Jermaine Harris - Season Expectations

[wpbrown8267]

Cleary most of us are disappointed that Harris is not further along in his development. That said, we are only 8 games into his sophomore season, and we need him. Not only do we need him this year, but next year and the year after that. Don't be surprised if he has a good Junior year and a great Senior year. He'll be getting a lot of love from us then. Keep working hard Jermaine, we are pulling for you.

In the PC-URI Game 2 years ago Langevine played 8 minutes, 0-4 FG, no points, 2 rebounds, 3 fouls. Now SR Year Langevine is Preseason 1st Team A10, Preseason All Defensive Team (was All Defensive Team JR Year).
Point is Big Men take longer to adjust and to develop.

Harris has taken considerable criticism here, and Langevine gets his share too.

Some criticisms that I question:

• Not Hustling - I’ve rarely seen Harris not hustling. He moves quickly trying to get in position on offense. We don’t pass the ball inside much to Langevine or to Harris. Not sure why but we don’t. Versus West Virginia twice Fatts found Harris ahead of the pack on 3/4 Court breakaway passes. Harris is quick for a man his size.

• Should not be taking 3 Point Shot because he is a bad shooter - At Coaches Show David Cox said he wants Harris taking the 3 Point Shots and is encouraging him to do so. Sure percentages are not in his favor yet but have to believe Cox knows what he’s talking about

• Not rebounding tough - vs West Virginia Harris led URI in offensive rebounds with 3, Toppin 2, Langevine 1. Harris led URI at half with 6 to Langevine’s 4.

• Harris is not what we were told he would be - I think it’s too early to judge a big man. Look where Langevine was at the PC game of his Sophomore Year. David Cox continues to start Jermaine. The bench coaches appear to be encouraged by his play, certainly not showing the discouragement that is present among several posters here

• He gets too many fouls and is fouling too far from the basket - all true. Coaches seem to be reigning him in and he is not doing the silly fouls out by the 3 point line as much. He had a game with 0 fouls and then people complained that he didn’t foul enough. Can’t make this up.

That said, do I think he has room for improvement? Most definitely but I am encouraged by what I have seen this year. He is a good shooter for a 6’9” player, he is getting stronger and improving his defense and rebounding.

Langevine got a ton of criticism and has developed into a potential 1st Team A10 Big Man. Can Harris? I think so, I hope so, I believe so. Give him time.

Go Rhody.

Love this post Ramster, good stuff

Go Rhody!

[PeteRI]

Blue Man, I just want to make sure I understand that your criticism of Jermaine is as a basketball player, not as a person. I don't think you made that clear.

[robertgraiko]

Did not watch the game. How did J. Harris play and did he had two curcial steals at the end of the game?

[Blue Man]

Huge. Looked like a switch flipped for him once walker showed what he could do.

That effort could win us a lot of games.

Love to be proven wrong by him. Hopefully this is a new leaf. We need him to play like that.

[Rhody74]

Yes, the trio of Cyril, Jermaine and Antwan makes me real confident about our front court.

[section(105)]

.......yes, the project is coming along......very good to see......

[ram1980]

2 huge steals and offensive tip for a rebound in o t after missed free throw. Also ran the court well on a couple of fast breaks.. will take that type of effort the rest of the year

[section(105)]

.......yes, the project is coming along......very good to see......

......forgot to add, made his first career 3pt hoop....

[rhodylaw]

Huge. Looked like a switch flipped for him once walker showed what he could do.

That effort could win us a lot of games.

Love to be proven wrong by him. Hopefully this is a new leaf. We need him to play like that.

I just think he can play more freely knowing if he gets in foul trouble there is another player there who can help. With the right chemistry, having a really good bench player can elevate everyone’s game.

[PeteRI]

Best game of his career today. Not even close. I'd like to see him stop missing bunnies and be more aggressive taking it to the basket. Let Cyril teach him how to DUNK.

That said, I loved his defensive intensity. He made some yooooog plays in OT, and stayed out of foul trouble. If he can play consistently like this we'll be in great shape.

[Rhodymob05]

Great thing is, he’s only a sophomore.

[JimSidd]

It was nice to see him contribute at crunch time. I’m sure he’ll still have his inconsistent stretches, but this was something to build on.

