MANHATTAN, Kan.(Randy Peterson, K-State Sports) – Kansas State women’s basketball head coach Jeff Mittie has rounded out his coaching staff for the 2016-17 season with the addition of former NBA guard Chris Carr. Carr will helm the position of Director of Student-Athlete Development for the program.
Carr, a six-year NBA veteran and former high school coach, played for six organizations – Phoenix, Minnesota, New Jersey, Golden State, Chicago and Boston – during his career in which he registered totals of 6.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 297 games played. He also made two NBA Playoffs appearances, one with Phoenix in his rookie season of 1995-96 and another with Minnesota in 1996-97. Carr played with legends such as Charles Barkley, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce during his time in the league and in 1997 he was a part of the NBA All-Star Saturday Night festivities in Cleveland, Ohio, as he competed in the Slam Dunk Contest and finished as a runner-up to champion Kobe Bryant.
Prior to being a second round pick by Phoenix in the 1995 NBA Draft, Carr was a three-year letter winner at Southern Illinois, where he was a teammate for one season with current K-State men’s basketball associate head coach Chris Lowery. Carr, who is a member of the Saluki Hall of Fame, concluded his career with Southern Illinois with career totals of 1,251 points and 539 rebounds.
During the 1994-95 season, Carr was the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) scoring champion with an average of 22.0 points per game on his way to earning First Team All-MVC honors. He was a two-time MVC All-Tournament Team selection, including the 1995 MVC Tournament MVP and was a four-time MVC Player of the Week.
Following his NBA career, Carr founded 43 Hoops in Hopkins, Minnesota, in 2003 to provide personal training and skill development for young players and oversaw 20 boys and girls AAU Teams and coached both Elite Boys and Elite Girls AAU teams. Carr also jumped into the high school coaching ranks in 2010 and helmed the varsity girls program at Eden Prairie, Minnesota, High School from 2010-15 where he guided the program to an overall record of 106-34 which included a State 4A Runner-Up finish in 2011 and a State 4A Third Place finish in 2014.
Carr joins a Kansas State program that tallied a 19-13 overall record in 2015-16 and the program’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first win in the tournament since 2012.