‘Old lady’ Tyasha Harris hits 1,000 points — and Dawn Staley sees lots more to come
Dawn Staley couldn’t help making a joke.
“I think it’s great. You know, I wanted Ty to hit that mark probably two years ago,” she said in the aftermath of South Carolina’s 112-32 demolition of USC Upstate on Thursday.
Ty is senior guard Tyasha Harris, and that mark was 1,000 career points. The milestone came for Harris in the third quarter of the win, as she slashed through the defense and into the lane for a layup.
And for several years now, Staley has been talking about wanting Harris to become more of a scoring threat. But as Staley also knows, Harris is the “consummate” point guard — she’s more comfortable facilitating others’ buckets than creating her own — so much so that when asked Thursday, she said she couldn’t even remember her first career points. (For the record, they were late in the third quarter against Ohio State in 2016, after she already had three assists).
That’s just part of her personality. And it’s something Staley said she loves and wants to continue with the program even after she graduates.
“Ty has always been an old lady, meaning, you know, that she’s just always in control, like you never really see her out of control,” Staley said. “I just see her as more mature, more of a leader, a vocal leader on and off the court. She’s someone that we are trying to get every ounce of her last year in helping our youngsters grow up, helping our point guards be better point guards.”
For her part, Harris said she has changed since her freshman season, when she could sit back, feed the ball to a lineup of future pros and let them take over.
“I think I’m just more aggressive, and I understand the game better,” Harris said. “And I feel like the game has slowed down, so it’s easier to pick and just kind of have my assists and points.”
And so it was both ironic and fitting that to reach 1,000 career points, Harris had to tie the team high with 18 points Thursday. She’s only scored that many points nine other times in 111 career games, but coming into this year, both teammates and coaches were urging her to “get hers” on offense, and they were well aware of how close she was Thursday.
“My teammates were hassling me about it, and they were like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get you the ball,’” Harris said.
Their reaction on the bench was immediate when she finally did it, becoming the 34th player in program history and eighth under Staley to reach the milestone. Now, Staley wants to see more.
“I think the sky’s the limit. I think she’ll put probably a lot more points this particular season, because she’s shooting the ball well and she’s shooting great shots,” Staley said.
With 300 more points, Harris would crack the top 20 in the program record book. And she’s still on pace to break the school’s career assist record. With six helpers Thursday, Harris is now at 538 for her career, 77 away from Cristina Ciocan’s mark of 615.
All told, Harris is now just one of three Gamecocks ever to have 1,000 career points and 500 career assists, and she has a strong chance of becoming the only player in program history with to join the 1,200-600 club.
It’s safe to say she’s found some balance between distributing and scoring, something Staley credited this year in part to freshman Zia Cooke and the partnership she’s formed with Harris. It’s a relationship Harris herself noted in the preseason that has benefited both the young point guard and the veteran.
“They’re helping each other play off each other a little bit better now,” Staley said of Harris and Cooke. “I think maybe two weeks ago Zia was probably always thinking, ‘Shot, shot, shot, shot.’ Now she’s utilizing another skill set of hers to pass the ball. I think she got that from Ty, you know, Ty’s unselfishness.
“But when they’re able to put it all together, meaning have that killer instinct to to shoot it, to call their own number, to make the one more pass ... this is just a tip of the iceberg.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 10:23 AM.
