When the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team had gone exactly nine minutes and 40 seconds without making a field goal in Sunday’s 82-76 loss to Wichita State, sophomore guard Zach Harvey called for the ball.
Harvey caught it 30 feet from the basket, pump faked and dribbled away from his defender. And then he knocked down a contested three-point shot that got the Bearcats out of their worst scoring drought of the season.
Harvey finished that game with a career-high 19 points. During the first three weeks of the season, Harvey averaged 2.3 points and 13.3 minutes per game. Then against Wichita State, Harvey scored at least 13 points for the third time in his last four games.
Finally fully healthy, Harvey is living up to his billing as a top-50, four-star recruit.
“I just want to do whatever I can to help my team win games,” Harvey said. “Whatever that looks like, honestly.”
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Harvey’s commitment to UC on June 27, 2019, was one of the biggest early wins of head coach John Brannen’s tenure with the Bearcats. Brannen had already signed three grad transfers, Jaevin Cumberland, Chris McNeal and Jaume Sorolla. He’d also added NKU transfer Chris Vogt and received commitments from incoming freshman Mika Adams-Woods and Jeremiah Davenport.
But Harvey carried an upside that set him apart. It just took him a season-and-a-half to get there.
“There’s no secret formula to this,” Brannen said. “(Harvey) has worked hard each and every day and hasn’t missed a practice, and all of a sudden he’s playing really well, where before, he didn’t practice at all. There’s a reason for success.”
During Harvey’s freshman year, the Bearcats didn’t need another scorer. In the 2019-2020 season, senior forwards Jarron Cumberland and Trevon Scott handled that role, and Harvey had four upperclassmen in front of him in the wing rotation.
Still, Harvey had his moments, including 18 minutes of two-way play in a February home win over Houston. But Harvey spent the whole season getting back to 100 percent after reconstructive ankle surgery, Brannen said.
More:Offense goes missing and Bearcats fall to Wichita State
The impact of that injury lingered, and Harvey missed time during the 2020-2021 preseason.
“It was very frustrating not being able to be on the court with my guys,” Harvey said. “It is what it is, I just had to fight through it. I had to work overtime for sure.”
At the start of his sophomore season, Harvey played four minutes against Xavier. He played 15 minutes in the conference opener against South Florida, and in that game, he only took two shots.
Since then, Harvey has been one of the most aggressive scorers on the team.
“Being more comfortable, all that stuff plays into it,” Harvey said “I’m finding my way.”
In a loss to Central Florida on Dec. 22, Harvey scored 15 points on six field goal attempts. Two games later against SMU, Harvey scored 13 points on some of his most impressive field goal attempts of the season.
When the Bearcats got out in transition on one play in the second half, junior point guard David DeJulius threw a leading pass to Harvey, who was sprinting down the court. Harvey caught the ball underneath the basket, twisted his body and made a reverse layup through contact.
One minute later, Harvey pushed the ball in transition, gave it up, got it back and hit a contested three-point shot.
“Zach Harvey is playing really really well and has been, but he (used to get) out of control sometimes and dribble it too much and fall down,” Brannen said after the SMU game. "But (Harvey) now understands he can’t do that and goes back in the game and fixes it. That’s when you know you have a chance to take the next step.”
Harvey played even better against Wichita State. On his way to a team-high 19 points, Harvey took seven shots in the paint. He went 7-for-10 from the field and 4-for-4 from three-point range.
It’s the type of game the Bearcats could be counting on for the next three seasons.
Harvey is UC’s second-leading scorer in conference play, trailing senior forward Keith Williams. Ten games into the season, it’s clear the Bearcats need a greater scoring punch.
Most of sophomore forward Jeremiah Davenport’s scoring has come by knocking down three-point shots or converting chances in transition. Freshman forward Tari Eason has been great in transition as well, but he hasn’t experimented much at creating his own shot.
Lead guards DeJulius, Mika Adams-Woods and Mike Saunders Jr. are shooting a combined 34 percent from the field.
With Williams set to graduate at the end of the season, Harvey has the opportunity to score more points than anyone currently on the Bearcats roster over the next three years.
“We talk about paint touches, and (Harvey) is a guy that can get paint touches,” Brannen said. “We need 50-plus paint touches a game, and (Harvey) can provide that for us. And when he does that, he’s just got to make the right decision when he gets there.”
But that’s all in the future, and Harvey said he isn’t concerned about the player he could grow into down the road.
Now that his role has expanded, Harvey has a chance to turn around the Bearcats’ 2020-21 season.
“I’m going to keep getting in the gym, keep working and get some wins together,” Harvey said. “We (have) just got to keep improving, keep working on our offense. The shots weren’t falling, but they’ll fall eventually.”
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