Former All-American guard Derek Harper enters Illini Hall of Fame
CHAMPAIGN – It’s funny how things work out. The latest reminder came from Derek Harper, the former Illini basketball All-America guard who is a member of the fourth class of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Like the time when he was getting recruited as a Parade All-America and The Next Big Thing after winning a high school state championship at North Shore High School in West Palm Beach, Fla.
The long string of coaches entering the home to speak with Harper and his mother one intense day ended with a visit from UCLA’s Larry Brown, whose Bruins just finished as NCAA runners-up.
“Sitting on the sofa with my mother, I literally looked Larry Brown in the eye, then I was dozing off,’’ Harper said Friday. “It was very embarrassing. That’s how tiring and stressful the process was.
“And I can only be honest. Larry Brown sent me a Western Union, probably as soon as he walked out of my house. He expressed that he would never give me a scholarship. It was a pretty bizarre moment. I think he still holds it against me.’’
Nonetheless, Harper was set on playing basketball in the Big Ten, which already had Magic Johnson at Michigan State and Isaiah Thomas at Indiana. That’s where Harper wanted to play, and he apparently was narrowing his attention to Michigan and Illinois. The Wolverines already appeared in the NCAA title game in 1976 and losing to undefeated Indiana, and coach Lou Henson was laying the groundwork for a big run in the 1980’s with the Illini.
Then Michigan coach Johnny Orr abruptly resigned and took the job at Iowa State.
“I wanted to play in the Big Ten,’’ Harper said. “I wanted to face the best. I felt if you could survive in the Big Ten, you could get to the league. The Big Ten was the peak at that time. Johnny Orr left to go to Iowa State, right before I made my decision. That left Illinois.
“I’m not saying Illinois didn’t have a chance, but that helped me make my decision after (assistant coach Tony Yates) had been down to almost every single game. He was the most persistent in terms of recruiting me. He sold me. When Johnny Orr made his decision to move on, I made my decision to pick Illinois.’’
Folks in his neighborhood were shocked. They heard about the interest from North Carolina, Maryland and might have seen the UCLA coaches show up on the block.
“They figured I would go to one of the bigger name schools,’’ Harper said. “I was happy I made that choice.’’
With Henson, Harper appreciated the demand for fundamentals and the respect the roster had working with Henson, who tried to give the players a feeling of home in rural central Illinois.
“I had a great relationship with coach Henson,’’ Harper said. “Being a high school All-America coming to the University of Illinois, I had a reputation that I was supposed to come in and be the guy, put Illinois on the map. I was a confident player. Coach Henson taught me more than any coach taught me.’’
The message was simple.
“You don’t have to make a great play all the time,’’ Harper said. “That’s one thing that sticks out to me about Lou. A nice little bounce pass is better than a behind-the-back pass.’’
Harper liked the flashy play, he admitted, and when it ended up in a turnover, Harper knew what was coming in the next huddle.
“He would call a timeout and say, ‘Derek wants to be a star. He’s out on the floor and being a hot dog,’ ’’ Harper said. “Everybody always laughed. I realized what he was talking about made a lot of sense. Sometimes all you have to do is make the simple play. That was his power. Fundamentals were important to him. He wasn’t one of the coaches like Bob Knight that people raved about. To me, he was a great coach and prepared you. I love the guy.’’
As a freshman, Harper averaged 8.3 points and 5.4 assists on the 1980-81 team that returned Illinois to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 years, then averaged 8.4 points and 5 assists the following year before a breakout junior season when he put up 15.4 points and 3.7 assists on another NCAA tournament team. The second-team All-America chose to declare for the NBA draft, where he was the No. 11 pick.
He averaged 13.3 points and 5.5 assists in a 17-year career in the NBA, but Harper has thought about what would have happened if he stayed at Illinois one more year. In 1984, the Illini reached the regional final, losing to Kentucky at Rupp Arena after winning the Big Ten for the first time since 1963.
“I think about it frequently,’’ Harper said. “I really enjoyed playing with Efrem Winters and Bruce Douglas, Anthony Welch and Jay Daniels,’’ Harper said. “When I left high school, I thought about trying to be like Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady and going straight to the NBA. When I got to Illinois, my goal was to go to the NBA.
‘I had a great junior year, so I made that decision. When you talk about the talent we had and how deep we were and the kind of year we just had with Bruce and Efrem, I thought about it and thought about it. It didn’t change my ambition to want to be a professional basketball player.
“A lot of times, you have to look out for your own best interests.’’
Harper lives the good life in suburban Dallas after spending the bulk of his NBA career there. His daughter, Dana, was a contestant on season 11 of The Voice (“I can’t sing in the shower. She gets that from her mother, who was in the Illinois choir,’’ Harper said.).
He’s not been to Champaign in roughly 10 years, Harper said, but noticed the Illini coming to life last winter.
“I was trash talking again,’’ Harper said. “They were on their way.’’
Harper was one reason way the Illini found their way in the early 80’s, even if it’s funny the way things worked out.
