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VIP service, VIP discounts. All right, let's get out to
the hotline. Welcome in former BYU bucket Getter, the six
foot five, two hundred pounder out of Greenwood, South Carolina.
Let's welcome in at DeMarcus Harrison to the show A DeMarcus,
how are you, buddy?
Speaker 4: I'm doing good? And how are you going?
Speaker 3: Dn doing fantastic, man, Great to catch up with you,
great to reconnect with you. To Marcus, give us an update. Man,
it's been a minute, it's been a while since. Uh,
you know, you've you know, been a part of cougarnation.
Give us a little update on on on family, on work.
Speaker 2: How's everything going in your world?
Speaker 4: Uh? It's been going okay, been done playing since it's
twenty twenty, and then kind of ventured into sales. But
I'm I'm a part of the The job struggle is
trying to find a new job going on right now
without like the layouts and everything like that, and just
the economy. So I'm just playing that game, trying to
find a new place to land. But the family is good.
Everyone's doing good. Yeah, man, just just living life.
Speaker 3: Well, give us an update on the on the kind
of the basketball trajectory that you had.
Speaker 2: I know, you let b yu, you ended up at Clemson,
bald out there.
Speaker 3: Then then take us through maybe the professional process that
you went to.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'll finished that Clemson around twenty fifteen. Then
actually I came out here and I did a couple
like workouts with the Jazz that didn't go through and
I went up ended up going to play overseas. Started
off from Canada. I'm in the NBL, played there, and
then the next year I went to Europe. I played
in Estonia. I played there for one year, made it
to the finals that year, and then well I went
to Hungary next and played in Hungary and when COVID
hit last season, like kind of into early that year
and then I just decided to shut it down after that.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, look that the overseas game, it could
be fun. It could be a great experience, right and riching, traveling,
experiencing different countries, maybe learning different languages, eating different types
of food, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But it can also be a grind.
Speaker 3: How would you describe the overseas professional basketball world?
Speaker 4: I mean, definitely a ground. You're not flying in airplanes anymore.
You're taking long bus.
Speaker 2: Rods like the high school days.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, it's all the glamor. I feel like that grammar,
that glamour is going from Division one basketball. When you
go overseas new awakening, Like you're basically starting over to
make your career growth again. So just starting for square one,
proving yourself all over again. But the money's not the same.
Speaker 3: So now it's pretty crazy to kind of see the
inverse of like now, I mean, look, college basketball is
professional basketball, and a lot of these guys are even
bouncing back from the G League. We see a lot
of EU League guys that would traditionally maybe stay overseas
and make money there.
Speaker 2: Now they're coming.
Speaker 3: To the college basketball world because that's where the money is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot of money. It's a lot of
opportunity to like even it's the opportunity to raze your stock,
but as well you can make a lot of money
while raising your stock to before you go back to
either the G League or overseas. It's just depending on
what you want to do. But like that's that's it's
a unique opportunity for them for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, well, what's the advice would you give to these
college basketball players you get out in front of them?
Speaker 2: Maybe you know.
Speaker 3: The the current team of BYU, the current team of
plans of the two places where you played, and earlier
this year we got to c BYU versus CLEMS And
there's only been a few maybe handful occasions in which
we've seen that, but.
Speaker 2: You know, and they've had some some battles there. But
what what.
Speaker 3: Words of advice would you give to the young up
and coming generation of college basketball players right now?
Speaker 4: I would say, definitely be smart with your money. Yeah, yeah,
definitely be smart with your money. But also like still
use school as a two something that you can transition
out of and if you want to do business, like
with all the money you make and it's probably like
one of the smartest things you can go into. But
also stay in school as long as you can if
you're not really thinking about want to play professional and
then like stick to a school that you want to
be a Like I know sometimes things don't work out
all the time that you want, but I want and
transfer like every year just to chase money. Like I'll
try to build a place or like a school that
you could go back to or someplace you could go
back to and be a part of. And just to
have that just a just a group of people that
you can count on or they love you and they'll
go to bat for you. So like that's why I
give like young college players just like finish at one school,
like stay multiple years at a school if you can,
and just give you all Like you're gonna make money
regardless playing in college. Just be smart with it and
enjoy it why you can.
Speaker 3: I think those are powerful words of advice, something that's
made maybe been lost in this current generation right now
where there's a lot of transactionality, you know, powerbrokers and
agents and parents maybe and family members getting involved too
in those transactions, and it can be hard to maybe
see the force through the trees, right the end goal,
starting with the end in mind. So I think it's
pretty powerful commentary that you stated, like, hey, don't just
don't be a mercenary bouncing around from school to school.
