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Gator's actions speak volumes

By MIKE CAMUNAS
Published December 15, 2006

LAND O'LAKES - Appropriately, in basketball, a player has no sleeves. At least not on his jersey.

But Land O'Lakes junior Jerome Harrison does, and on those metaphorical sleeves his emotions are visible like large patches.

"He's a very emotional kid," coach Dave Puhalski said. "On and off the court. You want him to be that type of kid, that type of leader, but he's just not. He just won't want to assume the leadership role.

"But when he's making shots, you see the intensity of the team go up. You see they feed off him."

Said Harrison: "I'm just pushing everyone to the best of their ability. At first we started off a little sloppy; now we've cleaned up. I want everyone to do their best and pass the ball more, so we play better."

Harrison's emotions may get the best of him, especially when he was nearly reduced to tears after Friday's 57-55 loss to Ridgewood and hid his face with his jersey.

But according to Puhalski, when the 6-foot-3 Harrison transferred from Wesley Chapel in March, he was a "great addition that gave us another scorer. That's for sure." Puhalski would like more from his star forward, even if it's not leadership.

"He's needs to be willing to play defense," Puhalski said. "He needs to get out there and shut down his man, but play the team defense as well."

Puhalski said there is no single leader for his Gators, and senior Dontarrius Thomas agreed, saying the team has more than one building block.

"We have a lot of leaders on the team, but we try to listen to each other," said Thomas, who transferred from Wharton his junior year. "We have too many athletes on the team for there to be just one guy, one face of the team.

"But everyone has a specialty. Jerome, he's the shooter."

There's something else at which Harrison excels.

"The most underrated part about Jerome is his passing game," Puhalski said. "He's not only the team's leading scorer, but he leads the team in assists as well. If we could just get him to work on his defense, he could be the most complete player around."

But it's not all Harrison. Puhalski wants the team centered around three players: Harrison, Thomas and junior P.J Potts.

"I think those three the team is being built around - it's great to have three to build on instead of one," Puhalski said. "And if Jerome and Dontarrius played together defensively as well as they do offensively, they'd be unstoppable."

Thomas feels Harrison, who averages 18.3 points per game, will never be a vocal leader.

"He really doesn't lead by words," Thomas said. "He takes it all on the court, and everyone follows from there. That's what gets me hyped: the way he plays. That gets me so hyped that all I want to do is play harder because of what he puts on the court."

All of Harrison's emotions are out there for all of Pasco County to see, and though they affect his teammates, he clearly doesn't want to dominate the team.

"This isn't my team - it's everyone's," Harrison said. "We all have to work on being part of (the team). It's not mine."

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 21:30:30]