Chris Harris attended a military high school and spent a year at a military prep school, but he never envisioned a career in the armed services ? until Navy changed his mind.
“Nothing quite prepares you for life at a service academy,” he said. “But going to military schools before helped teach me about structure and routines.”
That?s why the 6-foot-2, 175-pound sophomore has thrived at Navy for Coach Billy Lange, who convinced him he could fulfill his lifelong goal of playing Division I basketball at a school that would prepare him for a successful career when his playing days were over.
“Coach Lange is passionate about the game and his players,” Harris said. “[It] makes you want to play for him.”
Harris quickly has developed into one of Navy?s main scoring threats, making seven three-pointers en route to finishing with a career-high 29 points to power his team to an 85-74 win at defending Patriot League champion Holy Cross on Wednesday.
The victory ended a 17-game losing streak against the Crusaders dating to 2000, creating a pivotal game for the Midshipmen (9-10, 2-2 Patriot League) against archrival Army (8-10, 1-3) on Sunday at noon in front of an expected sellout crowd of 5,710 at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
Navy was expected to be one of the conference?s worst teams in the opinion of the league?s coaches, but is tied with Lehigh for third place, two games behind Lafayette (13-6, 4-0).
“That win was unbelievable for us,” Harris said. “I?ve just lost to Holy Cross twice, so I was even happier for seniors like Greg Sprink who hadn?t beaten them in four years.”
Navy has gone 7-4 in its past 11 games, and Harris is a big reason why the Midshipmen have saved their season. Harris is averaging 13.3 points and 3.4 assists, in addition to making 47.7 percent of his three-point shot attempts after averaging 3.4 points in 13 minutes per game last season.
Harris came to Navy after attending Benedictine High School in Virginia, which proceeded a year at Fork Union Military Academy. He went to Fork Union hoping to generate interest from Division I schools after getting little exposure in high school.
Harris said last season was a learning experience, and he attributes his improvement this year to Lange?s strategy to get him more involved in the offense.
“It?s not easy for a freshman to come in and take a leadership role on a team,” Lange said. “It took Chris some time to make that transition, but he has proven to be a player the rest of the team can depend on.”