Speaker 2: It's an imperative.
Speaker 3: It sounds like to build like a legacy and and
have some roots in a community, at a school, within
a uh maybe a population that cares for you outside
of maybe what you're doing on the court.
Speaker 4: It helps a lot because you never know like where
life's gonna take you. So like if you have those
you build those connections, those relationships, it only can benefit
you once you're done plan because everybody's not going to
go pro and a lot of these guys are not
going to want to go overseason either because the money
is definitely not gonna be the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so like like you're gonna have to stay somewhere
and play for a little bit. Like if you just
keep jumping school at the school at school, not really
gonna make those connections.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you how do you balance maybe the
pt you're looking for or like and like that component
of like building roots, maybe developing within a program, getting
an education within a program, because obviously there are some
out there that is looking for the payday, right and
they're going to continue to sequence up and find the
best payday at the best school. Eventually that may that's
not like that. I mean that's like the one percent,
that's maybe the two percent, maybe the five percent of
college basketball.
Speaker 2: Where that can continually sequence upward.
Speaker 3: But you know, how do you balance maybe someone that's
looking for more playing time while also setting down some
roots and getting some roots in a good education.
Speaker 4: I mean it's kind of hard. It's it's kind of
hard to do if you're trying to be at the
highest level because sometimes they're always going to get like
the best guys to come in and play. So like
if you really seeking playing time, you might have to
go down to a lower level of competition if you
really want to get to get the playing time that
you deserve. But like it's it's always still it's basketball.
Like you're gonna have to put the work in, and
you might have to earn those minutes, like minutes rarely
or just given to somebody just because so like if
they're willing to like work and work out and put
the extra time in, like be in a gym, late night,
like show the coaches like they want the minutes. Then
I don't understand, like why you'll want to just transfer
just to transfer, Like if you're trying to do everything
you can to be on the floor, like you'll you'll
get on the floor.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Look they already they.
Speaker 4: Already paying you money, investing in you anyway. Like I
don't feel like they're just like throw you to the
side and not let you play. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like you if you're in a good program,
getting coached up, getting developed, maybe the nutrition, the strength
and conditioning, you understand the scheme, if there's at least,
you know, stability of the coaching staff, you know, why
not ride with those guys and see you know, by
your sophomore, junior, senior year, you know, if you become a.
Speaker 2: More prominent member of that team, a more productive member.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like that's I feel like that's the way to
go about it. Like put some time in and just
don't jump every year. I can understand, like your later
years and you just like want to test the waters out,
but like early years, like you got to put some
roofs down learn learn the college game. For one, you
got to learn the game of basketball. Uh, just so
you can't contribute, but just don't get lost into chasing
chasing the money former.
Speaker 3: B way you bucket get her to Marcus Harrison here
on your Utah ESPN Ready Network talking some some college
basketball in this segment. Well, Marcus DeMarcus, I don't know
if we've ever gotten you on record about why you
ended up transferring from b YU, and I'm the statute
of limitations is up. Now, you know we don't have
to keep this clandestine secretive anymore. You play a season
at BYU. You did really well. You appeared in all
thirty games in your loan season at BYU, and the
potential was very bright. I remember talking, I remember covering
you and watching you there in a BYU uniform.
Speaker 2: It was it was awesome.
Speaker 3: I want to say, I remember the game where where
you went off versus Iona in that NCAA tournament game
where you had like twelve points, two or four from
the three point line. You got to the charity stripe
a few times as well, played twenty one minutes. I'm like, man,
this kid's gonna be good. But you ended up at Clemson, right,
So give us a little breakdown of what happened why
you ended up at Clemson, which is like, I mean
that's your home, that's like your hometown school.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, yeah it is. So I'm from originally from
South Carolina. But I actually I actually didn't play in
all thirty thirty games. Like I think leading up to
the Ioma game, I didn't play in ten ten games
at all, like ten straight games. I didn't play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So like I'm pulling it off the bio, So
I don't know they they you know, in the bio
and by us bio, they say you're playing thirty thirty games,
so you're saying it was more like twenty games that season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't. I didn't play a lot. If I
did get in, it was like two minutes or something
like that. Ye.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And they're very well could have.
