The Kentucky Wildcats freshmen backcourt of the Harrison twins are coming along. Sort of. The loss to Florida hurt their SEC title chances. However, Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison have potential to be one-and-done to the NBA type of guys anyway. Before new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver enforces his will and requires everyone to be out of high school two years before going.
John Calipari on Andrew Harrison, of the Harrison twins: “I think he made a statement to you guys that no one has ever criticized his game. Wow. Well, that has changed. But, you know, I think he’s responding.”
Q. On if he saw more positive from Andrew Harrison.
Coach Cal: He’s coming over to me and talking to me throughout the game. He’s recognizing things. Two things where he held the ball and (assistant coach) Rod (Strickland) said after, come on, let him do two things. But he’s playing. He’s a point guard. He’s playing like a point guard. He’s defending better. He’s talking to his team. I just came to terms that I’m going to coach like I’m 35. I don’t care. I’ll die when the season ends and go hide somewhere and shrivel up somewhere. But right now I’m going to just coach them and bring them along.”
Here’s where we have the Harrison twins in our latest 2014 NBA mock draft (full mock here).
18. Chicago- Andrew Harrison, PG, Kentucky, 6-5, Fr.
Since the Bulls dealt Marquis Teague and both Kirk Hinrich and D.J. Augustin are free agents, they could use some depth at the point guard position.
24. Houston- Aaron Harrison, SG, Kentucky, 6-5, Fr.
The Rockets need to add some scoring punch off their bench and Aaron Harrison is a capable all-around scorer with good size for the next level.
Moving on to the other member of the Harrison twins, Aaron Harrison. Here he’s asked every question you’re interested in and care about, and in every response he says nothing but canned corporatespeak. Notice he never strays from the party line that PR people coach him to say. Of course, I don’t believe a word of his responses.
On how much he’s thought about coming back next year …?“Not at all. I haven’t thought about it at all.”
On whether he monitors draft stock …?“No.”
On whether he pays attention to whether the experts say he’s in the draft or out …?“No, not really.”
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)