Last year, at the conclusion of his freshman season at BYU, Demarcus Harrison announced that he would be going on his mission, which is a common enough thing for students at BYU. Dave Rose and the rest of the BYU staff planned accordingly, and made sure that there would be 13 scholarship players for the 2012-13 season. Again – completely normal and expected. But then Harrison informed the staff that he would not, in fact, be going on his mission. And this created an odd situation.
The staff had to inform him that they couldn't find a scholarship for him. Suddenly without the financial backing to play basketball, Harrison has now decided to transfer to Clemson, which is close to his hometown of Greenwood, South Carolina. Coming out of high school he was rated a 3* or 4*, depending on the service.
He will apply for a waiver to play this season, and has rescheduled (for now) his mission to begin after this year.
The 6-5, 190 pound shooting guard was lightly used in his only season at BYU. He played 19% of the team's minutes, and didn't put up very impressive statistics. He made 27% of his threes, 40% of his twos, and 53% of his free throws. Most alarming was that he took 27.4% of the shots when he was on the floor, which was the highest on the team (as it would have been on Clemson).
So, what does this mean for Clemson? If he receives a waiver to play this season (and I'm not sure why he would), then they're getting a high-volume, low-efficiency guard with good size. But Clemson is thin at his position, so he would likely earn some serious minutes. But the best case scenario might be for him to be forced to use his redshirt for this season and practice with the team. It's clear he needs someone to reign him in and make the most of his talent. The Clemson staff could use this as a development year to teach him how to better play within the system and then he'd still have three to play.
If he stays true to taking the 2013-14 season for his mission, then it means that Clemson fans won't even see him until three seasons from now. Which is fine. That way, the staff could re-evaluate at the end of this season. If they like what they see, he'll be returning to Clemson following his mission. If not, look for him somewhere else.
It's a tough position for Harrison, but it's also the most likely scenario.
