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Coaching India's team all fun and Games for Harris

Basketball truly is a universal language, Bill Harris discovered.

The former Wheaton College men's basketball coach, who between 1991-2009 compiled a record of 320-148 and produced the most 20-win seasons in Wheaton history, served as coach of the India Senior Men's National Team at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

“I really found out both culturally and basketball-wise how much I didn't know, even coaching 30 years,” Harris said.

“It was a tremendous learning experience for me, and I really loved it. I hope that my team and my players profited from it a fraction as much as I profited from it.”

The team's training center in Chennai (formerly Madras), and the Games in Guangzhou, China, from Nov. 12-27, presented a wealth of exotic experiences for a man who just last March was helping his former Wheaton assistant, Paul Ferguson, at Wheaton Academy.

To his surprise Harris was provided his own private car and driver, round-the-clock. He grudgingly enjoyed five-star lodgings, while the lower-caste players were housed elsewhere.

The opening ceremonies on the banks of the Pearl River were mind-blowing. So too in a small, strange way was the ability to walk into a barber's shop in the Games “village,” at any hour of the day and receive a haircut. For free.

With 87 foreign athletes playing in the NBA, however, it's a small world after all.

The National Basketball Association assisted the Basketball Federation of India in finding coaches for its men's and women's basketball teams for the Asian Games (Harris and Tamika Raymond were the country's first American coaches). Contacts like Wheaton College graduates Randy Pfund and Donn Nelson proved beneficial.

“For a small Christian college we have got a lot of connections to the NBA,” Harris said, “and it just happened that when those people were calling, they called people that had connections with me.”

Acknowledging he knew “next to nothing” about India in his first interview, nonetheless in August Harris was selected to elevate a group of players whose understanding of basketball nuance mirrored his knowledge of their homeland. The journey was on.

Harris had been to Ireland, South Africa and England in tours coaching Wheaton College. Never had he coached a group of players who spoke several distinct dialects.

“It took me 10 days to two weeks to realize the players couldn't even understand each other sometimes,” he said.

The Indian nationals were used to long, tedious practices. Harris shortened and intensified them. He taught defense and offense, identified the difference between creating a good shot and launching up a prayer. Slowly, it worked.

“Once they saw they were capable of things they never dreamed they were capable of, they played with more confidence,” Harris said.

Needing a qualifying-round victory over Afghanistan to reach pool play, India earned won 83-76, its first Asian Games victory in history over a team that twice defeated the Indian men at the South Asian Games in January.

India earned no other victory, losing to Qatar, Taipei, Iran and the Philippines.

Harris, though, did not see these as losses when his players' international development was taken into context.

“We're playing Iran, had the game to single digits with 10 minutes left,” he said. “I'm almost pinching myself is this real, or am I going to wake up and say is this a dream?

“Yeah, the Lord just opened the door and let me walk through it and blessed me the entire time. That may sound corny, but I really believe it's true.”

Harris' contract with India ended this month, and a coach not ready to retire awaits his next appointment, whatever and wherever it may be.

“Basketball is a universal language,” he said. “Coaching and player relationships are, too.”

doberhelman@dailyherald.com