[Roz]

Harris won the game with his defense. Antwan is a badass and will give us 9/6

[reef]

Jermaine did play well had a couple early buckets to help his confidence

[Running Ram]

go back and watch the replay, Harris iced this game with his defense, actually reminded me of Hassan, there must have been at least a half dozen games Hassan put away with blocks and rebounds, it's as big as hitting a clutch 3 to win it.
Big time win for this team after beating their rivals and having a long lay-off. Not getting ahead of myself, but 9-3 would be a very nice ooc record, coming into conference play with a head of steam could be fun.

[Smokinjimit2]

It was a great team win when our best player didn’t shoot well. (Or take great shot...).
Fatts hitting the free throws at the end was as clutch as you can be.

I’d say we would have one more win if Harris started the season.

[bkoeppen]

Hope we can finally cut Harris some slack. He might continue to be up and down performance-wise a bit, but you can not argue that he's making progress in many areas. Big fan of this kid, especially the way he has handled the tough times.

[ramster]

It was a great team win when our best player didn’t shoot well. (Or take great shot...).
Fatts hitting the free throws at the end was as clutch as you can be.

I’d say we would have one more win if Harris started the season.

I think you meant to say “if Walker started the season?”

[Smokinjimit2]

You are correct. Walker.

[ATPTourFan]

!	Message from: ATPTourFan
	Please check your email Smokinjinit.

[ramster]

It was a great team win when our best player didn’t shoot well. (Or take great shot...).
Fatts hitting the free throws at the end was as clutch as you can be.

I’d say we would have one more win if Walker started the season.

You are right that he did not take great shots which had a lot to do with his 4-18 (1-6 3P) shooting. He had 3 drives in the lane in the OT that resulted in terrible shots, but he did bury the FTs as you said.

Harris started the game as he usually does, winning the tip easily. Dowtin and Fatts both fed Harris for 2 early buckets in the first 2 minutes. I don't know why we seem to always stop going to Harris. Seems we go to him to start the game and to start the half then the inside passing to him stops.

In OT, I was surprised to see Walker start, especially with Harris having such a height advantage and wins most every tip to start games, but Walker did win the OT tip. Harris came in after 1.5 minutes. He had 2 big steals in OT and with 21 seconds left, Dowtin missed the 2nd FT and Harris tipped the rebound to keep it alive going into Fatts' hands whereby he got fouled and made 2 FTs. Doesn't count in the scorebook as a rebound for Harris but it was a huge tip off the missed FT.

Solid Game by Harris with 22 min, 4-6 FG, 1-2 3P (getting his first career 3P), 2-2 FT, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, his 3 huge steals were a game high for both teams, 11 points, 3 TOs.
Walker was great 18 minutes, 5-7 FG, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 TO for 10 points.

So out of the Center position we got 40 minutes, 9-13 FG, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 huge steals, for 21 points - great center efficiency

Compare that 9-13 FG to Fatts and Dowtin getting 1 less FG with 8 in 33 attempts. Game ball to the Center Spot.

Love that we now have Langevine, Harris and Walker to share the 2 big men spots and even the capability to go with 3 big men as David Cox has more flexibility now.

[TruePoint]

Love that we now have Langevine, Harris and Walker to share the 2 big men spots and even the capability to go with 3 big men as David Cox has more flexibility now.

Speaking of going big, would love to see a lineup at some point Jeff, Tyrese, Walker, Langevine and Harris. No bigger fan of Fatts here than me and I want him on the floor as much as possible, but the reality is he will need a break every now and then; one of those times I’d love to see a little bully ball with some variation of this lineup.

[phipsiGD'11]

I'm all for the idea of a big line up but it would have to be set against the right subs for whichever team we are playing. Tyrese is not quick footed enough on defense to guard most 2s, may work for a 3-2 zone if we could get that going.

[TruePoint]

He struggled a little bit defending WKU’s guards yesterday, but I’m not ready to make sweeping generalizations about that at this point. It’s all matchup specific. Some 2s he may matchup with better than others. Regardless, though, there are a number of ways to hide one deficiency on a team defense. Any time that you go to a lineup that is meant to provide an advantage in one area, you potentially expose yourself in another, but yet teams do it all the time and try their best to coach around the weakness. At the end of the day, you’re talking about small 2-3 minute stretches. I know if we came into a game where the other team is 6’3” 6’6” 6’7” 6’8” 6’8” I’d be worried a bit about rebounding, going against length on offense and potential mismatches on defense, and the fact that our guards might have some quickness advantage on the perimeter wouldn’t totally assuage my concerns.

