Brock Harding Talks Adjusting to Iowa, Fearless Mentality
An undersized point guard for the Big Ten, Brock Harding stands at just 6'1" and 160 pounds -- at least that's what the Iowa roster says.
Whether the measurement is exactly accurate or not, he did enough in his high school basketball career to garner 17 Division I scholarship offers, with just one Power 6 school extending a scholarship. He chose that program, and it's been going well since.
"It's been awesome so far," Harding said at Iowa's basketball media availability last week. "Just the resources that you have, and the people that you have around you -- we have a bunch of great coaches that have done great things."
"These summer practices have been good," he added. "We've got a good group of guys. It's competitive everyday, nobody likes to lose and that makes it fun."
Though he may still be getting used to playing at the Big Ten level, he does feel he brings an understanding of the game that has benefitted him thus far.
"I feel like my basketball IQ has helped me so far," he said. "I've always had that. The way I've played the game -- I've always kind of played it right. Playing the point guard role has transitioned well to the college level for me. Everything else is coming along with that."
He's got another piece of his basketball history alongside him to help the transition, too. Teammate from Moline High School in Illinois, Owen Freeman has come in as part of the freshman class alongside Harding.
"It's been good to have Owen here," the former three-star guard said. "I have someone to talk to. We're going through the same things as freshmen at a Big Ten school, so we get to share that. It's nice to have someone to go to with that."
"It's really good to have someone you're super-close with you for the journey. Just being someone that I can go to, that I can talk to whenever I need it is big," Freeman said of Harding last week. "I always wanted to play with Brock, I really wanted to continue my playing career with him. When he got the [Iowa] offer, I was hyping him up, texting him, and talking to him all the time. When he was finally able to make that decision [and choose Iowa], I might have been a little happier than he was, just because I know all of the work he's put in."
The pair already has chemistry built between them, and they're working to add fellow freshmen Pryce Sandfort and Ladji Dembele into their fold.
"So far in practice all the freshmen have been on the same team," Harding said. "Owen and I already have that glue made, and that's kind of brought Ladji and Pryce with us. Right from the first practice we all kind of glued together. We have known what each of us brought to the table, and we're bringing that out of each other."
Having a veteran presence alongside him in the backcourt in Tony Perkins has provided plenty of help in Harding's early days as a Hawkeye as well.
"He's talking to all the freshmen -- telling us where spots are open, where we're going to get most our looks, where we'll get the ball -- that kind of stuff," Harding said. "Because he has played in the Big Ten for three years now, he knows all the little things. Tony, Patrick (McCaffery), Payton (Sandfort) -- everything they've learned, they're giving to us freshmen."
Through it all, the undersized guard who was ignored by the majority of the bigger schools in the country has maintained the mentality that got him here.
"Being fearless is just kind of who I am as a person," he said. "I've always known that I'm not going to be the biggest or strongest guy out there, but I know that I've worked harder than anybody else on the court. So, that's just kind of in the back of my mind every time I go play. I've earned the right to make mistakes, go out there fearless and I'm going to show that when I'm on the court."
"Brock has always been that way," Fran McCaffery added. "He's very competitive, phenomenally confident in himself and his ability to make plays."