Blake Harper earned his 12th straight MEAC Rookie of the Week honor, the conference announced on Monday.
The 6-8 guard out of Washington D.C. averaged 14 points, 7.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds in two games last week. Thus far this season Harper leads the MEAC with 6.8 rebounds a game.
“As well as he’s playing,” Howard Coach Kenny Blakeney told the MSR on Harper, “he’s an even better young man. The game is so new to him, so fresh. He had to fight and earn opportunities.”
According to the coach, Harper played behind several stars on his high school team last season: “Twelve months ago, he was coming off the bench at Gonzaga High School here in Washington, D.C.,” continued Blakeney. “To see his transformation from then to now, and how hard he’s worked.”
The Bison coach compares Harper to Jemery Lin, a Harvard University grad that went undrafted in 2010 but played for eight NBA clubs, and now playing in Taiwan – both players are similar in stature (Lin is 6-3, and Harper is 6-8 and seemingly still growing) and, especially in Lin’s case, took the basketball scene by storm, noted Blakeney.
“He’s a clean cut kid and doesn’t look like a guy who’s a typical college basketball player,” said Blakeney on Harper. “Jeremy was an Asian kid and you didn’t expect him to be 6-3, 6-4 – lightening quick, lightening fast. You didn’t expect him to be tough.
“Blake’s body hasn’t developed yet and (you) don’t expect this young man to be an absolute killer,” marveled the Bison HC. “But when he gets on the court, it’s a different thing. He just needs to continue to play.”
The freshman and 6-0 graduate guard Joshua Strong, a walk-on after graduating from Minnesota-Duluth were voted by their teammates team co-captains this season.
Strong, the only Division I active player in law school, has missed several games due to a concussion. “He’s a big part of our team,” said Blakeney on the second-year Howard law student. “He recovering slower because of his work load academically – he absolutely is killing it in law school right now. I’m just so proud of him on and off the court.”
Finally, Howard men’s basketball is in good hands, thanks to players such as Harper and Strong.
“It speaks to how high their character and how they are as men,” surmised their coach.
MEAC weekly honorees
Norfolk State guard Diamond Johnson was named the conference’s Player of the Week, Shakiria Foster (North Carolina Central) is Rookie of the Week, and her teammate Jada Tiggett made this week’s Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Johnson scored 24 points in a win over Howard last weekend. Foster averaged 11 points, four boards, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals for the Eagles, including a career-high six assists in a win over South Carolina State. Tiggett set a new career high 13 rebounds in a win over Pfeiffer, and averaged a double-double (11.5 points, 10.0 rebounds) in a 2-0 week for the Eagles.
Minneapolis native Kierra Wheeler among other top performers recorded a double-double in Norfolk State’s win over Howard with 17 points, 10 rebounds, three steals, a block, and an assist.
In men’s hoops, Norfolk State’s graduate guard Brian Moore, Jr. was named the MEAC Player of the Week. Moore’s teammate Kuluel Mading was named Defensive Player of the Week, and Howard’s Blake Harper, who was featured above, won this week’s Rookie of the Week honors.
Moore Jr. led the Spartans with 30 points in a win over Howard last weekend. He averaged 25 points, 5.5 rebounds, five assists and 1.0 steals for the week.
Mading scored 27 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks in a 2-0 week for the Spartans, including a double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) against Washington Adventist, and hit 11 points in the win over Howard.
Howard’s Marcus Dockery averaged 22 points, four boards, two assists and 3.5 steals for the Bison and was listed among the top performers recognized by the MEAC.