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| Photo Credit: BYU Photo |
In a bit of shocking August news, coach Dave Rose announced today that Damarcus Harrison — a promising young player and BYU's highest profile recruit in probably a decade — would be transferring to Clemson, effective immediately.
Beyond the normal surprise that comes naturally when a player transfers unexpectedly, this one was even more unusual because most Cougar fans expected Harrison to be out of sight and out of mind for the next two years. Last anyone heard, he was planning on leaving to serve an LDS mission this summer, taking him out of the hoops game for an extended period of time. Based on today's events, it looks like those plans have been slightly altered.
According to available news reports, it appears Harrison's bishop has refused to submit his mission papers until at least January for whatever reason, leaving Damarcus with quite a bit of time on his hands. When he called Rose to inquire about possibly coming back to school this season, he was informed that his scholarship had already been given away to another player for the next two years. Harrison said he couldn't afford to pay his own way to walk on, and ultimately decided to transfer to Clemson — a program that heavily recruited him out of high school and that is close to his Greenville, S.C., home. He is still planning to serve a mission.
Regardless of the details, the big picture remains the same: This is a significant loss for the program. Some fans immediately took to Twitter to comment that they weren't worried about the future impact of losing Harrison, that he hadn't lived up to expectations last season and that Rose's incoming recruiting classes are so stacked that his absence will go unnoticed. Those people are both right and wrong.
They are right that the future is exceptionally bright for the Cougars, in terms of recruiting. The 2013 and 2014 classes are a veritable embarrassment of riches by BYU's standards, featuring several nationally ranked prospects at virtually every position. There will certainly be plenty of highly ranked talent coming into the program over the next few seasons. There is no denying that.
However, it's also important to remember that many of those star recruits will leave on their own missions at some point, leaving extended holes in the lineup — holes that Harrison was supposed to help fill. Recruiting is never simple at BYU. Missions make everything complicated. Just fielding a team year in and year out is like assembling a massive puzzle, and Rose now has one less talented piece to make it all work.
And that is where the Harrison critics are very, very wrong. To write off a kid of Harrison's skill level and potential after an underwhelming freshman year is both short-sighted and foolish. Sure, he didn't come in and light the world on fire — but neither do most freshmen who aren't planning to immediately make the jump to the NBA. It usually takes awhile for players to adjust to the faster pace and increased physicality of the college game, and it appeared Damarcus' experience was no different.
This dismissive attitude is likely a product of expectations gone crazy. It's not like he was terrible or anything. In fact, there were several bright spots last season where Harrison's massive potential shone through, particularly his excellent performance in BYU's historic comeback win over Iona in the NCAA tournament. The Cougars simply don't win that game without him. If it was announced immediately following that game that Harrison was planning to transfer, I believe we would be hearing a very different response. How quickly we forget.
All in all, this is a huge loss for the program. It's impossible to predict the future, but Harrison would have likely grown into a substantial contributor for this team, and maybe even a star. The coaching staff obviously believed that — if they didn't, I have to believe they wouldn't have spent multiple years and countless airline miles flying cross-country to recruit him. That should tell us everything we need to know about how highly Rose and company thought of him.
It's a sad situation, and it's no one's fault. You can't blame Rose for giving away the available scholarship to a stopgap player, and you can't blame Harrison for wanting to play and make the most of his time after having a wrench unexpectedly thrown into his mission plans. Regardless of what a few misguided critics may say, Damarcus had a big role to play in this program and a bright future ahead of him. In fact, he still does — but he's unfortunately part of someone else's puzzle now. I wish him the best of luck.
