“I missed shot after shot after shot after shot,” Harris said. “I never got going. It’s the most frustrating things. Two years ago, I probably would have started crying in the game and told the coach, ‘Take me out of the game. I don’t want to go back in.'”

Know where he was two years ago?

That’d be Lawrence North, Harris’ high school in Indianapolis. It’s where Bob Huggins first got to know Harris and where we now know Harris acquired and sculpted his attitude.

Lawrence North, where Eric Montross, Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Jr., all played, was loaded when Harris was a senior and was supposed to be really, really good. Never happened and Harris was never cool with that.

“We had the most talented team in the state, by far, and we were under .500,” he said. “We don’t know what the answer was for that. Maybe we weren’t playing hard enough. Maybe we weren’t doing this or that.

“I know I was being a leader on and off the court and trying my hardest every game, but for that to be the outcome makes me so much more motivated going forward now.”

Harris ended up leading WVU in scoring last season and becoming the team’s most valuable player, even if he wasn’t the most willing. I always thought he was hesitant to really assert himself as a young player on a team with older players. But we also know even Huggins thought Harris came on quicker than expected. Maybe everyone was surprised.

So here we are now, a bad time for Harris, but a good time to revisit his high school days and the quotes here from his former coach.

“I think the 1980s was the last time we had a losing record,” said Keefer. “I couldn’t hardly deal with it. He couldn’t hardly deal with it. We had major and mid-major type players all on the floor at the same time and we couldn’t put it together.

“I finally benched some of them and played more of the role players with Eron being the main player.

“We got to be very good at the end and won four of five, but by that point, we hadn’t been very good. I think he had to get a little better through that and I think he had to grow up a little bit and realize he had to give up some things he thought he could do for the better of the team.”

His freshman season in college isn’t much different. Huggins has repeatedly moaned about players not being on the same page with him and likeminded Mountaineers. WVU is not the most talented team in the Big 12, but thinks it’s better than its record entering the final non-conference game against the Boilermakers.

Players have trended up and down throughout the season, earning and forfeiting playing time with every win and loss, but Harris has gradually, though consistently, seen his role blossom.

“Eron plays better with good players,” Keefer said. “If Eron thinks he’s far superior to the people around him, he’s probably going to shoot too much and drive into a crowd where there isn’t room and be very impatient on offense. It’s not hard to get mad at him for things like that.”