During an off-season of decidedly ball hungry players transferring schools, South Carolina’s Damontre Harris provides a very different story. The defensive specialist, who rarely shoots, is moving from one SEC school to another, and will enroll at Florida where he will sit out a year.
South Carolina’s coach – Darrin Horn – was fired, and Harris picked this time to move on.
As a freshman Harris only attempted 10.8% of the shots when he was on the floor. That bumped up to 13.7% as a sophomore. No Gator starter took less than 19% this year, and the last player that Gator head coach Billy Donovan coached who was a low-volume as Harris was Dan Werner a couple seasons ago.
So – for a player who hasn’t averaged 7 points in his first two seasons – why were his final two schools the caliber of Florida and Kansas? Defense. Offensive rebounding. Potential.
On the floor, Harris blocked 10.7% of all shots. That was third in the SEC behind Anthony Davis (13.8%) and Hunter Mickelson (13.5%). On the offensive glass he grabbed 10.6% of his team’s misses, which was the best on the Gamecocks roster. And in terms of potential, there’s a lot that hasn’t been tapped. The former consensus top-75 recruit is still thin and doesn’t quite understand how to play the post. Now he has a year in which to get bigger, and to learn the game. The end result is that he should be a solid starter on what will likely be a stacked roster.
