Harris Creates Storm Off the Bench

Dix Hills native Tobias Harris found himself on the bench at the start of his University of Tennessee basketball game Wednesday night. Not that head coach Bruce Pearl had lost confidence in his freshman sensation.            

Rather, blame it on the weather.              

The storm that shut down much of the area on Monday prevented Harris from returning to Tennessee, thus causing him to miss practices on Monday and Tuesday. But Harris created his own storm in the final three minutes of the Volunteers game against the University of Tennessee-Martin, scoring eight consecutive points in the game’s final three minutes to lead his team to a 68 – 62 win. For the game, Harris scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds (his second, double-double) in 25 minutes.

That victory upped the sluggish Volunteers’ record to 9 – 3. After defeating the then-third-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers in mid December, Tennessee had dropped three straight games to the University of Oakland (Michigan), UNC-Charlotte and USC. The Volunteers have dropped out of the national rankings, and are currently out of the AP poll for the first time in 26 weeks of action.

For his part, Harris continues to be a bright spot for Volunteer fans. The Half Hollow Hills West alumnus ranks seventh in the Southeast Conference in scoring (14.9 ppg). In a December 23 66 – 65 win against Belmont University that ended the Vols three-game losing streak, Harris scored 17 points, and recorded career-bests in steals (5) and blocked shots (3). He’s currently second on the team in scoring.

Here’s a look at Harris’ team ranking in several categories.

Category                        Rank

Scoring                             2

Field Goal %                   3

Field Goals Made         2

3-point %                         1

3-points Made               3

Minutes                            2

Each week, Dix Hills Patch will update readers on Half Hollow Hills alumnus Tobias Harris, now at the University of Tennessee.