Note To PC: Start Guarding Harkless

[Chin Diesel]

Harkless went postal on PeeCee tonight.

14-17 from the field including 2-3 from deep. 32 points.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

32 points 13 rebounds 4 assists 4 steals and 2 blocks to be exact.

 

[Husky999]

Guess there really isn't a discussion anymore between Harkless and Daniels. It's pretty clear at this point.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Guess there really isn't a discussion anymore between Harkless and Daniels. It's pretty clear at this point.

Absolutely agree. No reason to have any discussion right now.

No one would be dumb enough to decisively state which player will end up better three, five or 10 years from now.

No one would use a 10-15 game sample of a freshman's season to accurately assess future succeses.

No one would start a discussion and state with certainty how two players will progress based on one being a starter on a crappy team and one being a role player on the defending national champions who returned four starters.

Much like the debate between Omar Cook, Andre Barrett and Taliek Brown was decided halfway through their freshman year.

 

[champs99and04]

Absolutely agree. No reason to have any discussion right now.

No one would be dumb enough to decisively state which player will end up better three, five or 10 years from now.

No one would use a 10-15 game sample of a freshman's season to accurately assess future succeses.

No one would start a discussion and state with certainty how two players will progress based on one being a starter on a crappy team and one being a role player on the defending national champions who returned four starters.

Much like the debate between Omar Cook, Andre Barrett and Taliek Brown was decided halfway through their freshman year.

This is all true, but I'm fairly confident Harkless is the better player right now. Daniels hasn't shown the ability to create his own shot, or play above the rim like Harkless has.

 

[progrocks]

Daniels would be playing just as many minutes as harkless if he was at st johns, and who knows what he would be doing. Hard to compare when one team is I. The top ten and the other just sucks.

 

[UCHuskies08]

This is all true, but I'm fairly confident Harkless is the better player right now. Daniels hasn't shown the ability to create his own shot, or play above the rim like Harkless has.

SJU has 7 players on the roster. Harkless has the greenest light in the world right now. Daniels doesn't.

Also, same shit, different day for Providence...

 

[HooperScooper]

Didn't we have this same discussion last year about DePaul's Cleveland Melvin? Just hard to compare players at this point when one plays for a terrible team and gets a ton of playing time.

 

[Giddyup5]

This is all true, but I'm fairly confident Harkless is the better player right now. Daniels hasn't shown the ability to create his own shot, or play above the rim like Harkless has.

This.

 

[BUHusky]

Didn't we have this same discussion last year about DePaul's Cleveland Melvin? Just hard to compare players at this point when one plays for a terrible team and gets a ton of playing time.

I was about to say the exact same thing. This is right where all us Boneyearders were last year with the "Melvin vs. any freshman on UConn" debate. Comparing someone who plays on an awful team and gets a ton of minutes vs. a role player on a top 10 team who gets limited minutes is just plain silly.

 

[M_Funkhauser43!]

Say what you want to about playing for a better coach and a title contender, but in de-committing from UConn for St. John's Harkless made the best decision for himself if he wanted the spotlight. He just broke the scoring record that Allen Iverson and Troy Murphy shared for a freshman's first BE game.

Whether or not DD becomes a better player in the long run remains to be seen, but right now it looks like there wouldn't be any shame if he didn't.

 

[Kitaman]

I think its okay to say that Harkless is a talented player without having to compare him to a UConn player or concerned if he will 'turn out' better than our recruits/players. Anyway, the kid's got game.

 

[tykurez]

I think its okay to say that Harkless is a talented player without having to compare him to a UConn player or concerned if he will 'turn out' better than our recruits/players. Anyway, the kid's got game.

+1

And how asinine is it to try and compare the two? Good grief.

 

[upstater]

Say what you want to about playing for a better coach and a title contender, but in de-committing from UConn for St. John's Harkless made the best decision for himself if he wanted the spotlight. He just broke the scoring record that Allen Iverson and Troy Murphy shared for a freshman's first BE game.

Whether or not DD becomes a better player in the long run remains to be seen, but right now it looks like there wouldn't be any shame if he didn't.

Did you say spotlight and St. John's in the same sentence?

 

[UConn990411]

I like Harkless a lot, but it's to the point where I'm never going to worry about who UConn misses out on.

Last year taught me that.

 

[husky99]

Wonder what his march plans are? We will be dancing and he will have already cleaned his locker

 

[M_Funkhauser43!]

Did you say spotlight and St. John's in the same sentence?

Lol, I paused on that word for a moment before posting. I meant "spotlight" only within the program itself rather than the broader media exposure St. John's gets.

 

[Gurleyman]

Not only is Harkless getting extended minutes, but he gets to play the 4 - which creates more match-up issues. Remember, he wanted to be a 3 here and changed his mind on his commitment because he didn't want to be stuck playing the 4 (his advisor compared us to Villanova). Now he's doing that on a bad team where he gets the ball all of the time. He's probably going to be a problem for us unless we go small with Roscoe - he's too quick for our bigs. DeAndre is playing the 3 and is the fifth option on the floor, so it's not an apples to apples comparison, any more than comparing DeAndre to Jabari Hinds. I am completely with the above poster - I just don't care who we miss out on any more. It's worked out more often than not (with the exception of Kevin Durant, who would have saved us from a bad 2006-2007, but even then those young guys benefitted from those minutes and touches and became a Final Four team)..

 

[Husky68]

For a couple of games last year my boy Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (for some reason he was one of my favorite players last year, seemed like he was just one step away from being a real impact player and just couldn't do it) made Lamb look like his set up man. If you can play college ball, you get to shoot, you can make stats.
Haven't seen Harkless play (only watched couple minutes of Samson Johnson vs. Prov), but Daniels is getting a solid dose of "this is how to be a role player on a top team" vs. it looks like having a role where the coach is always saying "nice shot".
Would Harkless start for Uconn? Would he take any of Bazz, Boat, Lamb, Drum, Alex minutes; how about Roscoe/Olander; that leaves Daniels/Giffey minutes?
Most players look pretty good going 14-17. Unless you say he is a career 82% shooter from the field and 67% shooter from deep, let's see a little bit more and how he plays on those 4 for 17 games. Just to give you a little Harkless perspective his 12 game stats are overall FG % (including 3's) 46.3%, 3's at 25.7% and fouls at 62% - and this is AFTER the Providence game.