MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jordan Harrison is plenty established over three seasons of college basketball, the last two of which she’s spent at West Virginia since following head coach Mark Kellogg from Stephen F. Austin.
As Harrison readies for her senior campaign, she does so looking to take the next step both in terms of production and leadership for a Mountaineer squad that will rely heavily on her in the upcoming season.
“I definitely see more production in assists, shots, even rebounding,” Harrison said. “I don’t really see much of a huge change, but there are certain shots I can’t turn down that I would have turned down last year. Just more production and being more aggressive, because my teammates are definitely going to need me this year.”
Harrison’s consistency has been one of her top traits since arriving in Morgantown. She averaged 13.5 points and 5.2 assists while recording 96 steals in her first season at WVU and followed it up with similar statistics a year ago — 13.7 points and 4.5 assists, though her steals decreased by 25 and turnovers increased by 11 to 105.
Harrison has played and started in all 66 games over the last two seasons, enhancing the confidence Kellogg has in the point guard ahead of her final go-around.
“Everybody’s bank account grows every day. Every time you’re on time, every time you do the right thing and you’re getting to treatments, making good grades and busting your butt in practice, your bank account grows,” Kellogg said. “If you’re not doing those things, we’re taking some withdrawals out of that thing. It’s a fluctuating system. Jordan, obviously, because we’ve been together the longest, that bank account is significant.”
Harrison’s role will change at least somewhat playing without her backcourt mate each of the last two seasons in JJ Quinerly.
Of the five returning WVU players from last season, Harrison and Sydney Shaw were double-figure scorers, and that duo will be asked to provide more scoring punch without Quinerly, who led the squad by a wide margin last season at 20.4 points per game.
“It has its pros and cons,” Harrison said. “Just shifting my mind to be more aggressive, which can be easy or can be hard. I’m still the point guard so I still have to facilitate, but also know when to score. But I think I’ll be fine.”
Harrison is using what remains of the preseason to continue acclimating to playing with six newcomers to the WVU program and how her game fits in alongside teammates she’s yet to have any meaningful action with.
“We have individual goals and team goals that we want to accomplish going into these scrimmages, but for me, most important is getting chemistry with my teammates,” Harrison said.
Recognizing there will be an adjustment period regardless of what’s accomplished throughout the preseason, Harrison expressed confidence in a roster that hopes to help WVU build off back-to-back 25-win campaigns.
“We have a lot of new players. Once they learn, I think we’ll be fine,” she said. “We have more options. We have a deeper bench. That’ll be something new that people get to see.”
If the Mountaineers are able to maintain recent success or expand on it, Harrison believes that would bring a sense of pride to both Mountaineer players and coaches.
“That would give kudos to our coaches and our staff that they can recruit well and they are winners,” Harrison said. “Not one player determines the success of this program. Obviously JJ was a great player, but it shows how good the recruiting is if there is no drop-off this year, which we plan on not having.”