MORGANTOWN — The name came from Nas, the game is still being developed.
But all points seem to be trending upward for WVU sophomore guard Sencire Harris, who is not without his share of stories.
“I think this is a fresh start,” said Harris, a transfer from Illinois. “Possibly me being here for the rest of my college career, I look at is this being a better opportunity for me to be more out there.”
The most popular question the Canton, Ohio native gets is about his high school.
He led St. Vincent-St. Mary to consecutive Ohio Division II state championships his junior and senior years, but the school is, obviously, more known for being the high school Lebron James once attended.
“I have met him a lot of times,” said Harris, a top 100 recruit and four-star prospect coming out of high school. “People all the time are like, ‘Do you know LeBron?’ I try not to say too much, but I’ve met him a lot.”
The first name, Harris explains, comes from the 1998 movie “Belly,” in which rapper Nas plays a character named Sincere, a New York drug dealer who eventually attempts to make a better life for his family by moving them to Africa.
In Harris’ case, the name can be somewhat a double-edged sword.
“Yeah, everybody always thinks I’m nice,” he said. “I am nice off the court. Sometimes I can get carried away (on the court) with my competitive drive taking over.”
That competitive drive, by his own decision, was put on hold a year ago.
As a true freshman, Harris played in 33 games for the Illini. A year later, Illinois was stacked with returners and made a run to the Elite Eight as a No. 3 seed.
Harris decided to sit that season out as a redshirt, with the thought of using that time to develop more of an all-around game.
“I think I got out of it to better myself,” Harris said. “When I was going into my freshman year, I was more a defensive guy. I thought to myself I wanted to be more.
“I took that time to expand my game and kept building myself to have more confidence in my game.”
That confidence appears to have Harris in a starting role heading into WVU’s season opener against Robert Morris on Monday. It will be his first college game since March 16, 2023.
He was the Mountaineers’ starting shooting guard in the team’s exhibition game against Charleston, scoring nine points in 16 minutes on 2 of 4 shooting.
The difference being Harris came from a program that was just in the Elite Eight and transferred to a program with a new head coach and 12 new scholarship players.
That type of situation may have sent out a dozen red flags for players looking for another school, but not Harris.
“I looked at it as a chance to better myself,” he said. “I looked at it as some of these guys have never played in (the NCAA tournament). Some of these guys are in their last year and I want them to experience that the most.”
Note
WVU head coach Darian DeVries said Friday the Mountaineers will be without the services of guard Jayden Stone to begin the season. DeVries called it “an upper-body injury” that happened in a recent practice. Stone is a transfer from Detroit Mercy, where he averaged 20.8 points per game last season.
