Connor Harding Enters Transfer Portal

[Fido]

Players' Moms complaining about their kids' playing time on social media is such an eye roll. Especially when it includes bashing the performance of one of their kid's teammates.

[GAKunkel]

Lee is a bigger loss.

I haven't read or heard of anyone else sharing this opinion. Of the two Idaho players, I always felt Harding was the more important. But, then again, I knew Connor when I lived in Pocatello, and you follow Lee's mother on Twitter.

My perception is that the coaching staff feels the need to increase the athleticism on the team. I'm all in favor of it as long as they don't make the Gary Crowton mistake: Getting athletes while minimizing the honor code. I doubt Pope and the others will do this, but there is the temptation.

2019/2020 stats:
Lee - 17.3 min/game, 7 pts, 3.2 rebounds, 62% from the field, and 50% from three.
Harding - 22.6 min/game, 6.1 pts, 3.2 rebounds, 52% from the field, and 44% from three.

2020/2022 stats:
Lee - 10 min/game, 3.7 pts, 2.0 rebounds, 52% from the field, and 32% from three.
Harding - 21 min/game, 5.4 pts, 2.6 rebounds, 40% from the field and 32% from 3.

First, both players regressed this last season. As mentioned, I think this had a lot to do with the offense really not flowing like it did in 2020 with Haws and company. There was a lot of dribbling at the top of the key with Barcello and Avarette.

But from a statistic standpoint, in a per min basis, Lee is the better player than Harding. Course they play different positions and this is only offensive stats, but Lee is the better rebounder and shooter when looking things at a per minute basis.

Harding, came in highly rated. Lee did not.

If you look at Lee's numbers for this last season and double his minutes, assuming he produced at the same rate, his numbers would of been better than Harvard's and he would of been on par with Haarms.

Next season, we will have Harward at the 5 and Baxter. Baxter is more of a 4 than a 5. We will miss having Lee unless Pope can find someone better. We have plenty of shooting guards. Lee is the bigger loss.

[jadesroom]

Harding and Lee were both equally herarlded coming out of high school. Each had led his team to the Idaho 5-A state championship, each was Idaho's Gatorade Player of the Year his senior year, each was the Idaho Statesman Player of the Year, and each was labeled a 4-star recruit by ESPN.

Insofar as this year is concerned, Lee's lumbering style makes him the more expendable. I remember watching him in the 5-A tournament his senior year and thinking that he reminded me of Jake Shoaf, good role player but nothing spectacular. I'm not saying that Lee isn't a loss, especially given Baxter propensity for injury. However, I still contend that Harding's leadership and athleticism make him the greater loss. The battle for playing time among the fours and fives will still be fierce next year. Lee is the odd-man out on a team that will feature Harward, Baxter, possibly Haarms (Conference defensive player of the year), Lohner, George, and Atiki.

[GAKunkel]

Haarms is not coming back. Unless he changes his mind from a couple months ago, but he has said he wasn't taking the extra COVID year. Wants to go pro.

Lohner can't play the 5. George is more a 3 than a 4 and definitely not a 5. Atiki is raw and not a 5.

The only competition at the 5 next season is Harward and Baxter unless Pope goes out and gets another transfer. Baxter is a question mark. I'm not seeing a battle between the 5s.

[Fido]

Connor Harding transfers to UVU.

[scott715]

Makes perfect sense since his wife is on the women's team.

[SpiffCoug]

I thought Harding was going to be used more like Jake Toolson was last year and was going to be finding himself with all kinds of open perimeter looks.

[GAKunkel]

I thought Harding was going to be used more like Jake Toolson was last year and was going to be finding himself with all kinds of open perimeter looks.

The ball rarely went back out to the perimeter once it went to Haarms or Harward. Childs was great at recognizing the double and passing it back out to Toolson, Haws, or Harding.

Harding got a lot of wide open threes from the corner in 2020. Those weren't there this last season.

[E-Zone15]

I thought Harding was going to be used more like Jake Toolson was last year and was going to be finding himself with all kinds of open perimeter looks.

The ball rarely went back out to the perimeter once it went to Haarms or Harward. Childs was great at recognizing the double and passing it back out to Toolson, Haws, or Harding.

Harding got a lot of wide open threes from the corner in 2020. Those weren't there this last season.

I don't really think Haarms or Harward were poor at passing out of the post vs Childs.
2019-20
Childs- 19 games, 550 minutes, FG 175-305 (57.4%), 38 assists (assist per/ 14.5 minutes)
Haarms- 25 games, 577 minutes, FG 112-205 (546.%), 27 assists (assist per/ 21.4 minutes)
Harward- 27 games, 418 minutes, FG 65-108 (60.2%), 27 assists (assist per/ 15.5 minutes)

By far Childs got way more touches than either Haarms in the post. Haarms was used more in the pick and roll and Harward got a lot of his shots on put backs (45 O reb).

The only players who had more assists of the team this last season were:
Barcello 863 minutes (117), Averette 743 minutes (99), Harding 538 minutes (39), and Lohner 643 minutes (32). Other that had at least 10 assists: Johnson- 25, Knell- 25, Lee- 23 (only 250 minutes of PT), George- 10

[GAKunkel]

Childs played 6 less games than Haarms but had 11 more assists than Haarms. If my math is right (it often isn't), the difference is 40% of Haarms assists. Again, that's with 6 less games.

If Childs played 25 games like Haarms did, his numbers indicate he would of dished out roughly 12 more assists on the season, putting his 25 game total to 50, nearly twice as many as Haarms.

Haarms and Harward were abysmal at passing the ball. The ball went in the middle and pretty much died. Neither Haarms not Harward did much with the ball down low. How many point blank shots did we see those two miss.

In general, ball movement wasn't that great with this last season. I have faith Pope will get it better next season.