A top 40 recruit in the final class of 2024 rankings, Darren Harris arrived at Duke in the summer of 2024 as part of a star-studded recruiting class.
Harris was one of six players to sign with the Blue Devils in that recruiting cycle. The other five? Three of them – Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach – were lottery picks in the 2025 NBA draft. Isaiah Evans will be a first-round pick this June and Pat Ngongba will be the leading returning scorer for the Blue Devils next season.
After two seasons in Durham, the 6-foot-5 Harris entered the transfer portal last spring. Over 57 career games with the Blue Devils, Harris never solidified himself as a rotation regular, averaging 2.8 points over 8.3 minutes per game.
That didn’t stop Indiana from making Harris a top priority last spring once he entered the portal. The Hoosiers quickly secured a commitment from Harris after he made an official visit to campus on the second weekend of April.
Harris had no shortage of options in the portal, as schools knew the caliber of player he was from his days at Paul VI Catholic and Team Takeover on the Nike EYBL circuit. But as he considered his options, Harris wanted a school that believed in him. He found it in Bloomington.
“Really, just the way the coaches believe in me,” Harris told Inside the Hall of his decision to transfer to IU. “That was something I was looking for, playing for coaches that have my back. And the play style really attracted me.
“I think that the fit is great, the way coach (DeVries) coaches is great for me. Obviously, I’m close to Coach Kenny (Johnson), he’s from my area. So just having a staff that knows what I’m capable of and believes in me.”
At Duke, largely because of the talent that was in front of him, Harris never started a game or logged more than 22 minutes. There is a clear path to minutes in Bloomington as part of a revamped roster in the second season of the Darian DeVries era.
The Hoosiers graduated their two best perimeter shooters in Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries. Despite adding Aiden Sherrell and Samet Yigitoglu in the frontcourt, Indiana is going to take – and make – a high volume of 3-pointers next winter.
Harris, one of the best shooters in the country coming out of high school, will get plenty of perimeter shots up next season. But he’s also looking to show he’s more than just a shooter.
“I think I’m really trying to get back to what I was playing towards the end of my high school career, just playing freely,” Harris said. “Doing more than just shooting. I think I’m a good decision maker with the ball in my hands. And without the ball in my hands, getting the screen set for me, my gravity can open other guys up.
“And defensively, I’ve been getting better every year. I got stronger, got quicker, faster. And just coming from a place like Duke, a great program. Obviously, I played on two historic teams. I’m just taking everything I learned there over here and just trying to carry it over on both sides of the ball.”
After eight straight seasons from 2017 through 2025 of Indiana basketball where the 3-point shot wasn’t emphasized, the first season of the DeVries era saw the program’s highest 3-point volume of the KenPom era.
Over 50 percent – 50.5 percent, to be exact – of IU’s shot attempts last season were 3-pointers. That ranked 14th in the country. That fact wasn’t lost on Harris as he considered his options and sought the best fit to continue his journey.
“I think for me, it was that and it was how fast they played,” Harris explained. “I wanted to go somewhere where we play fast and get up and down the court. And that mixed with, like you said, watching Lamar a lot, watching Tucker and all those guys, the way they played.
“The freedom they let him play with, the screens that were set for him, just everything kind of just matched my game perfectly.”
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
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