HEART HUSTLE HARKLESS

By:Chris Plank

The X-factor is a term often used in sports to define a person who could have a significant impact on the outcome of a game or an event. It’s not always the person who will get the headlines or the praise but, in the end, is the most important piece of a winning team. For the Oklahoma Sooner Basketball team, Elijah Harkless has been the unexpected X-factor, providing the Sooners with the spark, energy and toughness needed to move to another level heading into March Madness.

The fact that Harkless has had this type of an impact is not a surprise to those who have played with him, but what is even more impressive is that the Sooner transfer is providing an influence on the court despite not even expecting to play this season.

As a transfer, Harkless had accepted the fact that this season would be a learning season to prepare for next year. But when the one-time exemption for transfers was awarded, Harkless was ready to help in any way he could.

“The transfer rules in college had set my expectations,” he said. “It was a 1% chance that they would allow you to play after transferring. I was recruited to redshirt and that was the mentality that I came in with. But the pandemic opened that up and the coaches felt strongly about me coming out of my redshirt to help the team and I just believed in the coaches and the vision they had for me with the team.”

The Cal State Northridge (CSUN) transfer had been considered an elite perimeter defender, and many projected his skills would add a spark to the Sooner lineup. But not many could have projected just how big of a spark that Harkless would truly add.

After coming off the bench in his first five games, Harkless was inserted as a starter when the Sooners traveled to Lawrence to face Kansas. He has been a part of the Sooner starting lineup, making a noticeable impact since. His spark has turned into a player who is an all-around game changer.

“I think in his case, he was very conscientious about doing the things right,” Sooner Head Basketball Coach Lon Kruger said. “I think maybe even stepping into the rotation a little bit he was concerned about how other people are feeling about that. Our point was just, ‘Just play. We’ll take care of the rotation’. It takes time… but as you saw, he’s progressed in every ball game and he’s playing awfully well right now.”

Harkless made an impact on his Sooner teammates from the first moment he stepped on the court.

“Since summer, he’s always been showing that dog side of him,” Kur Kuath said. “He can play in this league with us. He hustles. He works hard. He’s just like that. He comes to fight day in day out. I like that about E.J.”

In a lot of ways, Harkless has been the glue guy, or a dog as Kuath put it, for every team he has played for, the piece that helps hold a team together. His passion for the sport is contagious and his hard work is a character staple. It is something that coaches like David Kleckner noticed from the first time they saw him on a basketball court.

“You can see how he can impact the game in a variety of ways,” Kleckner told the OU Daily in a feature. “His toughness, the loose balls, the deflections, the steals, the rebounds, just the value to have someone like that in the lineup, it impacts the game.”

Kleckner coached Harkless in high school at Etiwanda in Rancho Cucamongo, California and won a state championship. While Harkless was a star for Etiwanda, his friends over at Chino Hills were stealing most of the national and local headlines. The Ball brothers and their bombastic father Lavar were preaching to the world how they were ready to take over basketball. While Harkless was staying out of the spotlight, his close friends were dominating the sports headlines and he was learning in the process.

“I witnessed it from a young age how they handled their exposure,” Harkless said of his friendship with the Ball brothers. “Melo was getting it at 14 and Lonzo was getting at 16. Just seeing the national publicity and watching how they handled it I took a lot of pages out of their book and I saw what it was like to work hard like they did every single day. So, I saw what it took to be good and I learned a lot from them.”

Hard work is often overshadowed in the media by the swagger and attitude but not many could see how hard the Ball family worked behind the scenes and it made an impact on Harkless.

“They put the work in,” he shared. “Lavar is a character and he brags on his kids, but he knows the work they put in… running the hills every day, putting up the shots every day. They’ve been doing it from a young age.”

With the Ball brothers off to the NBA, Harkless was ready to chart his path to the next level. After his high school career wrapped up, the offers were not necessarily flying in.

“He was not getting recruited by anybody,” Kleckner said. “I was like, are you guys kidding me? I’m sitting here, begging these scouts. I said, “Hey, guys, Elijah Harkless is not getting the credit he deserves. You need to put him out there… and promote him as being a top player.”

As had typified his career, Harkless worked hard at CSUN under the guidance of an experienced and focused coaching staff. Harkless had a vision for himself and the style he wanted to play. He took everything he could from the staff at Northridge and used that to continue to improve.