[Running Ram]

A well played, high intensity zone can be as menacing as good man to man, especially if you use your length to your advantage. Although it's not something that you practice a few times and you're good to go, there's tons of off ball positioning that has to become second nature before rolling it out against good teams. There's nothing opposing teams like better than picking apart poorly organized zones, they can really make an offense look good.

[TruePoint]

You don’t have to install Syracuse’s match-up zone and all of its complications to play 5 minutes per game of zone with a big lineup. You can play a pretty generic zone without sophisticated rotations and rely on your length to make things kind of tough on the offense. You’re talking about a handful of possessions, and you can be pretty sure that the opponent has not spent a ton of time prepping for it (if they want to spend a bunch of their limited practice time preparing for your change-up looks or use a timeout to draw something up, the look has kind of served it’s purpose already).

[Rhody83]

I'm all for the idea of a big line up but it would have to be set against the right subs for whichever team we are playing. Tyrese is not quick footed enough on defense to guard most 2s, may work for a 3-2 zone if we could get that going.

Agree. Martin has struggled covering the 2G all year.
That big lineup could also cause a challenge having Walker guard the SF. Rhody can get similar size with Toppin or Long in the game and they are both quick enough to cover the SF.

[Smokinjimit]

I use to love how Harrick would put Lamar at the top of the zone. Would cause lots of trouble. Could do the same with Toppin. Similar length and quickness.

[McRam]

Sure agree with Tyrese covering a guard. Usually way too quick for him

What do we do when playing true 3 guard offenses (plenty of them )

Really hope we develop 2 different zones including a 1-3-1. Toppin would be similar to Odom at the top of the zone. Very disruptive Hard to shoot over

Not sure where we put Fatts in a 1-3-1 but, maybe a good plan when Fatts gets a rest

[section(105)]

Sure agree with Tyrese covering a guard. Usually way too quick for him

What do we do when playing true 3 guard offenses (plenty of them )

Really hope we develop 2 different zones including a 1-3-1. Toppin would be similar to Odom at the top of the zone. Very disruptive Hard to shoot over

Not sure where we put Fatts in a 1-3-1 but, maybe a good plan when Fatts gets a rest

....in the deep one spot, the slides would have him covering the corners......cutting off baseline.....?if this scheme was ever deployed with Toppin in the out front one, imagine the steal, deflect breakaway dunks......

[reef]

Have Fatts roaming he is great getting steals ??

[Smokinjimit]

Fatts will be on a wing in a zone.

[adam914]

Death, taxes and KBers calling for more zone!

[UCH21377]

Adam the points are valid. We have a long rangy team. Our forwards have trouble guarding smaller guards. A zone would seem to make sense. If it’s not in Cox’s DNA fine I get it but we then need to understand that mismatches work both ways

[Shinze88]

Death, taxes and KBers calling for more zone!

Playing zone was almost a taboo subject during the Hurley years, I like that its at least an option that Cox is considering.

[rambone 78]

An important option with our lack of depth at guard.

[DC_Rams]

We will have 4 guards next year.

[rambone 78]

DC correct, but this year is what's important right now.

[RhodyRams916]

https://gyazo.com/1f96b06b1582b4e24b7953c5e18a444b

Looks like Walker is pushing Harris to keep that starting spot

[ramster]

Love that we now have Langevine, Harris and Walker to share the 2 big men spots and even the capability to go with 3 big men as David Cox has more flexibility now.

Speaking of going big, would love to see a lineup at some point Jeff, Tyrese, Walker, Langevine and Harris. No bigger fan of Fatts here than me and I want him on the floor as much as possible, but the reality is he will need a break every now and then; one of those times I’d love to see a little bully ball with some variation of this lineup.

Love this line up, and I’d also love to see:
Dowtin
Toppin
Walker
Harris
Langevine

[ramster]

Sure agree with Tyrese covering a guard. Usually way too quick for him

What do we do when playing true 3 guard offenses (plenty of them )

Really hope we develop 2 different zones including a 1-3-1. Toppin would be similar to Odom at the top of the zone. Very disruptive Hard to shoot over

Not sure where we put Fatts in a 1-3-1 but, maybe a good plan when Fatts gets a rest

Couldn’t it be said as much as Martin had trouble guarding WKU that WKU had trouble guarding Martin who went for a team high 22 points and 9 rebounds? The matchups work both ways. Toppin and Long are tough matchups for opponents too.

