ILLAWARRA have completed their roster with the signing of Fresno State University’s all-time leading scorer and Mountain West Conference player of the year Marvelle Harris for the upcoming season.
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In his senior year in 2016, the 196cm shooting guard led Fresno State to the Mountain Conference championship, picking up tournament MVP with 17.7 points per game, in a season where he averaged 20.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
The 22-year-old also turned out for the New York Knicks in the D-League and knocked back a number of offers from European clubs to sign with the Hawks.
"After evaluating all of my offers, coming to Australia to play for coach Bevo and the Hawks was an easy decision,” Harris said.
“I had opportunities to make more money elsewhere, but my goal is to play in the NBA so I was more concerned with overall fit. Coach Bevo's resume for player development speaks for itself, I feel very confident that I will be a better player when I leave Wollongong.”
Beveridge, who lent on a recommendation from NBL great and current assistant coach at Boise State University John Rillie, said Harris was the complete player he was looking for to complete his roster.
“In [Kevin] Lisch and [Kirk] Penney we had guys who, when things got tough, could just put the ball in the hoop,” Beveridge said.
“Obviously we’ve got Rotnei [Clarke] coming back that can do that but I wanted another player who could just flat-out score, a guy who when things break down we can just get him the ball and he can make things happen.
“He’s not a shooter like Rotnei’s a shooter but he’s incredible at getting to the foul-line, he can shoot the ball, he can post-up, he can use on-ball screens but I really like his all-round game. He’s a very good passer, a good rebounder, the last two years he’s been all-defensive team as well so to me he’s the whole package.
“He’s got some swagger, he believes he should be in the NBA so he’s got a chip on his shoulder in a positive way because he wants to prove himself so it’s a really good fit for us. To me he’s a winner and that’s the type of person I want in the team.”
After the high profile departures of Lisch and Penney at the end of last season, Beveridge said he couldn’t be happier with the roster he’s put together ahead of his second season in charge.
“We have a really good feel in the group,” Beveridge said.
“We had six guys come back, we’ve added two great young Aussies in Mitch Norton and Nick Kay.
“You complement that with three new imports as well who’ve all got their great strengths, I think we’ve addressed a lot of the areas we needed to.”