Joe Santoro: Jalen Harris and what could have been

Jalen Harris, the Nevada Wolf Pack shooting guard who forfeited his final year of eligibility to jump into the June 25 NBA draft, will now get paid to score points. That payment could come in a foreign country, the NBA G League or even in the NBA. But he’ll get paid somewhere by somebody. That is certain. All Nevada could offer him was the chance at the greatest basketball year of his life. Nevada could also offer him 30-plus games of pressure-packed, meaningful basketball where every dribble counts. Nevada could offer him a world-class coaching staff that actually cared about making him a better player. Nevada could offer him 15 or so games at Lawlor Events Center in front of 10,000 adoring fans that would love him forever. Nevada could offer him a role as its best player and unquestioned leader. Nevada could offer him the chance at a Mountain West regular season and tournament title and more than a dozen appearances on national television. Nevada could offer him the chance at an NCAA tournament, the best tournament in sports. Nevada could offer him meaningful, unforgettable moments on a basketball court that he would remember for the rest of his life. It wasn’t enough.

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Odds are Harris will not get drafted by the NBA. The NBA draft, after all, only offers two rounds. Just 60 players will be selected. The Sporting News and Forbes do not list Harris among their top 60 draft prospects. Basetballinsiders.com and NBAdraft.net don’t list Harris among their top 100. CBSSports.com says Harris the 26th best player at his position. Harris, if you believe the internet, isn’t even considered the best draft prospect to come out of the Mountain West this season. That honor goes to Malachi Flynn of San Diego State. Harris isn’t even considered the second-best prospect out of the Mountain West. That, according to mock drafts, is Derrick Alston Jr. of Boise State. If Utah State 7-footer Neemias Queta would have declared for this draft Harris likely would have been the No. 4 prospect out of the Mountain West. But maybe Harris knows something nobody else seems to know.

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The last Wolf Pack underclassman to give up college for pro ball and then not get drafted was Cam Oliver in 2017. Oliver, simply because he was 6-8, 225 pounds, was a much more highly regarded NBA draft prospect than Harris. Oliver could shoot threes, dunk, block shots and rebound (when motivated). As a big man who could shoot Oliver seemed perfect for the new NBA. Oliver also had the benefit of the NBA Combine and private workouts in front of scouts and general managers, which Harris has not had because of the coronavirus quarantine. Oliver, as talented as any player who has ever put on a Wolf Pack uniform, has spent the last three seasons playing in the G League and overseas in Australia and Israel. Put Oliver on the 2017-18 Pack and that team might have gone to the Final Four. But that opportunity wasn’t enough to keep him in college.

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The Wolf Pack had a legitimate opportunity to win the Mountain West in 2020-21 with Harris and return to the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five years. The Pack can still win the Mountain West in 2020-21 without Harris because, quite simply, the Mountain West is winnable each and every year. But it would have been nice for coach Steve Alford to have the best scorer in the conference in 2019-20 (21.6 a game) in the lineup in 2020-21. Alford, though, will find a new scorer. He, after all, found Harris.

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The Wolf Pack in 2020-21 will look nothing like the Wolf Pack we saw in 2019-20. Gone are the top four scorers off the 2019-20 team (Harris, Jazz Johnson, Lindsey Drew, Nisre Zouzoua). No 6 (Johncarlos Reyes) is also gone. The leading scorer back from 2019-20 will be Zane Meeks (6.4 a game). Also back will be K.J. Hymes (4.1), Robby Robinson (2.7) and Kane Milling (2.3). Add up the scoring output of Meeks, Hymes, Robinson and Milling from a year ago and they don’t even add up to Johnson’s 15.9 a game. The new top scorer for the Pack likely won’t be named Meeks, Milling, Hymes or Robinson.

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How good of a player at Nevada was Harris? Well, very good. He was phenomenal for a two-week stretch in late January and early February when he scored 30 points or more in four consecutive games. The rest of the time he was good to very good. Harris was a volume shooter. He took 15 or more shots in 22 of his 30 games. He scored 30 or more points six times and needed an average of 21 shots to do it. His 500 shots last year were the most for a Pack player since Luke Babbitt took 502 in 2009-10. Harris took 133 more shots than the second most active shooter on the team (Johnson). It was the biggest difference between the two top shooters on one Pack team since Marcelus Kemp took 137 more shots than JaVale McGee in 2007-08. You want to average 20 or more points a game in college? Then take 500 shots over 30 games.

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Where does Harris rank among the Wolf Pack’s all-time great players? He’s certainly not in the Top 30, a group that should include some combination of Nick Fazekas, Kirk Snyder, Luke Babbitt, Armon Johnson, Pete Padgett, Marcelus Kemp, Deonte Burton, Ken “Tree” Green, Johnny High, Cam Oliver, Jordan Caroline, Cody and Caleb Martin, Kevinn Pinkney, Ramon Sessions, Mike “Fly” Gray, Alex Boyd, Dwayne Randall, Sam Moseley, JaVale McGee, Curtis High, Marvin Buckley, Faron Hand, Dario Hunt, Darryl Owens, Lindsey Drew, Kevin Soares, Nap Montgomery, Malik Story and others. Plenty of others. Was Harris better than Marcus Marshall? What about Jazz Johnson, Jimmy Carroll, Ric Herrin, Marqueze Coleman, Tyron Criswell, Terrance Green, D.J. Fenner and David Wood? What about Boris King, Jimmy Moore, Perry Campbell, Kevin Franklin, Billy Allen or Eathan O’Bryant? Romie Thomas, Olek Czyz, A.J. West, Rob Harden, Brian Green and Dave Webber all had great stretches, too, as did others. Take away those four 30-point games in a row and are we even talking about Harris now? Not likely. Harris just wasn’t at Nevada long enough to put him on any Wolf Pack all-time greats list.

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Who will take up the scoring slack in 2020-21? Five freshmen (Je’Lani Clark, Tre Coleman, Daniel Foster, DeAndre Henry and Alem Huseinovic) will join the team along with 7-foot center Warren Washington and guards Desmond Cambridge and Khristion Courseault so there will be plenty of volunteers. Milling and Meeks combined to average just under nine points a game last year as freshmen and will more than likely double that this year. Washington and Hymes should be able to each dunk their way to 10 or more points a game. Scoring points won’t be a problem on a Steve Alford-coached team.

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The Wolf Pack a year ago was a unique bunch. It was the perfect storm for a player like Harris to shine. The Pack had a point guard (Lindsey Drew) who hardly ever wanted to shoot. They had a 3-point shooter (Jazz Johnson) who wasn’t selfish. Their big men either couldn’t stay on the floor because of foul trouble or were scared to death to shoot. And they had a bunch of players (Hymes, Zouzoua, Robinson, Reyes, Milling and Meeks) who were more than happy to play a subservient role. That’s why Harris was allowed to emerge. Alford, who started working on his shot when he tossed his bottle out of the crib, never stood in Harris’ way. Every Pack player, it seemed, knew his role last year and was happy in it. How long it takes to get to that point will be the key to 2020-21.