Introducing the new Darren Harris

DURHAM – Darren Harris is the biggest mystery among Duke’s returning players.

We have a sense of what Duke will get from the other four returning players. Caleb Foster has solidified himself as the vocal leader of the Blue Devils. When Maliq Brown returns from his knee injury, he’ll be a defensive wizard. In limited capacities, we glimpsed the potential of Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba II last season.

Harris is the one who played in 21 of 39 games. Of those 21, all but two were wins of 20-plus points. Off-ball guard and wing minutes were hard to come by on a team with Tyrese Proctor, Kon Knueppel, Mason Gillis and Evans.

Using last year’s numbers to project what Harris will give the Blue Devils this season is a moving target, though. Harris is hardly the same player he was a year ago.

Hell, he’s not the same player he was five months ago.

“We had a moment, we were coming from the practice facility, he had a good practice,” associate head coach Chris Carrawell said. “You look at our Final Four picture — I’m not going to say he was overweight but if you look at his body now, he’s a machine.

“You can tell the difference in him, just in a year.”

Harris is a different player for a different team.

Slimming down over the summer

Shortly after Duke’s season ended in San Antonio, Harris went to work on himself.

“The biggest thing, I just tried to get my cardio up. I’ve been running a lot,” Harris said on Wednesday at Duke’s on-campus media day. “After the season ended, I changed my diet.

“It’s definitely been a big benefit, changed my game.”

The change in Harris’ diet was simple, as he put it:

“I stopped eating fried foods and sweets,” he said. “That’s all I used to eat.”

The sophomore was listed on last year’s roster at 6-6, 203. This year, he’s at 6-5, 195.

He didn’t have the same type of star power on the recruiting trail as other members of Duke’s freshman class from a year ago. But Harris wasn’t some unknown member in Duke’s Class of 2024.

Harris was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Virginia for the 2023-24 season. He led storied program St. Paul VI to conference and state championships. He had 36 points in a Chipotle Nationals semifinal game against IMG Academy; he had 28 points on 10-for-15 shooting in the EYBL Championship game at Peach Jam in 2023.

The former 4-star recruit has a high, quick release and is a pure shooter.

He just didn’t have as much of an avenue to playing time. And Harris took it upon himself to change that ahead of his sophomore year.

“The guy who didn’t play as much last year who I think has had tremendous growth is Darren Harris,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “Darren has just been committed, solely, just completely to Duke, to the process.

“If you look at his body compared to a year ago, he’s done a great job in the weight room and working with our sports performance team.”

Motivation from last season

The context for what follows is different than what we’re talking about here. But the peak into the person Harris is — that’s the consistent element here.

In San Antonio, Harris told Devils Illustrated of being coached hard for his whole basketball life. Without explicitly saying so, it seemed the first step toward confirming he’d be back at Duke instead of entering the transfer portal.

“If you’re coaching someone hard and they’re not accepting it or they’re willing to run from it, I think that just proves they shouldn’t be at Duke anyway,” Harris said in April. “I think that’s kind of a test and you’ve gotta pass the test.”

He didn’t run from a disappointing season.

Harris just put a chip on his shoulder coming into the next season.

“I would say a big chip on my shoulder. I think that’s kind of been the biggest change from last year to this year,” Harris said on Wednesday. “How I’m mentally coming to practice every day. I’m really excited for the season to start.

“I went through adversity before, in high school and just overall in life. I’m just looking forward to bouncing back.”

So far, his coach is encouraged.

“He’s just had a real serious, competitive approach,” Scheyer added. “Obviously, you want that to be rewarded with great success. It’s Practice Three, a long way to go and all that.

“But I think he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”

There’s no mystery about that.