PAUL HARRIS
With SU's football season in the dumps, it's time to get excited for hoops. All-Everything freshman Paul Harris had a decent if unspectacular debut this week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCLoSjHTM00
Harris solid in Syracuse debut
Thursday, November 02, 2006
By Kim Baxter
Staff writer
Syracuse freshman Paul Harris came to the Orange with all the hype in the world. The world can stop hyping, because now there's a game with which to evaluate the burly rookie.
Harris made his Syracuse debut Wednesday in the Orange's 92-86 win over Division II Bryant.
Stifled a little by his own admitted nervousness and the Bulldogs' zone defense, Harris had eight points in 21 minutes off the bench. He missed six of nine shots (including a wide-open dunk that he blocked himself by hitting the front of the rim) and committed two turnovers. He grabbed four rebounds, three on the offensive end, and added two steals.
All in all, it was a solid debut for the youngster.
"A lot of pressure is on Paul to come in and do great things," said junior Josh Wright. "We try to keep him level-headed, keep him grounded. I think he came out and played well tonight."
Harris, a 6-foot-5 guard with a power forward's build, was a little harder on himself.
"I actually wanted to play better, but hey, we all have bad games," he said. "I'm not going to get down on myself. We have practice tomorrow. I'll work hard in practice."
Harris entered the game with 16:17 left in the first half to a rousing ovation from the Carrier Dome crowd. About one second later, he had attempted his first shot, an ill-advised 10-foot fadeaway off a baseline out-of-bounds play.
He impressed on defense, hounding the Bryant guards so much so that only senior Chris Burns was able to handle the ball against him. He also kept Burns from scoring for a 3-minute, 30-second stretch in the second half. Burns wasn't held scoreless much. He finished with a game-high 33 points.
Harris struggled on offense against Bryant's 2-3 zone defense. He's a penetrator whose jump shot is the weakest part of his game. "The worst thing that could have happened for Paul was that they played zone the whole game," said SU coach Jim Boeheim. "He's obviously much better, much more suited right now to playing against man-to-man. But I thought he did a good job. I thought he was good on defense. There's just a lot of work to be done. He's not used to playing away from the basket so much. That's something that's going to take time to get used to."
posted by Adminstrator @ 5:29 PM
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