Speaker 3: I mean there was a few games in which you
you came in probably at the end of the games
one minute, two minutes, three minutes, you weren' getting significant
PT that's for certain, right, like in some of these games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's for sure. Well. The thing is like when
I left, I was actually put in my mission papers
to going to mission. Okay, so that's what I like,
I decided to do. I was going to go on
a mission and my mission got delayed, so like they
postponed my mission to like pushed it back a few months,
I think, like eight months or something good, and I'll
just basically play another year of college basketball. But once
I put in my mission papers, vy U gave away
my scholarship, so like that was like I think they
would do that cycle scholarships around. They gave me with
my scholarship, and they told me I could walk on
and I was like, well, I can't walk on to
college and then trying to play on the pay for
a mission. I was like, oh, yeah, I can't. I
can't afford to do that. And they kind of just
kind of left it up in the air, and I
was like, yeah, we'll love to have you back, but
if you can't, like that's understandable. So I get a
phone call, like, I'm just working at home in the
factory with my dad where he worked at he worked
at Eaton Electrical. I'm not I was just working in
the factory and I get a call from assistant coach
at Clemson. He just got hired home, but he was
at USC Upstate. He recruited my brother and things like that,
and he just asked me what I was doing and
I was like, I'm just working right now, getting ready
from a mission that got postponed. And he's like, so
you're not playing right now. He's like, do you want
to play? And I was like, yeah, I want to play,
and he basically told me like a kid at Clemson
just tore the achilles and he was gonna be out
for the year and they needed somebody to come in
and play right now. So it legit like happened like
super fast, and like they called the head coach and
they was like, yeah, you got to offer to come
here if you want to come here and play while
you prepare for your mission, and so I did that.
They called b Yu and b Yu was like, we'll
just release them straight to you, and they just they
just released me, and it was just went super quick
and then like within like a week or so, like
I was sounding to Crimson.
Speaker 2: Crazy, man.
Speaker 3: It's crazy how these stuff works out, Like and you know,
I sit there and I wonder, like the what is
you know, we're in sports radio, right, so we're always
like looking at the past, and I don't you know,
I had like Matt Carlino.
Speaker 2: On the show earlier this year.
Speaker 3: We were talking ball with him and lead up to
the t game, and so we were talking about his
transition away from BYU as well. But man, like if
this happened in the modern era, right, Like, hey, you
know you put in your papers and you're like, okay,
got delayed. Hey, I'm gonna come back to say there's like, hey,
it's okay, you don't have a scholarship.
Speaker 2: We get you on nil.
Speaker 3: We got you, man, we got a spot for you,
and yeah, you know we'll make up for some nil.
It's a different world.
Speaker 4: Right, It's a definitely a different world.
Speaker 3: But I mean, all things considered, I mean, you had
a great career there at Clemson and you were in
your hometown too. I mean, did it all work out
like the way it was supposed to?
Speaker 2: Do you feel.
Speaker 4: I felt like it could have been better, but it's
still it's still worked out. Like my parents family got
to see me play, yeah, which is nice because they
didn't really get to see me play at Clemson. I'm
gonna by you at all. I think my dad came
to one game that year. That was the only game
he could come to. You. So, like having them be
able to be at all my games mostly anytime I
played at home it was nice. And on the road
like some family members got to see me play in Virginia,
Maryland and things like that too, so it was it
was really good.
Speaker 3: Do you ever wonder though, hey, what what what it
would have been like had you just stated by or
if you could have stated at b YU for those
those four years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do. I think about it. I think about
it a lot. And I also think about like some
of the players that probably would have came to.
Speaker 2: Because you would have helped recruit them there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe like seeing maybe like a Jabbari come or
a Frank Frank Jackson com things like that. It's probably
those type of players probably would have ended up coming
to b YU as well. There's no telling, but just
just seeing is just think about. I'm pretty sure I
probably could have had a great career and probably one
definitely had more n C double A appearances, but also
like competing to win maybe like a conference championship like
that would been I feel like more to achieve boy
at b YU than it was at Clinston the agency
that that was pretty hard to try to get a
comfortship in the AG game. Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, do you still keep in contact with a
lot of the guys you played with when you were
at Uyu.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I still talk to some of them, like Charles
Brandon Anson, Like, I still talk them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love I love all those guys.
Speaker 3: Uh and uh, it's uh, it's cool that you're staying connecting.
It looks like, I mean you're living here in Utah now.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I'm in I'm in Provo right now.
Speaker 2: It's awesome how long you've been in Provo?
