Rikki Harris was the Buckeyes guard tasked with bird-dogging Clark on the day she would pass Pistol Pete Maravich’s all-time college scoring record.
»Archdeacon: Flyers bring back memories of another historic win
Now, nine months later, Williams-Jeter was giving Harris another big challenge.
After five seasons and 117 games and both an undergraduate and master’s degree at OSU, Harris entered the transfer portal last spring and became a Dayton Flyer.
Sunday — with regular point guard Nicole Stephens dealing with lingering back issues — Williams-Jeter asked the 5-foot-10 Harris to move from the power forward position she was playing to running the Flyers’ offense out front against Central Michigan at UD Arena.
Williams-Jeter felt comfortable with the move because Harris had handled challenges all her life.
Whether it was starting life as a premature baby who weighed less than three pounds and had myriad health issues; to a formidable basketball career where she said she’s had to fight through “eight to 10 surgeries”; to slugging it out game after game in the Big Ten and guiding the Buckeyes as a fill-in point guard to the Elite Eight a couple of years ago, Harris has risen to the cause.
“She gives us so many things — energy, winning experience, versatility and especially leadership,” Williams-Jeter said. “She has that basketball IQ to know when and what is going on and can get people in the places we need.”
»Archdeacon: ‘More than a basketball game’
And that’s just what happened during a timeout late in the fourth quarter of a one-point game Sunday.
That’s when Harris commandeered the huddle and gave her Flyers’ teammates a combination pep talk and strategy session, reminding them about everything from guarding against a three-point shot to what to do if a jump ball situation was about to arise.
“Don’t call a timeout,” she said she stressed. “We’ve got the arrow. We need to save our timeouts.”
Dayton hung on to win, 72-68, and Harris was a big reason.
She scored seven of the Flyers’ 23 points in the fourth quarter and had three steals.
She finished the game with 11 points, seven assists, four steals and a blocked shot.
UD was led by Arianna Smith, who had 16 points and nine rebounds; Ivy Wolf, who had 14 points; and freshman Olivia Leung, who added 12 points in 18 minutes before being shaken up when she hit the floor hard.
But the player who was especially key against the Chippewas – whether it was driving the lane late in the game or facilitating to her teammates throughout the contest – was Harris.
Standing outside the locker room afterward, she admitted satisfaction knowing she’d handled the challenge she was given:
“I’ve been starting at the 4 (power forward), but she moved me to the 1 today because Nicole was having a little issue. Nicole got to play today, so that’s good, but I loved being at the point . That’s my natural position. I like having the ball in my hands.
“I’ll do whatever it takes here, I’ll play the 1,3, 2 or 4.”
With a grin, she added: “Maybe not the 5, but I can if she puts me there. I’ll do whatever she needs me to do. I’ll take on whatever I have to do to play.”
With the Flyers now 6-4 — and 10-1 Vanderbilt coming to UD Arena Thursday night — Harris leads the team in assists and steals and is third in scoring (7.8) and rebounding (4.3).
Credit: Erik Schelkun
Credit: Erik Schelkun
‘She’s tough’
When Harris said she she’ll take on anything to play, she’s not exaggerating.
Her first ACL surgery came as an eighth grader back in Indianapolis and the next one — to the same knee — came just after she committed to Ohio State.
She then missed the 2019-20 season — her first as a Buckeye — after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum. She’s also had surgery on her nose and now she said she needs another.
“I broke my nose at Ohio State about a year and a half ago and I’ve got a deviated septum,” she said. “I’m not sure I want it though, I can breathe through my nose at least.”
“She’s tough,” said Williams-Jeter. “Her shoulder popped out at a scrimmage we had at West Virginia. She was sitting on the bench, popped it back in herself and went right back out and played.
“People who have had some of the injuries she’s had sometimes stop playing. Not her.”
Among all the tattoos that adorn her body, Harris has one message that aptly sums up her approach to hoops, injury and life.
Inked on her right arm is the phrase: “Only the strong survive.”
And yet, the injuries are not the most serious challenges she’s faced to get on the court.
“I was born almost two months early and ended up in the hospital a month and a half before I could go home,” she said. “After that I was back and forth to the hospital.
“I had asthma and breathing difficulties. When I was a kid, I was hooked to a lot of machines and monitors because I’d stop breathing in my sleep. It put too much stress on my parents, so when I was three, I had my tonsils removed and that helped.
“But I had speech problems and did a lot of therapy for that. And I had dyslexia, and I believe I was diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) but I never went on medication.
“My parents taught me to be disciplined and focused at school. When I needed to let it out later, I would.”
The strategy seemed to work.
Four years in a row at Ohio State she was named Academic All-Big Ten. Now at UD she’s working on her third degree.
Perfect fit at UD
Williams-Jeter said she’s known Harris since she was a 15-year-old basketball talent back at North Central High School in Indianapolis and would end a five-star recruit ranked No. 29 in the nation by ESPN’s HoopGurlz.
“When I was an assistant at Penn State, I recruited her hard,” Williams-Jeter said. “When she came to Ohio State, that was my first year as an OSU assistant. So, we’ve known each other a long time.”
“She knows my family real well, too,” Harris said.
The two stayed in contact after Williams-Jeter took over the Wittenberg program for a year and then came to Dayton three seasons ago.
When she entered the portal for this — her sixth season in college basketball — Harris said she was looking for a family atmosphere that would be “drama free” and offer her an opportunity to play.
After starting 38 games in two previous seasons at OSU, she came off the bench in 31 games last year.
Before coming to Dayton, she visited Purdue and Xavier, but chose the Flyers for several reasons — with Williams-Jeter at the top of the list.
“It’s bigger than basketball with us,” she told me earlier this season. “I just felt I could trust everything Tamika told me. I felt UD would be a good place for me. I felt I’d get a chance to show what I really can do.”
And that’s just what happened Sunday.
One of Central Michigan’s key players this season is 6-foot-2 freshman forward Riley Smith, who starred at Alter for three seasons.
Smith came off the bench Sunday and in 26 minutes, grabbed seven rebounds, scored four points and added a blocked shot and an assist., She’s averaging 5.1 points and 2.6 rebounds a game for the 3-7 Chippewas this season.
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