I like the tall lineups, always have. You can’t teach height.

[SandorClegane]

Like the height as well. However, our two best players are the only ones below 6’6. Tough to keep them off the floor.

[Smokinjimit]

I like the big line up but fatts is the best in ball defender on the team. Going done when he is resting is a good change of pace.

That being said I’m still surprised PC didn’t post him up.

[TruePoint]

I like the big line up but fatts is the best in ball defender on the team. Going done when he is resting is a good change of pace.

That being said I’m still surprised PC didn’t post him up.

Right. This convo has drifted a little, but the original point was that when Fatts does take his inevitable 5 minutes during a game, we will basically be big by default - Jeff is tall (and especially long with his wing span) for a point, and Tyrese is a big 2, and then really any combination of Cyril, Harris, Walker, Toppin, Tate and Long will give you a pretty big lineup. Some of those combinations will be more length and athleticism but there is also the chance to be really strong and tough, which is helped by Walker being available.

[ramster]

From Narragansett Times article. David Cox on Jermaine......

“We locked in when we needed to lock in, which was in the overtime period,” Cox said. “Some timely plays – Jermaine Harris had some big steals and deflections.”
Harris made two deflections on defense that led directly to steals. Then, with Jeff Dowtin attempting to salt the game away at the free throw line, Harris went up for an offensive rebound and managed to tip it to Russell. Russell hit both of his free throws, preventing another dramatic comeback from the Hilltoppers.
“I look for a lot of the small things with Jermaine,” Cox said. “It’s a developmental process he’s going through. He was good early, made a couple baskets.
“His defense has been solid for us all year. His physical presence, he is the anchor back there. He doesn’t get the rebounds that Cyril [Langevine] does, but he’s always in the right position.”

https://www.ricentral.com/sports/rams-r ... 5d353.html

[section(105)]

......this helps me to further adjust how I view the Harris project......dialing back the expectations.......and see many good contributions ahead.....

[Rhody72]

How will URI survive with our lack of depth at guard and one the best starting tandem guards in the country?

One good game does a turning point not make.

URI needs Tyrese on the floor for his offense at this moment anyways. He opens up the court.

Jeff has become an opportunistic scorer rather than a go-to scorer which is fine for a PG.

This is a team where playing minutes will depend match-ups and whose hot.

[ramster]

How will URI survive with our lack of depth at guard and one the best starting tandem guards in the country?

One good game does a turning point not make.

URI needs Tyrese on the floor for his offense at this moment anyways. He opens up the court.

Jeff has become an opportunistic scorer rather than a go-to scorer which is fine for a PG.

This is a team where playing minutes will depend match-ups and whose hot.

I created a separate thread for the subject of Guard Depth and Guard Performance as this is a thread about Jermaine. Maybe mods can move the guard play subject matter from here.

[Blue Man]

Since this tread exists - what a game by the kid yesterday.

I said it in the game thread but the last 2 games with Walker in the lineup have produced Jermaine's best 2 career games.

I am not sure if it's the confidence in knowing that there's someone to back him up if he picks up fouls, or if it's the fire to keep his spot because there
s someone so talented behind him - but either way this is exactly the kid I thought we were getting when I was cheering and watching his decision video 3 years ago.

If we have this Jermaine Harris the rest of the way - we will be a force in March.

[bigappleram]

Since this tread exists - what a game by the kid yesterday.

I said it in the game thread but the last 2 games with Walker in the lineup have produced Jermaine's best 2 career games.

I am not sure if it's the confidence in knowing that there's someone to back him up if he picks up fouls, or if it's the fire to keep his spot because there
s someone so talented behind him - but either way this is exactly the kid I thought we were getting when I was cheering and watching his decision video 3 years ago.

If we have this Jermaine Harris the rest of the way - we will be a force in March.

Improvement isn’t linear. IMO Jermaine has been steadily showing improvement all year. He’s gotten much better at hedging ball screens and then retreating to get back in good defensive position. He is fighting for rebounds with much more assertiveness. The game is slowing down for him. Let’s hope it continues, always takes bigs longer since they usually have played their entire HS careers as the biggest guy on the court.