarily idea at.

To make it a masterpiece at the end of the day, like this is a team thing. I know I’m the head guy. I know I’m the one that makes all the decisions at the end of the day. But I think when you can take so many different, different ideas, it it’s al it’s so amazing what you can put together, especially for your team.

[01:10:58] Mike Klinzing: I think that’s hard to do, especially when you’re a young coach, right? Because you’ve got all your ideas that you’ve been building up over your time as an assistant coach, and then you also, because it’s your name on the program, especially for the first time, you want to have your hand in all that stuff, right?

It’s hard to say, Hey, you just take the defense, or Hey, you just take this drill or you just, that’s hard to do, I think. And I think as you get more experienced and. You, you become more comfortable delegating. That’s one of the things that I hear all the time is that that delegation piece doesn’t come naturally.

Right. Even I’m sure for you, even when you, even when you give it to somebody, you’re still like, oh, yo, hundred percent can I, can I really do that? And yet everybody that I talk to that has gotten to that point just talks about how valuable it is because of what you just said, which is all those guys are bringing their own ideas, right?

That you can’t, you can’t have every idea from every program in the country. You just haven’t been around all those. So that’s why you hire a staff is to bring in those new thoughts and ideas. And then as you said, you as the head coach, you take those ideas, you think about them, you consider them, and then either you take that suggestion or you don’t, and you ultimately make the decision.

Right. But I do think that that delegation piece is one that. Is important. And yet at the same time, I’ve, I know how hard that is. I know, I know how difficult it is to give up any piece of it. Especially when you feel like I got this, this is what I, this is what I’ve been waiting for, and I, I got it.

And then to say I got it, and then I’m going to give it to somebody else. That’s tough.

[01:12:34] Daniel Harris: Yeah, it is tough. But one thing I I, somebody told me this one day, when you delegate, right? Or you want it to be, you give a task or you give an assignment. Are you teaching that person how you want it to be done?

Right. So if it’s not done the right way or how I expected it, then I look at myself, did I give the right instructions? Did I show them how it should be done? Right? So I think the biggest part of delegation is, are you teaching? The person how you want it to be done. If you’re not teaching them how you want it to be done, then you’re just going to take it over.

Right? So I think that’s the biggest piece, and I struggled with that last year, is like, I didn’t teach my assistants how I wanted things to be done, so then it didn’t get done and then I just took it and then I just did it. Right? And so this year is like, okay, being more intentional, Hey, this is how I want it to be done.

This is how we’re going to teach it. This is how we’re going to teach the fundamentals or whatever. And then if it doesn’t get done right, okay, did I not explain it right or did they just not do it right? Right. So I think that’s the piece of delegation that I think a lot of people miss is are you, are those instructions given the right way at how you want it to be done?

But again, there’s times where they just don’t do it right either. But I think. From my experiences being under what Coach Acuff he had a great staff, like that staff was unbelievable. Being with Coach Jasick, that staff was under be unbelievable. And seeing everybody do their different jobs at a high level, at whatever their responsibilities were, that’s when you become a very efficient staff, right?

When e everybody has their own niche or their own responsibilities and do it at a high level, that’s where you can really put it all together. So I was just blessed enough, again, to be under people that were doing it the right way, that were winning the right way and having  having all that, I was able to see it firsthand.

And again, you’re right, it’s very hard when you’re a, a second year head coach to delegate. It’s very hard. And, but at the end of the day, I, especially the staff that I have this year, they want to help me. They want to have my back. So if I know that it, it’s easy to give stuff off because I know they’re going to do it for me and make sure that it’s going to get done.

[01:14:46] Mike Klinzing: Heading into year two. Looking ahead. Final two part question, part one, what do you see as being your biggest challenge over the next year or two? And then second part of the question, when you think about what you get to do every single day, what brings you the most joy? So start with your biggest challenge, and then we’ll follow that up with your biggest joy.

[01:15:08] Daniel Harris: I think the biggest challenge for me is

trying to accomplish things that have never been done here at Davis and Elkins.  we’ve, we have a really good league west Liberty has ran the league for the last 15, 20 years.  Fairmont. The biggest challenge this year, going into next year or whatever, is taking that next jump for us to get to the top half of the league, first or second, get into the NCAA tournament.

That’s the, I think because it hasn’t been done here, that’s the biggest challenge right now for us. And staying up there, right? Being consistently in the, at the top of the league that, that and then of course just keeping our culture and really coaching that is always a challenge because you don’t want slippage, right?

You, you always have to find, make sure you don’t have slippage and guys not doing what they’re supposed to, and continue to build the things that Coach Mon Dragon set and that we built. I think that’s the biggest challenge. And so that, and then your second part, the biggest joy man, I, I tell people this all the time.

I don’t, I don’t work a day in my life. Like what I’m doing is a hobby, and I’m just so happy to be getting paid for it. And just to be able to say I’m, I’m a African American coach at 30 years old with a division two head job I wouldn’t have never thought this would’ve happened 5, 6, 7 years ago.

