D’Angelo Harrison entered the interview room a few minutes after Moe Harkless last night, so he was not aware that his teammate had just made history in St. John’s 91-67 wipeout of Providence in Carnesecca Arena.
“You set a record for most points?’’ Harrison asked innocently as he followed the line of questions being posed to Harkless by reporters.
“Yeah,’’ said Harkless, pointing to the stat sheet which showed him with 32 points in his freshman Big East Conference debut.
Harrison gasped, “Damn!’’
“That’s what I said!’’ said Harkless.
“I broke Allen Iverson’s record, and Troy Murphy’s,’’ said Harkless, sounding very much like a freshman.
“In points?’’ asked an incredulous Harrison.
“Yeah,’’ said Harkless.
“So, nobody’s ever had more than that?’’ said Harrison.
“Yeah,’’ answered Harkless. “It’s my record.’’
Allen Iverson. Troy Murphy. Maurice Harkless — we’re talking “Three’s Company” here.
Harkless, the freshman sensation from Queens, hit 14 of 17 shots from the field, including 2 of 3 from behind the arc, and grabbed 14 rebounds for his fourth double-double to eclipse Iverson and Murphy, each of whom had 30 points in their freshman Big East debuts.
UConn’s Caron Butler and Khalid El-Amin and Villanova’s Tim Thomas each had 29 in their freshman debuts. Boston College’s Troy Bell and Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell had 28.
“He’s definitely a face of the Big East,’’ said Providence coach Ed Cooley, who has spent his career in the northeast. “He’s a player who will go down as one of the better players to come out of here.’’
Consider the freshmen who have donned the red and white — Ron Artest, Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Mark Jackson. None of them had a better league debut than Harkless.
The 6-foot-8 forward, who is so efficient and graceful on the court his effort has been questioned, was unaware of the record until told by reporters. His eyebrows arched in astonishment. It took two rounds of questions before he could fully express his thoughts.
“I never felt like this before,’’ he said. “To have a record in the Big East for a freshman, knowing all the players that came through here, it’s a great honor.’’
Harrison, who had a career-high 25, summed up what has been the widely held assessment of Harkless, the highest-rated city recruit to sign with St. John’s since Artest.
“Moe’s 6-8 and can do everything that I can do,’’ said 6-3 Harrison. “Moe has it all. Moe’s a pro, for sure.’’
Providence (11-3, 0-1) came in on a seven-game win streak and, according to Harrison, the Friars were talking trash in warmups.
It was 47-31 at halftime and the Friars never got within 12.