West Virginia looks for forward Harris to turn the page
With a short bench, West Virginia needs every hand on deck.
And for sophomore forward Josiah Harris the chance to turn the page must be refreshing. Through the first six games, Harris has played nearly 30 minutes per game but struggled to find his shot.
Harris has connected on just 22.7 percent of his field goal attempts and that number drops to 20 percent from three.
Overall, Harris is just 10-44 from the field on the season and has been held scoreless in each of the past two games while going 0-10 from the floor in the process.
Now, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been contributing in other areas as Harris is averaging 5.4 rebounds per game and is perhaps the best on the team in that department outside Jesse Edwards. But this offense needs players to make shots and while it isn’t all on Harris, he has the ability to do so.
Head Coach Josh Eilert said that Harris is taking good shots and believes they will start to fall. As a point of reference, he cited shootaround where he connected on all 10 of his attempts.
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“I don’t know what flipped the switch when it came game time, but I told him he’s got to get out of his own head and keep repping those shots because we’re going to need him to make them,” he said. “I need him to step into them with confidence and make them.”
That includes even when Harris is taking the ball to the rim, as he needs to show more confidence and get his head up on the rim and finish strong.
But even with the early struggles, Eilert has complete confidence in the skilled sophomore.
And the Mountaineers need it as teams have made it a point to collapse around Edwards when he receives the ball in the post, so finding those shooters and knocking them down is critical.
“He’s going to have a breakout game sooner than later. I have full faith in Josiah and what he brings to the table. I’m not worried about that, but I would certainly like to see more fall than I have,” Eilert said.
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