Speaker 4: Like ten years. I was because I was I was
still here. This is my permit residence when I was
playing overseas, So I just come back every every summer
and just be in Utah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so that's that's I didn't know that, Like,
I didn't know that you had you had built your roots.
Why why did you end up building the roots here?
I mean ten years after you graduated from from Clemson
and you were playing professionally, why did you to set
up up here and build roots here?
Speaker 4: Well, my brother was a going to b YU, like
after his mission, he was at b YU. So when
I graduated, like I came out here instead of just
living at home. Yeah, so I came out here kind
of made his home base, like to be around him,
but also like date. I mean, I feel like it's
the same. It is like a better scene for dating
here for like the member of the church.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: Like that's kind of kind of why I stay most
of the time in Utah.
Speaker 2: It's awesome, man.
Speaker 3: It looks like you've you've worked in sales, you were
at a ward Cod, You've been with Ricata.
Speaker 2: Are you looking are those with those tech? Is that
like tech sales?
Speaker 3: Essentially, I'm not totally familiar with all these companies, but
is that what you're looking to stay in as well?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was tech sales. I'm open to anything and
everything right about now, Like if I need to do
a career change, like a guy's kind of taking over everything, sure,
but but yeah, like I'm open to stand into it.
I'm open to doing something different. I even thought about
going back to being a grad assistant and coaching and
getting into coaching. I've thought about doing a lot, So
I'm open to a lot, and I'm not stuck going
on one thing. But I'm just looking for any opportunity
that can come come my way.
Speaker 3: Love it, man, Why I just sent you a LinkedIn
message and connection. So I'd invite anybody that's I would
like to connect with the Marcus via LinkedIn check out
his resume, uh and see if his skill set aligns
with your your company, or your the products and services
that that you provide to this this uh, this market
or other markets. Connect with the Marcus Harrison. No, man,
I think be really cool to see you back coaching.
I mean I look at the coaching staff here, uh
for b YU basketball, It's it's pretty robust. Man.
Speaker 2: They have a lot of you know, assistants and the specialists.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: What what role would you like to play as a
as a coach?
Speaker 3: I know there's some development positions, there's uh, you know
a lot of different specialties, it seems now even within
the coaching world.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I could definitely be development or just started as
a grad assistant and found my way in. I know
some of the guys, like I know Charles is there.
I know Justin pretty well too. Uh, did a lot
of workouts with him in the summer. So yeah, they
got a lot of a lot of guys, a lot
of good guys on that staff as well. And I
feel like with the coach that they have, Like he
knows what he's doing and you know what he needs
for his players. So he's getting like a lot of
good former professional players and everything to be on his staff.
Speaker 3: Has Paul Peterson and Anson tried to recruit you over
to wassatch.
Speaker 4: I talked to him for a little bit, but it's
kind of like in the middle of that season. I
don't know what they're what their plans are for like
next year or anything like that. But I did talk
to Answering a little bit about it, but it's just
there in the middle of the season, so they didn't
really have anything going right now.
Speaker 3: They got Jonathan Lloyd over there, Okay, they got they
got Lloyd.
Speaker 2: Okay, I see you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I heard I heard about that too. So yeah,
they they're doing they're doing good things too, Like they
got a great program. I also got one of the
young kids that I used to train when I was
uh doing some training out here in Utah Junior County.
He's killing it and I think he's going to Yukon
next year. So nice. So they got like following them.
They know what they're doing to. Paul's great player when
he played and as him was a good player. When
he played as well. So I feel like they they
have a nice program, top ranked program that's going around
in the nation making some noise for Utah.
Speaker 2: Love that man.
Speaker 3: Uh, well, before we let you go to Barkers, I
would be remiss if I didn't ask about this pole
or your basketball team.
Speaker 2: What do you like about this crew right now? And
what would you like to see them improve upon?
Speaker 4: So I like them, man, I really like this team.
It was a miracle that they could like get a
player like Ajah for sure, get a number one player
in the nation to come. So it's always exciting to
have like that caliboy player. I don't think the way
you ever had a caliboy player like that before to
come through the program. So like the hype is there,
like everything is there, and it's everything still. I still
think it's it's in reach for them to do something
special this year. What I would like to see them
improve on, it's just like offense, offensive movement, just ball movement,
and then figuring out the way to get the bench
involved to help them out. Because I think it's easy
for right now, for like other teams just to key
in on three players for them just to Richie Rob
and aj show. I think it's pretty easy for he's
to scout. They got a lot of time to scout
for him and game plan for him. So it's like,
I think a monkey wrench to the throw ins, just
having like the bench be productive and if they can
figure out a way for the bench to be super
productive and continue to help them get easy buckets, but
also get aging them easier buckets as well because they
can't help as much because the bench guys are making
shots and things. I think BAU will be really really
hard to win a game against.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't you like to be, you know, a set shooter
with those three you know on the floor and just
kind of set up in the corner, set up from
the extended wing, and just get like wide open standing
three point shots.
