PC Friar standout Marcus Douthit to replace Rick Harris as CCRI men's basketball coach
WARWICK — Former Providence Friar standout Marcus Douthit will take the reins of the CCRI men's basketball program this fall, the school has announced, taking over for longtime coach Rick Harris.
Harris, the third coach in the program’s history, won 301 games over 15 seasons (2006-22 , excluding 2020–21 when the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Harris finished with a .638 win percentage, second only to Hall of Fame coach Vin Cullen, and led the Knights to eight Region XXI championships, three Northeast District championships, and four appearances in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Tournament appearances (2007–08, 2011–12, 2019–20, and 2021–22), including a trip to the National Championship game in 2011–12. Prior to his CCRI tenure, Harris spent more than 20 years coaching high school basketball in Rhode Island, mostly at Cranston East.
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“Rick has had an outstanding coaching career at CCRI and is a first-class individual,” said CCRI Director of Athletics Kevin Salisbury. “We are certainly grateful to Rick for his work with the men's basketball program and the way in which he represented the college through his tenure."
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Douthit will begin the season as the interim head coach. He played professionally for 14 seasons and joined CCRI in 2019–20 under Harris, At PC, Douthit played four seasons under head coach Tim Welsh (2000–04), appeared in the 2004 NCAA Tournament for the fifth-seeded Friars, and earned the team’s Marvin Barnes Defensive Player Award in his junior and senior seasons.
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He was a second-round selection in the 2004 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, Douthit played professionally in Belgium, Turkey, Russia, Asia, and the Philippines in addition to one year in the then NBA Development League for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds under head coach and former Laker Michael Cooper in 2005–06.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ex-Friar Marcus Douthit to replace Rick Harris as CCRI hoops coach
