Chris Harriman was named associate head coach at the University of New Mexico in April of 2015. Harriman helps oversee all aspects of the program, including scheduling, recruiting, and player development.
Harriman joined the Lobos after spending the previous three seasons as an assistant coach with the Nebraska Cornhuskers under Tim Miles. Harriman has also been a part of coaching staffs at Saint Louis and Nova Southeastern prior to his time at Nebraska.
The only assistant to remain on staff after a head-coach change in 2017, Harriman’s most recent season with the Lobos was one to remember. Under first-year head coach Paul Weir in 2017-18, Harriman helped the Lobos finish third in the Mountain West in the regular season after being selected to finish ninth overall. The Lobos earned a Mountain West Tournament first-round bye and reached the conference title game for the first time since 2014. Harriman helped senior Antino Jackson to All-Mountain West Defensive Team honors en route to the epic run.
In his tenure at UNM, Harriman has helped guide eight NABC Honors Court awardees, eight Academic All-Conference players and helped the program to a record GPA of 3.03 in 2016, earning UNM the NABC Team Excellence Award. He has also mentored one All-Mountain West First Team honoree, one MW Newcomer of the Year and two CoSIDA Academic All-District honorees.
The Sydney, Australia native helped guide the Cornhuskers’ Terran Petteway, Shavon Shields and Dylan Talley into All-Big Ten selections in his three seasons in Lincoln. Petteway led the conference in scoring in 2013-14 and became the first Cornhusker to earn a league scoring title in six decades. NU also made the NCAA Tournament that same season for the first time in 15 years.
Harriman was an assistant coach under the late Rick Majerus at Saint Louis from 2008 to 2012 during the era of the Billikens’ resurgence with a pair of 20-win seasons. He assumed head coach duties at SLU for one game after Majerus was hospitalized and led the team to a 75-60 win over Duquesne. During his final season at SLU, the Billikens ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA in scoring defense, scoring margin, turnover margin and turnovers per game. They would go on to earn a NCAA Tournament berth where they would defeat Memphis in the first round.
Known as a strong recruiter, Harriman has landed numerous key international recruits from Australia and New Zealand in Rob Loe, Christian Salecich and Cody Ellis. He was the lead recruiter for four of SLU’s seven top scorers of the 2011-12 season.
He began his coaching career at Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. where he spent four seasons as an assistant. The Sharks tallied 48 wins in those four years. The 2005-06 NSU team finished with 17 wins, which marked the largest single-season NCAA Division II turnaround in 15 years.
After beginning his playing career in Australia, Harriman was a standout guard for the Augusta State (Ga.) Jaguars of the NCAA Division II’s Peach Belt Conference. ASU won 78 games with Harriman in a Jaguar uniform. He led the PBC in steals and was named the conference’s Player of the Week during his senior season. The guard helped guide Augusta State to PBC division titles and NCAA Tournament appearances. He wrapped up his college career with 627 points and 375 assists for the Jaguars before spending the 2003-04 season with the Hunter Valley Pirates. Harriman was the runner-up for the National Basketball League’s Rookie of the Year award for the Pirates as the top first-year player in Australia’s NBL.
Chris Harriman has one son (Avery) and two daughters (Kacee and Elsie). Harriman started the #AveryStrong campaign to raise funds and awareness for pediatric cancer in honor of his son’s battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.