It’s early, but the Juke Harris-Tennessee marriage is off to a slow start — that may be putting it mildly. Through two official games, Harris has just 13 total points. The Wake Forest transfer scored seven points in the home opener against Wofford, then just six points against Radford on Monday.
Harris is 3-13 from the field and 2-9 from three-point range. This production is a continuation of what we saw during the preseason scrimmages against Xavier and Duke.
“I think for Juke this is a new experience,”
Tennessee assistant coach Earl Grant said on Thursday. “He played 32 minutes a game last year, averaged 20 points a game. He took the most attempts on his team, played the most minutes. And his team depended on him to be their leading scorer all the time. I think now he’s on a team with a lot of guys who can do a lot of things.”
Harris played 35 minutes per game last season for the Demon Deacons, averaging over 21 points per game. He shot 44 percent from the field while handing a near 30 percent usage rate. So far this season, Harris has a 17.7 percent usage rate. That’s a number that’s likely to tick up quickly, but as Grant noted, Tennessee isn’t short on options.
Terrence Hill Jr. has proven to be the creator to this point. We’ve also seen Tyler Lundblade and Dai Dai Ames handle the ball and create quite a bit through two games. Troy Henderson has also gotten in on the action.
Still, the upside of this team likely travels through Harris, who has proven plenty capable of carrying a roster before.
“He’s trying to carve out what he has to do for Tennessee basketball for Tennessee basketball to win,” Grant continued. “And I think scoring is a big part of that, but he’s gotta defend, he’s gotta rebound, he’s gotta lead, he’s gotta talk. And he’s had more people around him that can score, as well, so he may have to facilitate at times.”
For Rick Barnes, it’s a moving target. He’s likely going to tinker with his starting lineups and rotations over the next several weeks. However, after Friday’s game against Tennessee State, things begin getting very real. The Volunteers welcome Michigan State — fresh off of a win over Duke this week — to Food City Center on Tuesday. The Players Era Tournament gets going a week after that in Las Vegas.
Getting Harris going would certainly be a massive boost heading into that massive event on Thanksgiving week.
