Harper an uncommon freshman
AUBURN | Jared Harper isn’t playing like a true freshman.
Through the first two games, Auburn’s point guard is second on the team averaging 14.5 points and has played a team-high 53 minutes.
“It feels good to do that at this level,” Harper said.
It may look like it’s come easy for Harper but he’s put in a lot of hard work since arriving at Auburn this summer. He’s only 5-foot-10 but is a dead-eye shooter from 3-point range and is not afraid to take it to the rim.
Most importantly, he has the maturity and intelligence to make a quick transition from high school to college.
“Jared is a very smart player. He picks up on everything really quickly,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “In addition to his quickness and his skill and his ability to sort of take the game over, he's such a quick study that he's able to play with so much more freedom than a lot of the other players who are just trying to learn it.
“He's got a mind for spacing and where everybody is supposed to be on the floor. When we run a play, he knows why we run that play and he understands it, which is rare.”
In just his second college game Monday against Georgia State, Harper had a team-high 19 points and added four rebounds and three steals, making 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. He leads the team in 3-point shooting percentage (.556) and steals (7).
Not bad for a player that was ranked the nation’s No. 56 overall player in the 2016 class by Rivals.com coming out of Pebblebrook in Mableton, Ga.
“It’s been great, a lot of learning, just getting adjusted to the players, my teammates, opponents, scouts, just school life—everything. Just putting it all together,” Harper said.
Auburn, off to its first 2-0 start in six years, hosts Eastern Kentucky Thursday at 8 p.m. CT on the SEC Network in game two of the Cancun Challenge.
The Colonels are 1-1 on the season with a win over IUPUI and an overtime loss to UNC-Wilmington. Sophomore forward Nick Mayo is averaging 22 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
“Nick Mayo has a chance to be a pro. He’s a very talented inside player that they’ve done a wonderful job developing,” Pearl said. “In two games this team has shot 87 free throws, in two games. They shoot it from free and they shoot it from three. And they’re well coached. Their coach is a disciple of Rick Pitino and I’ve always said that he’s been the toughest matchup that I’ve ever had, and I’ve coached against most of them.
“So they do good stuff and they’ll expose more things. We’ll finally see some man-to-man, they play 3-2 matchup, but we haven’t seen man-to-man yet really. And so it’s going to be another new test for us.”