Kansas men’s basketball point guard Dajuan Harris will play for the USA East Coast all-star Red team in a series of games against international competition in August in Spain, USA East Coast announced Friday.
Harris, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound sophomore from Columbia, Missouri, will play for a team coached by former KU head coach Larry Brown, who is now an assistant on Penny Hardaway’s coaching staff at Memphis.
Other players on the Red team, which will join two other USA East Coast all-star teams (White team, Blue team) for training camp July 31 at Manhattan College in New York, then head to Valencia and Barcelona, Spain for games against teams from Spain and France are: Buddy Boeheim and Jimmy Boeheim, Syracuse; Matthew Turner, Western Connecticut State; Paul Mulcahy, Rutgers; Matthew Kelly, Assumption; Alyn Breed, Providence; Joey Baker, Duke; Evan Battey, Colorado and Patrick McCaffrey, Iowa.
“I’m excited. I’ve never gotten to travel out of the country and I will learn a lot from all the different coaches,” Harris said Friday in a direct message to The Star on Twitter.
Assistant coaches for the Red team will be Jim Engles (Columbia) and Guy Rancourt (Western Connecticut State).
Harris averaged 2.4 points and 2.2 assists per game a year ago for the (21-9) Jayhawks. He had 65 assists to 24 turnovers in 30 games.
Ejiofor faring well at Peach Jam
Future Kansas power forward Zuby Ejiofor continues to play well at the Nike Peach Jam AAU tournament in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Ejiofor, a 6-8, 215-pound senior from Garland (Texas) High School, who orally committed to KU on July 1, scored 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting (5-of-6-from line), with seven rebounds and two blocked shots in Houston Hoops’ 73-55 victory over PSA Cardinals on Friday. Houston Hoops improved to 3-1 at the event.
Ejiofor, the No. 58-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2022 according to Rivals.com, scored 16 points with seven rebounds and four blocks Thursday in Houston Hoops’ 67-58 victory over All Ohio Red. He hit 4 of 11 shots and was 8-of-9 from the free throw line.
Mokan Elite improved to 2-2 at Peach Jam following Friday’s 72-64 victory over All Ohio Red. Tarris Reed, a 6-8, 220-pound senior forward from Link Academy in Branson, Missouri, who has Missouri on his list of schools, scored 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting (5-of-10 from line) with 14 rebounds and two blocked shots. Aidan Shaw, a 6-8 small forward also out of Link Academy who has KU and MU on his list of schools, scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and had four rebounds for Mokan.
Reed, the No. 90-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2022 according to Rivals.com, scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds in Mokan Elite’s 59-58 loss to Bates Fundamentals on Thursday. Shaw, the No. 56-rated player in the Class of 2022 according to Rivals.com, scored three points in the defeat.
Emoni Bates, a 6-9 senior forward from Ypsilanti (Michigan) Prep Academy, who is ranked No. 2 in the Class of 2022 by Rivals.com, scored 33 points for Bates Fundamentals. He hit 9 of 27 shots. He was 4-of-13 from three and 11-of-13 from the line.
Bates scored 31 points in the second half to help erase a 20-point deficit versus Mokan Elite. Bates was once committed to Michigan State. Many analysts have predicted he will turn pro right out of high school.
Brown, Townsend at Peach Jam
KU assistant coach Kurtis Townsend and former KU head coach Larry Brown both attended the Peach Jam on Friday. Rivals.com’s Jamie Shaw took a picture of the two sitting together at the AAU event. Shaw posted the picture on Twitter.