Jim Harrick

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Jim Harrick (born July 25, 1938 in Charleston, West Virginia) is a former college basketball head coach who coached at Pepperdine University, UCLA, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Georgia.

Harrick graduated in 1960 from Morris Harvey College, now known as the University of Charleston. He is of Lebanese ancestry.

Contents 1 Coaching Career 1.1 Controversies 1.2 Awards 2 See also

[edit] Coaching Career

Harrick's coaching career began at Morningside High School in Inglewood, California where he served as an assistant coach from 1964-1969 and as head coach from 1970-1973. He was then hired as an assistant coach at Utah State from 1974-1977. Harrick then spent two seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA from 1978-1979. His first collegiate head coaching job was at Pepperdine University in 1979, where he led the school to four NCAA Tournament appearances and was a conference coach of the year four times.

In 1988, he returned to UCLA to assume head coaching duties after the firing of Walt Hazzard. During the recruiting period before his first season, he recruited Don MacLean which was the most significant recruit to commit to UCLA in several years and helped start a revival of the basketball program. During the 1994-1995 season, he led UCLA to the school's eleventh national championship in school history and its first since the 1974-75 season. Shortly before the start of the 1996-97 season, he was accused of falsifying receipts at a student-athlete recruiting dinner, although the NCAA exonerated Harrick of this offense. UCLA fired him for lying to university investigators. He is the second-winningest coach in UCLA history, behind only John Wooden.

After a one-year hiatus, Harrick returned to coaching by accepting the head coach position at Rhode Island. He coached the Rams for two seasons (from 1997-99), where in both years they qualified for the NCAA Tournament. During the 1998 tournament, the Rams upset Kansas in the second round and reached the Midwest Regional finals but were defeated by Stanford 79-77. In his second season, he managed to recruit Lamar Odom and led the Rams to their first Atlantic 10 Conference title ever.

After the season, he left URI to become the head coach at the University of Georgia. He served there for four seasons (1999-00 through 2002-03), leading the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament twice following a losing record. He resigned from his position and retired from coaching after several scandals during his reign at Georgia came to public light.

He is now serving as a college basketball analyst for the southern California affiliate of Fox Sports Net, FSN Prime Ticket.

On June 13, 2006, Harrick accepted a basketball coaching job with the Bakersfield Jam, a NBA Development League team. [1]

[edit] Controversies

While Harrick has been an extremely successful coach, his checkered history led to his departure from the college coaching profession. He was investigated at UCLA and fired for filing false expense reports. At Rhode Island he had been accused of sexual misconduct with a secretary in the athletic offices and of giving players access to privileges not permitted by NCAA regulations.

At Georgia, Harrick got into further trouble for paying of the $300 phone bill of one of his players, Tony Cole. His son Jim Harrick, Jr. was also found to have provided an easy exam to Georgia basketball players for a class that he taught. Georgia's basketball program pulled itself from the 2003 SEC and NCAA Tournaments in the midst of the controversy, and was forced to forfeit 30 wins from 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 as well as one scholarship for the next 3 seasons. [2]

[edit] Awards

• 1999: Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship (Rhode Island)
• 1995: NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship (UCLA)
• 1995: National Coach of the Year (Naismith, NABC)
• 1992, 1995-1996: Pac 10 Conference Championship (UCLA)
• 1992, 1995-1996: Pac 10 Coach of the Year (UCLA)
• 1990: Morris Harvey College-University of Charleston Golden Eagle Sports Hall of Fame
• 1981-1983, 1985-1986: West Coast Athletic Conference Championship (Pepperdine)
• 1982-1983, 1985-1986: West Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year (Pepperdine)

• 14-Time NCAA Division I Tournament
• Winning Percentage: 451-227 (.665)

[edit] See also

• List of Head Men's Basketball Coaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Preceded by Gary Colson	Pepperdine Head Men's Basketball Coach 1979 – 1988	Succeeded by Tom Asbury
Preceded by Walt Hazzard	UCLA Head Men's Basketball Coach 1988 – 1996	Succeeded by Steve Lavin
Preceded by Ron Jirsa	Georgia Head Men's Basketball Coach 1999 – 2003	Succeeded by Dennis Felton