Jared Harris Receives Fresh Start to Career on High Plains

LARAMIE -- The list of suitors is beyond impressive. It's also two pages long.

Kansas extended an offer to Jared Harris. So did the who's who of his home state: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU and Houston.

Baylor obviously didn't get the memo.

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Arkansas did. Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Kansas State did, too. There were others. Many, many others.

The talented four-star guard from Silsbee chose Memphis, where he dreamed of playing for former NBA star Penny Hardaway and cutting down the nets once the calendar rolled over to March.

The Tigers did win the American Athletic Conference regular season title. They claimed the league's tournament title, too. Their NCAA Tournament run, though, was a brief one, falling to Colorado State 78-70 in the opening round.

Harris, Memphis' lone high school recruit in 2024, appeared on the court for just three total minutes in that all-important month on the hoops schedule. He never played more than eight minutes in any game, instead watching Tulsa transfer PJ Haggerty hog a majority of the minutes.

"They never felt any trust in their freshmen," Harris said. "It's really hard to play as a freshman there. And they told me that while the season was going on instead of before. Then, they didn't let me redshirt. So, the only thing I could do is just keep working hard at practice and hope I get opportunities."

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He didn't. But he does now.

Harris inked with Wyoming this offseason after fielding offers from a number of mid-majors. The big boys, this time, didn't come calling. The lack of film, coupled with a bustling free-agent market, led him to this place.

So did assistant Nick Whitmore. Sundance Wicks, though, closed the deal.

The Cowboys' energetic second-year head coach didn't shoot a text or a quick phone call, either, he jumped on FaceTime. He didn't just enquire about the player, Wicks wanted to know about the man -- and his family.

"I felt like it was love," Harris added. "They really wanted me."

That's an understatement.

"He's super talented," Wicks said. "I always tell him, man, he's got such a ceiling. His ceiling is so high. I don't quite know where his floor is yet, because he hasn't been on the court at the Division-I level, but I do know that, from our practice stats, he wins a lot on whatever team he's on, and he impacts winning that way."

Chris McMillian said the athleticism is there. So is the talent and size. Wyoming's newest assistant added, anything that hampers the 6-foot-2 Harris will strictly be between the ears.

"You can be a nice guy off the court, but at some point in time, you got to be a dog on the court every single possession like you have something to prove," McMillian continued. "So, I think once he can turn that switch on, because he's shown glimpses, he's got a chance to be special."

How special?

"All the potential is in him, for him to be one of the better players to ever come out of Wyoming," he added.

That's not just hyperbole, either. His head coach feels the same way.

Wicks, in only a way he can, echoed McMillian's sentiments when it comes to Harris' mental makeup.

"He's like Ricky Vaughn. He's a 'Wild Thing.'" Wicks said with his trademark smile, referring to the flame-throwing closer in the baseball movie Major League. "He's got a 100-mile-per-hour heater, but, like, we got to get him in the strike zone sometimes, right? You're going to see a little 'Wild Thing' out there every once in a while from ol' Jared Harris."

Harris will be the first to admit he needs to find consistency in his game. In the past, he said, he has tended to "zone out" during games When that happens, graduate transfer Leland Walker and the other leaders on this new-look roster are there to dish out a friendly shove.

Harris respects that. He craves it.

"He can be on or not on," said Walker, flashing a brace-covered smile. "If he's on, he's really on. He should have a great impact on this season."

Harris certainly has plenty of people in his corner.

"It's amazing," he said, taking a quick glimpse around the Arena-Auditorium. "They have so much trust and faith in me. It feels like home."