Speaker 4: Yes, man, they'll be easy. They gave them a lot easy.
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, you were a career back then.
Speaker 3: You know, your career over it, you know, especially at
the end of your career thirty five thirty four point
eight percent from the three point line. You know, they
could use a guy like you right now, especially in
those you know, that perimeter defense and there's those picking
pop situations that canards getting so many looks on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think for him, try not to just worry
about the three point shot as much. Yeah, like shoot it,
shoot it with confidence, steel, but like make your let
your defense score you some easy points, like get get
out and pass lane, get some steals, get some layups.
Like he guards the best players, so like you're gonna
be denying them anyway, So just figure out where that
you can, like get you a steal, or get you
a long rebound and push and transition, get you a layup.
And then like when you get those open shots, they'll
they'll fall most of the times because you you're in
a rhythm. You got yourself in a rhythm.
Speaker 2: Like so let me ask you this.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's getting a lot of looks in those
picking pop situations.
Speaker 2: I mean they're they're wide open.
Speaker 3: Should he put it on the should he put it
on the floor, and try to like get to the
rim in those situations, try to get to the free
throw line or pull up from mid range or should
it continue to take shots. I Mean it's a tough
it's a tough thing, right, Like when when it's open,
you should take it, right, But at the same time,
when he's so in consitent's shooting below thirty percent from
the three point line.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a it's a mental thing for sure. But
I mean, if you're gonna if you're practicing and you're
putting in the work and you make them in practicing
and you're shooting good in practice shooting in the game,
like if not, like you gotta be able to mix
it in, like all right, I'm gonna drive it this time,
trying to get to get to a spot or get
to a layup, get filed, get to the line, like
those are the things you gotta do. But like once
you're in the game and you're open, if you if
you're practicing, you're getting over extra shots because you know
you're not shooting that well. Like if everything's like all
your your your warm up or like getting your preparedness
getting to the game, Like if you're doing the right
things like your shot looking good, you knocking them down
and warm ups and your extra shots ding like I
don't I don't see no problem with you shoot in
the game, especially when you open like somebody, somebody, somebody
other than those three. You have to make shots, So
you're gonna have to shoot him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody's got to hit him hopefully.
Speaker 3: I mean, if who do you have trust in right
now or who do you hope to have trust in
in the supporting cast around the brig three the triple
combination as we like to call him.
Speaker 4: Outside of those three, Yeah, I would love to see
Kate would get more lives, Like I don't I don't
expect them to score like a crazy amount of points,
but he could at least get you eight, eight to
ten love stuff, Yeah, just off of loves alone.
Speaker 3: So just high pick and roll, you know, high pick
and roll and just have him just just just run
into the basket.
Speaker 4: Yeah, make them be a threat. So for that, So
like if they take that away, then somebody's in the
corner open, and that might be Richie, that might be thirty,
and that might be Milow, like any because all of
them capable of shooting. I just feel like they just
it's sparing when they get the bus because they don't
know when it's coming. But also they still have to
be ready regardless. But like they just need to get
those those shots so they can take them and just
take them with confidence. But I also feel like they
need to play a little bit faster and getting a
transition so those guys have more opportunities. Is like seeing
some easy ones go through from layups or something, because
in the half court it's so much focused on AJ
Robb and Ritchie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, love that breakdown. To Marcus big hooverorder you man.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you hopping on for a little college basketball segment
and getting caught up with you. I just connected with
you on LinkedIn. I'll get your number also from Ronald.
Let's stay in touch, brother. Let me know if you
need anything from me in the meantime.
Speaker 4: All right, appreciate it, Ben, Thank you all right.
Speaker 2: Much love to you and your family.
Speaker 3: To Marcus, that was a great segment with DeMarcus Sarrison,
former b YU bucket getter, former Clemson bucket getter as well.
And it was brought to you by Central Garage Door
Central Garage, Utah dot com. If you are in need
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Collar text eight O one six O four two nine
one nine. That's eight A one six O four two
nine one nine.
Speaker 2: That's U.