While his teammates josh one another and recount their weekends, James Harvey sets up on the wing just beyond the 3-point line. These are his best shots, ones where he can set his feet, maintain his composure and fire the basketball into the air.
Harvey drains the shot. Such success has been common in practice, but the McNeese State guard mired in the worst shooting slump of his basketball career is seeing no in-game rewards for his innumerable hours of extra work.
“I know I’m getting the right shots, getting the open shots,” Harvey says, now sitting on the bench while dribbling a basketball. “I believe it’s me more than anything else.”
Not since his days at Amite High School, he says, has Harvey experienced such a drought. That one only lasted two games. This one heads into its sixth — a 7 p.m. game Tuesday against former Southland Conference foe Texas State.
“I know it’s me, I just have to find a way to make them,” Harvey says. “It’s more mental than anything. Not seeing them go in, sometimes, it’s just trying to figure it out, overthinking it. But it’s only a matter of time.”
Shooting is an unconscious exercise. Players can ill afford to let the creeping fear of missing enter their minds in the milliseconds before releasing the ball. Doing so often leads to mechanical errors or, even worse, uncharacteristic play within a team’s offense that can have ripple effects.
In the Cowboys’ 80-78 win against LSU-Alexandria on Saturday, Harvey’s past and present coexisted. Jarren Greenwood penetrated the lane with 14:49 left and McNeese trailing 51-48. He kicked to Harvey, who drained a 3-pointer just in front of his team’s bench. The Cowboys, who trailed by as many as 11 in the first half, never trailed again after the shot.
It was Harvey’s only 3-pointer on four attempts. He made just three of his seven field goal attempts, one miss particularly irking Simmons.
“The other day, he had a shot open and hesitated then he shot the shot,” Simmons said. “You can’t have a conscious to worry about. He’s worried more about missing a shot than making a shot.”
Simmons, too, must adjust. He’s noticed Harvey, like many other players, prefers set shots — like that aforementioned make against the Generals — created off dribble penetration and kickouts to waiting shooters.
“People are aware on the scouting report that he can shoot the basketball on the scouting report,” Simmons said. “They’re going to contest every shot. As a coach I have to get him better shots … Obviously, he’s got a target on his back because they know if he goes off early, the rest of the team picks up on that.”
One of the Cowboys’ three returning guards Simmons asks to shoulder most of the team’s scoring, Harvey’s 38 3-point attempts are 18 more than any of his teammates. He’s hoisted seven more field goal attempts, too.
A starter in each of McNeese’s first five games, Harvey’s made just 19 shots and 11 3-pointers.
Of the players with at least 10 3-point attempts, his 28 percent effort from behind the arc is the team’s worst. Harvey shoots 33 percent from the field while fellow guards Jamaya Burr and Greenwood shoot 44 percent.
Kalob and Jacob Ledoux, the freshmen twins who are often the first two perimeter players off the bench, are both at 43 percent or higher. Though a reflection of just how futile his first five games were, Harvey opts to view the numbers in a more optimistic tone.
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