Senior Series: Elias Harris

Elias Harris as a freshman. Photo by SD Dirk.

The NBA Draft, something too many college fans hold in too high regard, seems to have an infatuation with freshmen. Elias Harris, the Zags' 6' 8'', 239 lbs power forward, was once one of those
freshmen. He spurned the draft to do what has become increasingly rare, spend four seasons as an elite college player.

Over those four seasons Harris left his mark on the program and its record books. He ranks second all-time in rebounds (all 1,670 of Jerry Vermillion's rebounds were grabbed while the Zags were an NAIA school), fourth in scoring (10 points behind Adam Morrison and 47 ahead of Matt Santangelo) and tenth in steals (the only non-guard in the top ten).



Elias Harris came to Gonzaga from Speyer, Germany. In 2009 he played for the German National Team in the European Championships. Despite playing internationally for a senior national team, nobody in the United States really knew about Harris. ESPN (still) doesn't list him on their Gonzaga recruiting page and, from a Sports Illustrated story published while still a freshman, the only NCAA school that contacted Harris besides Gonzaga was Delaware. Tommy Lloyd is a masterful international recruiter.

Once Harris arrived at Gonzaga it didn't take long for him to go from a nobody to a star in the making. In his debut, against Mississippi Valley State, he posted 18 points and seven rebounds in just 19 minutes of action. His real coming out party was in the Zags' next game. At #2 Michigan State, in a game the Zags nearly won, Harris had 17 points, nine rebounds and three steals. In that game against the Spartans, Harris was used on 30.1% of the Zags' possessions. The only player in the game with a higher usage% was Robert Sacre at 31.1%. The freshman was making a big, immediate impact.

The next two games saw Harris post just eight points per game. The non-conference part of his freshman season was up and down. On December 2nd, Harris recorded the first of his five double-doubles that season with a then career high 24 points and 11 rebounds. The follow up to that performance came as two points in a loss to Wake Forest. He scored four points in limited minutes in the next game, against D-III Augustana, before erupting for a new career high, 27, against Davidson in the Battle in Seattle. Once again, Harris followed up a huge performance with a small one. He scored four points in an embarrassing 35 point loss to Duke, at Madison Square Garden, in which the Zags scored just 41 points.

From that point Harris' output stabilized. He scored in double figures for the next 11 games, hitting 20+ six times and setting a still standing career high of 31 points in a win at Saint Mary's. By the end of the season Harris had amassed 508 points, a Gonzaga freshman record. He was named WCC Newcomer of the Year and made the All-WCC First Team.

Harris' numbers dropped in his sophomore season. He spent the months before the start of the season with the German National Team preparing for and playing in the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. Because of that he was unable to spend time with the Zags over the summer. That, coupled with nagging shoulder and achillies injuries, were a major cause of the dip in his numbers. His sophomore season caused him to fall off the radar of the NBA Draft people. Though this was rather unfair due to the injuries and the fact that his numbers really didn't fall all that much.

Hey look, he went from 38 assists as a freshman to 45 as a sophomore!
Click image for full size view.

Nevertheless, Harris failed to live up to the expectations placed upon him after his freshman year. He was named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List but finished the season as an All-WCC Honorable Mention.

While he would never quite regain his freshman self's ability to score, Harris' all-around game improved over the course of his career. As a junior he once again looked like the player he was as a freshman. The biggest improvements that season came in his defense and rebounding.

Harris posted 12 double-doubles as a junior while averaging 13.1 PPG (2nd on team) and 8.5 RPG (1st on team). He was used in 23.0% of possible possessions, 0.1% behind Robert Sacre. However he lead the team in percentage of available shots taken at 25.9%. He managed to be an efficient scorer despite that load, shooting 52.5% from the field and 41.4% from three (on 70 attempts). He took, and made, far more threes as a junior than in any other season. None of those threes would be as important as the one shown in the video below (at the time I thought this would be the catalyst for him to declare for the draft).

Entering his senior season, Harris was expected to be the Zags' dominant player. He led the team in either points (3 times), rebounds (5) or both (2) over the Zags' first six games. Against NAIA Lewis Clark State College he and Gary Bell were given a break and did not play. This breather also allowed  the talent that had been stuck on the bench to get some playing time. For Harris, this meant Kelly Olynyk.

The emergence of Olynyk cut into Harris' productivity. However, the two players formed the core of one of the if not the best frontcourt in the nation. Harris finished the season averaging 14.6 PPG (2nd) and 7.4 RPG (1st). His efforts earned him a spot on the All-WCC Team for the second straight year and third time overall.

In the WCC Tournament, Harris was absolutely dominant. In the Zags' first game against the surprising Lions of LMU, Harris led all scorers with 21 and was tied with Olynyk for a game high eight rebounds. Against Saint Mary's. it was Olynyk that finished with the game high in points but Harris that set the pace during the first half. Harris was named WCC Tournament MVP.

Harris had a four year career that, first, nobody saw coming and, second, few expected to last past year one. Over those four seasons he assured himself not just a place in the Gonzaga record books but among the program's all-time elite. If you are to look back at the four Zags teams on which he played, and look at the careers of all the players on all four of those teams, one thing becomes clear. No player that played with Elias Harris had a better career than Elias Harris.