SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Drury University men’s basketball head coach announced that Chris Carr will join the Panthers coaching staff as an assistant.
Carr played six seasons in the National Basketball Association and played professionally for two years overseas. He was a second round draft pick of the Phoenix Suns in 1995 and saw time with the Suns, Timberwolves, Nets, Warriors, Bulls, and Celtics. While playing for Minnesota in 1997, he was the NBA Slam Dunk Contest runner-up as Kobe Bryant won the event that year in Cleveland, Ohio.
Carr joins the Panthers from Kansas State, where he served as an assistant coach for the Wildcats women’s basketball team for four years. He started at Kansas State in 2016-17 as the Director of Student-Athlete Development for the women’s team overseeing academics, skill development, player evaluation of recruits, and coordinated game analytics. During Carr’s five years at K-State, the Wildcats went 62-37, reached the NCAA Tournament in 2016-17, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the WNIT in 2017-18.
“We are excited to welcome Chris and his family to Drury University,” said Foster. “Chris will be a fantastic addition to our already strong coaching staff. He has a wealth of experience as both a player and coach that will serve as an invaluable resource to our student-athletes.”
Carr played collegiately at Southern Illinois and was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1995, in addition to being named the MVP of the conference tournament in the same season. He finished his collegiate career with 1,251 career points, helped SIU to three NCAA Tournament appearances, and was inducted into the Saluki Hall of Fame in 2006.
Before his stint at Kansas State, Carr was the women’s varsity basketball coach at Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota from 2010-15, where he posted a record of 106-34, was the 4A state runner-up in 2011, had a third-place finish in 2014, and had 10 players advance to the collegiate level including three NCAA-I players. Carr also served as a coach and was the founder and president of 43 Hoops, LLC, an elite AAU program based in Hopkins, Minnesota, that oversaw 20 boys and girls AAU teams.
He is originally from Ironton, Missouri, the same hometown as Foster. Carr and his wife Tanya have five children, Tayler, Tamika, Chrissy, Nadja, and Cameron. His daughter Chrissy will be playing for the Syracuse University women’s basketball squad in 2021-22, while his son Cameron plans to attend Link Academy in Branson in the upcoming school year.
Carr will replace Lonnie Boga, who served as an assistant coach for the last two seasons.
“I appreciate what Lonnie has done for Drury as a coach for the last two years and for me in the last several months,” said Foster. “I’m confident he will continue to advance in his career, and we will look forward to following his continued growth.”
Foster will enter his first season as the Panthers head coach in 2021-22. He spent the previous three years as head coach at McKendree University and led the Bearcats to their best finish ever in the Great Lakes Valley Conference last season. Foster guided the Truman State men’s basketball program from 2014-2018, and his teams made two NCAA-II national tournament appearances.
In addition to Foster and Carr, the Drury coaching staff also includes Ben Fisher, who will return for his fifth year as a DU assistant, and Sam Briscoe, who will serve as a part-time assistant coach after two seasons as a graduate assistant.
