Georgetown guard, former Maryland transfer DeShawn Harris-Smith steps away from Hoyas

DeShawn Harris-Smith was among the top additions from the NCAA Transfer Portal this offseason for Georgetown. However, a month and a half into the season, he’s not currently with the Hoyas.

According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Harris-Smith has, for personal reasons, stepped away from Georgetown. His future with the program may also be in question moving forward, as it’s been noted that all things related to the team have been scraped from parts of his social media pages.

“Georgetown guard DeShawn Harris-Smith has stepped away from the team due to personal reasons, source told @On3sports,” Tipton posted this morning.

Appearing in just six games out of their first seven to open this season, Harris-Smith had not played for Georgetown since November 28th in what was the final outing of their appearance in the ESPN Events Invitational during Feast Week. The Hoyas have played three games in the two and a half weeks since then, with no appearances for the junior guard.

Harris-Smith was averaging 16.7 minutes per game in that reserve role to this point for Georgetown. He’d then post 5.2 points (60% FG) and 2.5 rebounds in those opportunities off the bench for the Hoyas.

This comes after Harris-Smith transferred there this past offseason after beginning his career with two seasons at Maryland. He appeared in 69 games, 34 of those being starts with 30 coming while he was a true freshman, for the Terrapins, as he averaged 4.8 points (37.5% FG), 3.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while in College Park. However, Harris-Smith was one of several to leave the program coming off last season where they went 27-9 (.750), one of the better records in school history, and reached the Sweet 16, which is as far as they’d gone in almost a decade in the NCAA Tournament, after Kevin Willard left to become the next head coach at Villanova.

Upon entering the portal, Harris-Smith was ranked in the Top-225 and was a Top-60 SG. That’s per On3’s Industry Ranking of 2025’s Top Transfer Portal Players. He’d then go on to commit to come to Washington, D.C. as one of six additions this offseason, as he was the second highest-rated of them behind only KJ Lewis (Arizona), for the Hoyas.

Coming out of high school, Harris-Smith, a Woodbridge, Virginia native, played at Paul VI Catholic in Fairfax. He ranked as the No. 34 overall recruit in the country there as a four-star in the 2023 recruiting cycle. He also rated as the No. 10 SF in the class and as the No. 1 player out of the state of Virginia. That’s according to Rivals’ Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He, at the time, then committed to the Terps as their highest-ranked signee since 2018.

It’s unknown when, or even if, Harris-Smith could return to the team this season. It’s a notable loss regardless, though, as Georgetown is set to play its first conference games of the year this week with matchups in the Big East on Wednesday at Marquette and on Saturday against Xavier.