Auburn football: WBB coach Johnnie Harris shows Tiger pride at A-Day

Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin isn’t the new kid on the block any more thanks to the arrival of new women’s basketball head coach Johnnie Harris. The new leader of the Lady Tigers made her debut to the Auburn family at Jordan-Hare Stadium for Saturday’s spring game.

Similar to the Gus Malzahn-Bryan Harsin changeup in the Auburn football program, the university and fans are hoping Harris’ tenure on the Plains will be the beginning of a new era, one that sees the Auburn women’s basketball program climb out of the rut after finishing the worst season in program history. Harris is known for her recruiting prowess and has held coaching positions in several successful programs prior to arriving on the Plains.

Most recently, Coach Harris spent a year at the University of Texas as associate head coach of the women’s basketball team, and before that spent eight years at Mississippi State where she took part in leading the team to win an SEC title and appear in five NCAA Tournaments, two of which included NCAA Championship Game appearances.

Since arriving at Auburn, Coach Harris has hired three assistants to her coaching staff, all of whom were introduced on Pat Dye Field before today’s A-Day game:

The first coaching assistant hired was Ketara Chapel, who spent last year at Texas with Coach Harris and before that played and coached at Mississippi State for six years. Damitria Buchanon, a.k.a. Coach D, arrives on the Plains after a six-year run as an assistant coach at Kansas. She played for Coach Harris during her time at Texas A&M between 2007-2012.

Bob Starkey marks the third assistant coach and is widely considered to be one of the greatest minds in college basketball according to AuburnTigers.com. Starkey spent nine seasons as an assistant at Texas A&M and has over 30 years of experience in the SEC.

The addition of such respected assistant coaches is another step in the right direction for Auburn women’s basketball and Coach Harris.