Eighteen months ago, Maurice Harkless was a lanky, 6’8”, 185-pound rising senior from New York City with interest from high-major programs across the country.
That summer, in 2010, Harkless attended Hoop Group Elite camp at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Reading is a skeleton of its former self since the booming manufacturing industry of the 1950s packed up and headed out of town, and is left, today, looking like a crumbling snapshot of where it was at its height.
But, when Harkless was in Reading, in front of hundreds of college coaches, he shone bright, justifying his ranking as a top 50 prospect in the Class of 2011.
“Even back then, I could tell he was a really good player,” says Harney. “He has a world of potential and clearly is the future of St. John’s. His composure is fantastic. He doesn’t look like a freshman out there on the court. With hard work, I definitely think he has pro potential.”
These days, Harkless keeps the baby-faced appeal, but lost the frailty in his frame and is poised to be the poster child, rather “poster man-child”, of Steve Lavin’s young St. John’s Red Storm.
After posting an impressive 14 points and 14 rebounds in just 25 minutes in St. John’s first exhibition vs. C.W. Post, Harkless had another double-double, with 20 points and 13 rebounds, against St. Mary’s.
“Coach said that it really kind of help because we needed a game like this,” said Harkless. “We needed a game where we could come together towards the end. We were losing with five, six minutes left and that kind of pulled us together. We had tighter huddles, we had more talking on defense. We became more of a team during that time.”
After being recruited as a small forward, the rulings of ineligibility handed down to fellow front-court recruits JaKarr Sampson and Norvel Pelle will force Harkless into playing more at the power forward and, perhaps, the center position.
His length on the block has been a complement to the brawn and muscle of God’sgift Achiuwa.
“I’m not really worried about the position,” says Harkless of his shift. “Even as a small forward or shooting guard in high school, I always rebounded. It’s not really different for me.”
“Coach Lavin and I watched him probably more than any player we watched last year on the [AAU circuit]…and one thing we noticed about him was he did rebound,” said assistant coach Rico Hines after the win over St. Mary’s. “He rebounded in traffic. I think people don’t realize how good of a rebounder he is. He’s a tough kid, people don’t give him credit for being that.”
Since Harkless committed to the Red Storm in August of 2010, there were indications that he would be the face of a new era.
He was the first domino to fall in Lavin’s 2011 recruiting class, was a New York City star who had decided to stay home, carries himself with maturity beyond his years, and, to add to the storyline, he had, months earlier, withdrawn a commitment from rival UConn to join the Red Storm.
At Big East Media Day, assistant coach Mike Dunlap called Harkless an on-the-court leader of this team.
Following the close win over St. Mary’s, with Harkless sitting between his teammates D’Angelo Harrison and Nurideen Lindsey, he seemed to fit the part.
“Honestly, I think we’re ahead of where I thought we’d be,” he said into the microphone, with his deep voice reverberating through the media room. “We came together and we became a team a lot quicker than people would think. That’s the only way we’ll be successful is if we all stick together and have each other’s back on and off the court. I think we’re doing a real good job doing that.”
[…] Knutson, who is one inch taller than the biggest Red Storm forwards, God’sgift Achiuwa and Moe Harkless. Knutson is no slouch offensively himself, coming off a sophomore season that saw him average […]