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Chicago Sun-Times

National

Joe Henricksen

City/Suburban Hoops Report Player of the Year: Moline’s Brock Harding

Brock Harding Fran McCaffery Jalen Brunson Jahlil Okafor Jon Scheyer Basketball Hawkeyes Iowa (Organization)

Moline’s Brock Harding (2) hits a jumper against Simeon at the When Sides Collide Shootout. (Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times)

As Editor/Publisher of the City/Suburban Hoops Report, a longtime recruiting service for college basketball programs across the country and a high school basketball publication that began in 1996, I have awarded a Player of the Year in Illinois for the past 27 years. Here is the 28th recipient of the award.

All of the descriptions and characterizations of Brock Harding, the state champion point guard from Moline, are glowing.

Competitor. The ultimate winner. Poised and savvy. High basketball I.Q.

But they also tend to be the ones that ultimately seem to always finish with the proverbial “but …” at the end of the string of superlatives thrown his way.

Harding has heard the shortcomings throughout his career, starting with he’s too small, he lacks strength and his body won’t hold up. Early on it was, “If he’s that small, he’s going to have to shoot it better.”

Harding is a mid-major dream for college coaches who coveted him and kept their fingers crossed they could get him. Colorado State, Loyola and Illinois State had separated themselves while the high-major programs were nitpicking during the recruiting and evaluating process.

Except Iowa.

Coach Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeyes didn’t flinch, offered Harding and locked up a commitment soon after.

“From the beginning he just showed an incredible understanding of the game and how to keep everyone involved,” said McCaffery, a day after his future point guard won a state championship. “He understood the anatomy of the game and had a feel for every game and situation that goes on. Brock has an answer for everything thrown at him, and everyone plays harder when he’s on the floor.”

But those aforementioned strengths of Harding are so overwhelming — and ones so many players lack today — that they make up for any deficiencies he has to overcome as a player. McCaffery and his staff continued to see it manifest and, ultimately, had to have it in their program.

McCaffery, speaking about Harding just hours before his team heard its name called on the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, says it all comes down to a player’s ability to make plays.

“That’s what he does,” McCaffery said of the play-making Harding. “He never panics and he makes plays. “He makes shots, he pushes it, can play in the halfcourt, he finds teammates. It’s been no accident that pretty much every game where he takes the floor he wins. His impact on winning is a direct function of knowing how to play.

Harding put up numbers — he averaged 18.4 points and 5.7 assists a game — while being the ultimate leader and floor general of the Class 4A state champions.

“He does things you just can’t teach,” McCaffery added. “You can improve on those things, but you can’t create them. He already has that innate ability.”

And the shooting that was once questioned? Harding made 10 of 16 from the three-point line in two State Finals games and buried 116 threes on the year.

Is Harding the No. 1 prospect or a consensus four-star or five-star prospect nationally as other prospects in the state? No. Is he still undervalued by many? Yes.

But Player of the Year awards are never about the very best prospect. Harding did things no other Player of the Year contender — or higher-ranked prospects — did this season. He led his team to Champaign and, ultimately, to his school’s first-ever state championship.

And he did so with a bang.

Harding set the tone in the semifinal win over Downers Grove North with 14 first quarter points before finishing with a game-high 21 points, including 3-of-4 from three and 8-of-9 from the line.

In the state championship win over Benet, he knocked down three more three-pointers en route to a game-controlling performance. He scored 28 points and added three assists and three steals.

Here is Harding’s look on a whole bunch of topics — in his words.

The state championship still, honestly, feels surreal. We had the parade here in Moline. Everyone at school was talking about it. To come out on top feels just awesome.

We set higher expectations than anyone. But when Owen [Freeman] came here in the summer [transferring from Bradley-Bourbonnais) we heard that if we didn’t win a state championship it was going to be a bust. We laugh at it now.

We wanted to do something the community has never seen. We were able to do that. We brought a state championship back to Moline, and the city is really proud of that, and it’s something a lot of people are going to talk about for a long time.

I think the moment that still stands out, the biggest and most memorable, was our sectional title win at home. The amount of people that came out for that — the old Moline fans, the young Moline fans — and selling out Wharton Fieldhouse was probably the most memorable moment of the season for the team. It was incredible.

To be able to come out on top in a state like this, with all the great teams in Chicago, around the Chicago area and across the state, is incredible. I remember watching those Belleville West teams and thinking they were just at such another level. It’s all just a crazy feeling when you look at the history of this state and all the great teams and players that have won.

I just worried about making sure that every time I stepped out on the court that I was better than the guy in front of me. That’s the way I attack the game and attack my life. It’s not a cocky thing. Starting out, I never had the high rankings. But I wouldn’t even say it put a chip on my shoulder, because I never really looked at them or cared about them. It’s just the way I’ve been brought up. Growing up, my parents, and with my brother being older and an athlete, they always reminded me about production. If you don’t produce the rankings don’t matter anyway. I’m going to go out and beat the player in front of me and I’m not going to feel bad about it afterward. You can see in my game it’s the kill or be killed mentality. Play your hardest and win. That’s what it’s about, more than any player rankings.

For me it changes all the time with who I watch and model my game after. I try not to pick one guy. I try to take a bunch of things from a bunch of different players. But since my freshman year it’s been Jalen Brunson. I started watching his high school stuff and then watched how he carried himself, carried his team and thought it was incredible what he was able to do and how he dominated. Jalen Brunson, being from the state of Illinois, that’s a big one for me.

I’ve always known my parents aren’t the biggest, so I’m not going to be the biggest. But people have always told me that work beats out all that stuff, that the work is going to translate to the court, translate to life, so that’s how I looked at all the work I put in. I’m not going to go out there and be scared because they are taller than me or stronger than me.

I’ve always heard I’m too small. Then it was that I didn’t shoot well enough. Now it’s I’m not good enough to go to the Big Ten. I mean I know I’m constantly going to get that because a lot of these people that are saying that stuff look just like me, but they aren’t able to do the stuff I’m able to do. And so they think I shouldn’t be able to do the stuff I can do. I put my head down and work, put one foot in front of the other, and attack every day in a way so that I am getting better.

I thought I was a Division I player when I was a freshman. To be honest, I don’t know if I was good enough to think that then, but I did. But it was right around Covid when I really started to change my work ethic and the way I attacked everything in my life. Right around then my focus changed to being the best player that I can be every single day.

A bunch of high-major coaches told me to keep working, that they were impressed with me, but we’re not going to offer you right now. Then the talk I had with coach McCaffery, the day he called to offer me, answered any questions I had. When that comes from one of the best college basketball coaches in the country, when he calls you and tells you he has full belief in you, that’s an unbelievable feeling. I want to challenge myself as much as possible. The opportunity they [Iowa Hawkeyes] are giving me to do that at the highest level was a no-brainer.