After tonight’s game, reports began surfacing that Manny Harris planned on returning for his senior year. Here are the quotes from after the game:
“You know, you want to get better as a person, as a player,” Harris said after the game. “A lot of these guys have to come back, like myself, got to come back and play next year. “Just got to keep fighting and work hard. The season (isn’t) over. Anything still can happen so we’ve still got to believe and fight hard.”
Harris was asked if he was confident returning to Michigan would be his final decision.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Harris, who entered the Northwestern game averaging a Big Ten-best 19.1 points.
Harris was hesitant to go into much detail about his thought process.
“I’m not going to get too much into that,” Harris said. “I’m definitely not thinking about (the future). I’m just thinking about getting better as a team.”
Harris’ Facebook status from after the game tells you just about everything you need to know about the situation.
This really doesn’t strike me as the right time to press Manny about his decision to stay or go. He will make that decision when the time comes and it’s clear that he hasn’t made the decision one way or another at this point.
The quote started off with Harris stressing the need to continue to work, fight, and get better every day. Those are all the things that he’s supposed to say. There’s no need to jump a kid after one of Michigan’s worst losses of the season about his draft status. That can wait until the season is over.
Neither Harris or Sims looked like NBA players today. But I suppose my interview with Aran Smith, of NBADraft.net, becomes a little more relevant with all the draft talk.