“It was an incredible amount of knowledge,” Harkless said of the CSUN coaching staff. “Mo Williams fresh out of the NBA, Jeff Dunlap won a Canadian championship, Jim Harrick won a national championship at UCLA and was good friends with Coach Kruger. Mark Gottfried was our head coach and had a great run at Alabama. Mo played for him, there was a lot of knowledge there for sure and I learned from it.”

When Harkless decided to move on from CSUN and find a different school, his options had increased. His numbers were not jaw dropping at Northridge, but his reputation had become more known. His ability and desire caught the attention of more schools.

“The staff supported me. They definitely did,” Harkless said. “I don’t think my goal was to go a Power 5. It just happened to be at a Power 5 conference. I was looking for a school that plays up-tempo and takes pride on the defensive end of the

floor. Somewhere they take pride in getting me a lot better and becoming their ideal point guard in my year off.”

Kruger and the Sooners reached out to Harkless quickly, and he committed before being able to visit campus due to COVID-19, choosing OU over Montana State, Fresno State and Loyola Marymount.

“Northridge coaches talked often about how physical and how aggressive he is,” Kruger said. “And that’s certainly been the case here. He’s a very on-ball, physical defender … any coach would want that type of attitude and mentality in a program.”

“Right about a month into the pandemic I started hearing about Oklahoma and honestly, I didn’t know too much,” Harkless said of his knowledge of Oklahoma Sooner basketball. “I had heard about the run to the Final Four with Buddy Hield and his unbelievable year. I’m on the West Coast so I didn’t see too much of it. I mean I didn’t even know that Buddy wore 24. Coming in I just picked a number that was valuable to me. If I would have known it was his, I wouldn’t have picked it.”

For Harkless, the Sooner fit has been perfect, and, more than anything, it was refreshing to see hard work and grit rewarded. While the first round of recruiting did not go the way that he anticipated out of high school, his commitment to making the most of the situation earned him the opportunity to play in one of the best conferences in college basketball.

“It was unbelievably cool to feel wanted,” Harkless said.

“Where I grew up, how I play the game, I was not into the camp thing and we didn’t get all the publicity through the camps, so I was under recruited. But the people who knew my game felt I was capable to play in any conference and it just took a couple of years for me to fill out and I guess it took a while for everyone to figure that out.”

While Harkless is contributing and helping the Sooners, it’s hard to ignore how different the past year has been as athletes continue to play through a pandemic. The off-the-court fun is minimized, if not nonexistent. Activities like team meals and get-togethers, even full team practices, are limited. But, Harkless has not allowed that to affect him too much.

“I keep to myself. I keep my circle small,” he said. “I like video games, that’s my thing. I’d rather play video games than go out so I’m not missing that part of life. People go out and love campus corner but we really didn’t have that at CSUN so I haven’t really known nor cared for the social scene. The part I don’t like is the opportunity to get in the gym every day. Some games it’s tough because you can’t get in the gym as much due to protocols.”

With defense, hard work and hustle as noted benchmarks of his game, the junior transfer has also shown a knack for scoring big buckets in key moments. Against Alabama, Harkless hit a jumper with 20 seconds left to help secure the win for the Sooners over the 9th ranked team in the country. The headlines in the Norman Transcript the next day read, “How Could You Be So Harkless.”

But for Elijah, it was not a moment to say “I told you so” or to even beat his chest. It was a moment that magnified his ultimate motivation...winning.

“I do anything to help the team,” he said. “If that’s scoring that night, if that’s rebounding that night, if it’s assisting another night, I think I’ll be able to help the team. I can’t wait to see where we’re at in March.”

“He’s been fantastic,” Kruger said. “He’s been super aggressive, he’s a very physical player… those are winning plays and Elijah has no hesitation to get on the floor and stick his nose in there on a rebound and play in a physical way.”

“Me and my people, we never thought any of those guys that were recruited over me were better than me,” Harkless added. “Nobody really appreciated the way that I played the game. It wasn’t all about points. It’s all about wins. Wins are more important than stats to me, in my opinion.”

X-Factor, glue guy, hard worker, hustler, grinder… all adjectives that correctly describe what Harkless is all about, but the most important thing to Harkless is not how he is described. What matters most to Harkless is winning.

“I’m a winner. I’ll do anything to win. Anything it takes for the team to win that night, I’ll do to the best of my ability. Put guys in the right spot so ultimately we can succeed, that’s the goal, to win every game.” – BSM