Dante Harris Still Has Something to Prove

Last March, Georgetown guard Dante Harris was named the Big East Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player as the Hoyas took home the title.

Think that would earn him a spot on the preseason all-conference team? Nope. 

Harris was left off the preseason All-Big East first team. You won’t find his name on the second team, either. He didn’t even garner an honorable mention.

Dante Harris is likely used to being overlooked at this point. Nothing in his basketball career has ever come easy.

Listed at a generous 6 feet tall, Harris has always been knocked for being undersized. Despite averaging 30.6 points and 9 assists per game during his junior season at Lakeway Christian Academy, Harris flew relatively under the radar coming out of high school. In fact, Georgetown was the only high major school to offer him a scholarship.

“He came in with a chip on his shoulder—wanted to prove that he was deserving to be here,” Patrick Ewing said at last month’s Big East Media Day. “I keep telling him, ‘You have to keep that chip on your shoulder.’”

It’s that same scrappy, win at all costs mentality that brings back memories of a certain Georgetown great of yesteryear: Allen Iverson. 

Harris himself doesn’t shy away from those comparisons. “I watched a lot of Allen Iverson,” said Harris last month. “The way he played, the way he was so hungry, the way he carried himself is how I try to model my game after.”

While Harris takes pride in silencing his doubters, he certainly doesn’t let that detract from his number one goal: winning. He is the quintessential team player, exactly what you’d want out of any point guard. After winning the Big East Tournament Most Outstanding Player last March, Harris was quick to deflect the attention away from himself and his individual accolades. “I give the Most Valuable Player to the team,” said Harris, “because I couldn’t have done it without them.”

It’s this attitude that makes him so easy to root for. And I have no doubts that Harris is the type of player that anyone would want to play alongside. Just check out this video of Dante celebrating when Jahvon Blair drains a three pointer.

Even in just his second year on the Hilltop, it’s clear that Harris is already the face of the Georgetown program. During recent Georgetown commit D’ante Bass’s official visit to campus last week, Harris appears to have taken Bass under his wing and embraced his role as the Hoyas’ top salesman. “He [Dante Harris] was with me the whole time,” said Bass in an interview with Hilltop Hoops. “He’s a good person. Everyone there is good, but for him to take me openly and tell me how everything is, I really did appreciate that a lot.”

When asked about taking on this role as a leader for this year’s team, Harris was once again humble in his response. “I’m ready to lead these guys. They’re going to teach me some things that I don’t know as well.”

It’s this willingness to learn that will prove vital for Harris in year two as Hoya. Despite all the successes of his freshman season, his stats from a year ago don’t exactly jump off the page. In just about 30 minutes per game, Harris averaged 8 points per game on 35% shooting to go along with 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per contest. 

With the Hoyas losing their top four scorers from a year ago—three to graduation and one to the transfer portal—Dante Harris will certainly be asked to shoulder a lot more of the scoring load this time around. Rumblings out of the Thompson Athletic Center indicate that the coaching staff believes that Harris is up for the challenge.

The most obvious area for improvement for Harris is his shooting, especially from long range. Last season, Harris shot a paltry 26% from beyond the arc on 77 attempts. Without the threat of the three-point shot, defenders can prioritize taking away driving lanes to the basket, thus neutralizing Harris’s biggest strength.

This is most obvious in pick-and-roll situations. With his quickness, court vision, and ability to finish at the rim, Harris is built to run the pick-and-roll. At times last season, however, teams took advantage of Harris’s spotty three-point shooting. By going under the screen, defenders conceded the three-point shot in favor of taking away driving lanes to the basket. The following thread gives a thorough breakdown of this.

Dante Harris was already a difficult matchup for just about anyone in the Big East. An improved jump shot would add yet another element to his game, making Harris a nightmare for opposing defenses.

If this video from Coach Crouch is any indication, Harris has been putting in the work on his shot this offseason. We’ll find out soon enough if that hard work has paid off.

When the Hoyas take the court at Capital One Arena for their season opener on Nov. 13, Dante Harris will no doubt receive the long-overdue ovation that he deserves. After just one season wearing the blue and gray, Harris has already cemented his name in Georgetown lore.

But Dante Harris isn’t done yet. Not if he has anything to say about it. Not by a long shot.