Right. And just being able to I have another job on campus that I really love. I work in student life. Like, I don’t, I don’t work a day in my life. Even if it might me going on a recruiting trip or me putting on an event on campus. It is just so fun being able to interact with the people on campus, with our staff, with our students.

 I’m, again, I’m just so blessed to say, Hey, I’m not working. I’m really just having a, a, a hobby that I’m just so happy to get paid a little money for. And I think when, and I tell kids this all the time, like, find something that you enjoy doing every single day. And if you can make money doing that, then your life will be fulfilling, right?

If you’re going to go do a job, a nine to five job that you hate every single day, you’re going to be miserable. You’re going to be miserable, unfortunately, and sometimes it happens. You have to do a job that you, you have to give the money to survive. I get that. But if you can find something that you enjoy and that you can survive off of from a financially, you, your, your purpose in life, you will be for more fulfilling.

And then of course, me being a teacher, me being a coach, I’m able to impact these young men like from 18 to 22, 23 years old. This is, this is the most important time of their lives where they’re going to go one way or the other. Right? Good or bad. Whatever career they’re going into, this is setting them up for the next.

20 to 30 years, and I’m so blessed to be able to say, I can help mold, help grow, help guide these young men into that.  like when I got here at DE five years ago, we had a a, a class, that freshman class, they came in with me and all of them stayed all four years. And to see them go across the stage, see them move on to the next one of them is having had a baby the other day and I’m, I can’t wait to go to go down to Florida and just go hang out with the, his newborns newborn boy.

Right.  seeing those progressions, because those guys they, they, their, their, their journey wasn’t straight. It was ups and downs, not playing, playing, getting maybe getting a little trouble on camp.  it wasn’t, it wasn’t perfect at all. But to see them walk across that stage to see them doing what they love to see them continue to go on forth and pay it forward be good husbands.

That’s what it’s all about. And coach. Coach Carroll and coach always told me, you always want to make sure you have a, are you going to have a empty funeral or a full funeral? Right. When you, when you pass away, how many people are you impacting are going to come back and say, man, he was a good man. Right. It is not about the money, it’s not about anything.

Are you going to have so much of an impact on the people around you every single day? Are you going to have a full funeral or empty funeral? And I think that’s, at the end of the day, if you, you’re just a good person and you, you, you just want to help people and build people up, you are going to have so much life and fulfillment.

And that’s just kind of how I’ve always been. And that’s how I see life every day and, and want people to just continue to go forth and, and be good people.

[01:19:49] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. There’s two really powerful things that you said there, Daniel. One is, if you could give everyone the gift of. Having a job like you have that you love to go to every day, that it doesn’t feel like a job and you can earn a living.

There’d be no better gift than we could give to every human being in the world than that. And then the second thing is being able to make the kind of impact that you talked about and being able to use the game of basketball, which you love. To be able to do that type of work in the world to be able to have that kind of impact.

I always feel like, and I’ve said this numerous times on the podcast, that I can never give basketball back what basketball has given me, right? And so whether it’s through the podcast or through camps or whatever it is that I’m still doing with the game, it’s my small way of giving back and try to make an impact.

But there’s nothing more meaningful than being able to do that with the game that I love. And those are the two things that, those are two powerful themes that came through our entire conversation, and you did an awesome job there of kind of summarizing your philosophy and who you are as a person and who you are as a basketball coach.

So thank you for that. Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how can people reach out to you, connect with you, find out more about you and your program, whether you want to share social media, email, website, whatever you feel comfortable with. And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:21:09] Daniel Harris: Yeah. The best way to contact me is either email or Twitter. I always forget my Twitter name. I guess I should remember it. But email is harrisd2@dewv.edu Or you can contact me on my Twitter @Coach_d_Harris is the best way to contact me. And again, I’m an open book and, I’m not going to sit here and say I’ve been here for 30, 40 years and I know all the answers.

I don’t. But I’m more than happy to connect with coaches, learn, talk out. I love talking ball. And I tell my assistants, we just sit here and talk ball for two, three hours. I’m okay with that. And so but yes, please reach out.  if come to open practices, come to practices or anything like that, if you’re inside the West Virginia area, more than happy to open it up and, and connect.

And like I said, I want to help. And again, I’m not a finished product, so please don’t, don’t think I am. And I, hopefully in 20 or 30 years you guys are going to be like, man, that, that young man was really good to me and able to give back. So

[01:22:22] Mike Klinzing: Daniel, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule today to jump on and join us.

Really appreciate it. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.

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Each section of the portfolio guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner. The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify, and add to your personal portfolio. As a Hoop Heads Pod listener, you can get your coaching portfolio guide for just $25.

Visit coaching portfolio guide.com/hoopheads to learn more.

[01:23:26] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.