BASKETBALL '06: Forward Progress

To replace one of the greatest players in team history, Harvard will look to a man who turned in one of the best single-game performances of the season last year.

Against then-No. 14 Boston College last December 22, freshman forward Evan Harris came off the bench to post career-highs of 18 points and seven rebounds. Harris’ big game came against one of the best frontcourts in the country, featuring All-Americans Craig Smith (now with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves) and Jared Dudley.

This year, the Crimson hopes that Harris, a left-handed-shooting sophomore, can replace another left-handed shooter, Matt Stehle ’06. Stehle graduated last spring, taking with him three team Most Valuable Player awards and two First Team All Ivy selections, and leaving an enormous void at power forward.

Harris has his work cut out for him. Apart from the standout performance against BC, he had a rough freshman season, struggling with the transition from high school to the college game. He played just 7.9 minutes per game last year over 18 contests, posting averages of 1.9 rebounds and 3.3 points on 19-of-50 shooting.

One reason for Harris’ lack of success last year was his lack of conditioning and strength. Over the summer, Harris, listed at 6’8 and just 205 pounds, worked hard to change that.

“He was never in shape last year at the level he had to be,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan says. “He’s made really good progress, he’s bigger physically than he was a year ago, he’s much stronger than he was a year ago, his fitness is much better.”

Among the players he trained with over the summer was BC star Smith.

“He was in the gym I was working out at,” Harris says. “I think going up against him and some of the other players that were there really helped me coming into this year. This summer especially I tried to play and work out with people who were at a level much higher than mine, so I could get stronger and get faster.”

On a squad missing the points of not only Stehle, the co-leading scorer last year with current senior captain Jim Goffredo, but also guard Michael Beal ’06, Harvard will look for the 6’8 forward to supply many of the missing baskets. Harris says he can take on that responsibility, as he can score in many different ways.

“I’ll score some points from offensive rebounds,” says Harris, who had five offensive boards in his big game against BC. “But I think a lot of my points this year are going to come off action, taking my man off the dribble. I feel one of my main strengths is being more versatile and quicker than the guys trying to guard me. At BC, I would have a center guarding me on the perimeter, so I could go around him. If it’s a smaller player, I can post up.”

In order to refine that versatility and improve his dribble-drive and post play, Harris has to ensure he can make the seamless transition between his strong hand and his off hand, something he could not do in his rookie year.

“I spent a lot of time working on my right hand,” he says. “That was one of my huge weaknesses last year and it kind of got exposed. So I tried to improve my right hand and finding counters with my left hand, where I fake right, and go left.”

Keeping Harris on the floor to provide those points might be an issue for the Crimson. Besides the lack of conditioning last year, his minutes were limited by foul trouble. Not coincidently, against the Eagles, he had no fouls.

“I worked on just being smart and staying on my feet,” Harris says. “At least early in the season, in pickup or playing in practice, the majority of fouls come from jumping on pump fakes. So if I stay down and play smart, I think I can avoid major foul trouble.”

Sullivan hopes Harris will be able to fill the vacuum created by Stehle’s graduation. Harris started at power forward in both of the team’s preseason scrimmages and the opener against Maine last Saturday, and although there will surely be a deeper rotation at the four spot than there was behind Stehle, Harris will be given the opportunity to make the position his own.

Helping Harris this season, Sullivan believes, is the post-grad year he took at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania after graduating from the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles.

“I get it why guys redshirt at other schools,” Sullivan says. “Evan had a post-grad year, so he’s starting to get the body of a junior, and he’s really in great shape, and is a little bit more mature in his approach towards the game, understanding the game. He’s starting to act like an older player.”

Harvard will need more performances from Harris similar to his game against BC to make a mark in the Ivy League this year. He welcomes the challenge.

“I love big games,” Harris says. “I love playing on the big stages. It just brings the competitive side out of me.”

—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.