From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Ray Harper (basketball)

American college basketball coach (born 1961)

Field	Value
name	Ray Harper
current_title	Head coach
current_team	Jacksonville State
current_conference	C-USA
current_record
birth_date
birth_place	Bremen, Kentucky, U.S.
player_years1	1980–1982
player_team1	Texas
player_years2	1983–1985
player_team2	Kentucky Wesleyan
coach_years1	1985–1989
coach_team1	Kentucky Wesleyan (assistant)
coach_years2	1989–1996
coach_team2	Kentucky Wesleyan (assoc. HC)
coach_years3	1996–2005
coach_team3	Kentucky Wesleyan
coach_years4	2005–2008
coach_team4	Oklahoma City
coach_years5	2009–2012
coach_team5	Western Kentucky (assistant)
coach_years6	2012–2016
coach_team6	Western Kentucky
coach_years7	2016–present
coach_team7	Jacksonville State
overall_record	(NCAA)

{{Winning percentage	95	17	record	y}} (NAIA)
tournament_record	1–4 (NCAA Division I)
27–5* (NCAA Division II)
14–1 (NAIA)
2–1 (CBI)
1–1 (NIT)
championships	2 NCAA Division II tournament (1999, 2001)
2 NAIA Men's Division I Tournament (2007, 2008)
2 Sun Belt tournament (2012, 2013)
OVC tournament (2017)
ASUN West Division (2022)
ASUN regular season (2022)
awards	7× Division II National Coach of the Year
ASUN Coach of the Year (2022)
C-USA Coach of the Year (2025)

(NAIA) 27–5* (NCAA Division II) 14–1 (NAIA) 2–1 (CBI) 1–1 (NIT) 2 NAIA Men's Division I Tournament (2007, 2008) 2 Sun Belt tournament (2012, 2013) OVC tournament (2017) ASUN West Division (2022) ASUN regular season (2022) ASUN Coach of the Year (2022) C-USA Coach of the Year (2025)

Lilburn Ray Harper Jr. (born October 11, 1961) is an American college basketball coach, currently head coach for Jacksonville State University. Previously, he was head coach at Oklahoma City University, Kentucky Wesleyan College, and Western Kentucky University. At Kentucky Wesleyan Harper compiled a 242–45 win–loss record.

He has been named the Division II National Coach of the Year seven times and won two national titles at Kentucky Wesleyan in 1999 and 2001.

Harper was named interim head coach at Western Kentucky on January 6, 2012, after Ken McDonald was fired. He was named permanent head coach on February 19, 2012, by then-athletic director Ross Bjork. He resigned from the position on March 17, 2016, following the permanent suspension of three of his players. Harper was subsequently hired at Jacksonville State on April 6, 2016, where he took the 2016–17 team to the school's first NCAA appearance.

Born in Greenville, Kentucky and a native of Bremen, Kentucky, Harper played collegiately at the University of Texas as a freshman and at Kentucky Wesleyan, during his sophomore-senior seasons, where he was named third team NABC All-American as a senior in 1985.

He is married to Shannon Harper, a WKU alumna.

Head coaching record

20 wins and 5 losses were vacated from the 2003–04 season and for the 2002–03 season; the school had to vacate the NCAA Division II runner-up and conference regular season championship.

References

(May 7, 2003). "USA Basketball: Ray Harper Bio". [[USA Basketball]].
West, Gary P.. (February 20, 2013). "King of the Hill". Kentucky Monthly.
(2006). "Ray Harper Bio". [[Oklahoma City University]].
"Western Kentucky (5-11) fires coach McDonald".
[https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7592699 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers remove interim tag from coach Ray Harper – ESPN]
(March 18, 2016). "WKU's Ray Harper resigns following suspension of three players after university disciplinary hearing".
(April 6, 2016). "Gamecocks Tab Ray Harper Next Men's Basketball Head Coach". [[Jacksonville State Gamecocks]].
"Men's Sports - Women's Sports".
"Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 2025-26 Regular Season NCAAM Schedule".
[https://web.archive.org/web/20101111094450/http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/conferences/standings/_/id/27/sun-belt-conference Sun Belt Conference Standings – College Basketball – ESPN]
https://admin.xosn.com/fls/5400/2012-13%20Men's%20Basketball/Game%20Notes/2013%20WKU%20NCAA%20Tournament%20Guide.pdf{{Dead link. (January 2026)
[https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/news/story?id=1581120 School plans no appeal to NCAA infractions – College Sports – ESPN]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1961-births living-people american-men's-basketball-coaches american-men's-basketball-players basketball-coaches-from-kentucky basketball-players-from-kentucky college-men's-basketball-head-coaches-in-the-united-states jacksonville-state-gamecocks-men's-basketball-coaches kentucky-wesleyan-panthers-men's-basketball-coaches kentucky-wesleyan-panthers-men's-basketball-players oklahoma-city-stars-men's-basketball-coaches people-from-greenville,-kentucky texas-longhorns-men's-basketball-players western-kentucky-hilltoppers-basketball-coaches 20th-century-american-sportsmen

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Ray Harper (basketball) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report