May 26—CHAMPAIGN — Simon Harris is reuniting with Shauna Green.
The Illinois women’s basketball team announced Green had hired Harris to be an assistant coach on her staff on Tuesday.
Harris, who replaces Jackie Alexander on the Illini coaching staff, comes from North Carolina State. He returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach for the Wolfpack during the 2025-26 season.
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“I am so excited to have Simon join our (family),” Green said in a statement. “Simon is someone who I’ve known for over 10 years, and he brings a wealth of experience to our team. … Simon will help us immediately in all aspects of our program. It’s always special when you can bring someone that has worked with multiple people on our staff before back to your program. His familiarity with our culture and system will make the transition very smooth. Simon has a broad skill set and is a winner. We can’t wait to get to work.”
Harris was an assistant coach under Green at Dayton from 2014-2018. With the Flyers, he was also on staff with current Illinois assistant coaches Calamity McEntire and DeAntoine Beasley. That meant Harris was also part of the Dayton team that made a run to the Elite Eight of the 2015 NCAA tournament.
The Pittsburgh native also has prior experience as a head coach at East Tennessee State during the 2021-22 season, as well as women’s basketball assistant coaching stops at Loyola Chicago, Ohio State and two separate stints as an assistant at N.C. State. Harris has worked on the men’s basketball side, as well, as an assistant coach on Archie Miller’s Dayton staffs for three seasons.
“What’s been built here at Illinois is incredible, and I don’t take lightly the chance to be a part of the (family),” Harris said. “This program continues to make its mark in the Big Ten and reuniting with Coach Green and the rest of the staff feels like coming full circle. I am so blessed and looking forward to helping this program continue to grow.”
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Alexander took a job to be the head women’s basketball coach at Morehead State back in April, freeing up an open position on Green’s staff. Alexander’s primary responsibility in Champaign was coaching forwards, and Harris has prior experience tutoring frontcourt players.
