Reserve guard Blake Harris leaves the NC State basketball program
Blake Harris will make another stop on his basketball journey.
The 6-3 point guard from Chapel Hill has left the N.C. State program, the school announced on Thursday.
Harris began his career at Missouri, before spending the 2018-19 season as a reserve for the Wolfpack. He played for three different high school teams during his prep career, before developing into a four-star recruit at Word of God Academy in Raleigh.
N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts was not available for comment on Thursday. Harris’ father, Bernardo, did not respond to a text message from the N&O on Thursday.
Harris averaged 3.1 points and 1.5 assists per game as a sophomore for N.C. State. He had some early productive games during the nonconference schedule. He had a career-best 15 points in a win over Western Carolina and eight points and eight assists in a win over USC-Upstate.
During ACC play, Harris’ minutes went down. He averaged 6.4 minutes in 12 ACC games (out of 18). He did play more during the postseason, with 13 minutes in the ACC tournament loss to Virginia and 15 in the NIT loss to Lipscomb.
Harris added an extra ball-handler and aggressive defender but was inconsistent. How much of an impact his exit will have will depend on the health of guards Markell Johnson and Braxton Beverly. Those two were getting the majority of minutes ahead of Harris last season and were on track to do the same this season.
After a standout senior year at Word of God, Harris was ranked as the No. 121 recruit in the country by 247Sports and had originally committed to play for Washington in 2017. The Huskies made a coaching change in the offseason, and Harris ended up at Missouri. He left the SEC program after the first semester of the 2017-18 season and then was granted a waiver by the NCAA to play for N.C. State from the beginning of the 2018-19 season.
Harris could make a similar move from N.C. State. If he waits until the fall semester ends to transfer, he could be eligible at his next school at the same point during the 2020-21 season. He has two full years of eligibility remaining.
Harris is the seventh player to transfer out of the program during Keatts’ three-year tenure and third since the start of last season.
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 3:36 PM.
