After not speaking to the media for a whole season, Tony Harvey has a lot of catching up to do.
Get the Ute guard talking and he's hard to stop, just like he is on the basketball floor, matched one-on-one against an opponent.
While recalling his odyssey that took him from an all-league wide receiver on a champion high school team to a football player at one junior college to a walk-on basketball player at another junior college to an unbelievable record as a key player on one of the top college programs in the country, Harvey hardly comes up for air. Every so often, his soliloquy is interrupted by a "You know what I mean" as he jabbers on and on.
It's not that Harvey is the kind of guy who likes to talk about himself. He just has plenty to talk about these
days as one of the senior leaders for the 18th-ranked team in the nation. His Utes face a tough test tonight when they take on Louisville at Freedom Hall (5:30 p.m. MST, KJZZ-TV).
If he wanted, Harvey could brag about the fact that he's the winningest player ever in Ute basketball history. Utah's record with Harvey on the floor is an astounding 34-3. That's 92 percent, better than Andre Miller, better than Keith Van Horn, better than Billy McGill. When asked about it, Harvey simply says, "I've lost count, but winning is definitely the main thing."
Harvey doesn't even start for the Utes but has averaged nearly 25 minutes per game in his two seasons at the U. Last year he averaged 9.0 points a game, and this year is slightly less at 8.4 points per game.
Last year, Ute fans didn't get to know Harvey too well because he wasn't allowed to speak to the media after being suspended from the team for academic reasons as well for the investigation of a crime for which he was never charged. After Harvey came back from his nine-game suspension, Ute coach Rick Majerus decreed that Harvey couldn't speak to the media, perhaps because he thought the evil-minded media would be more interested in Harvey's off-the-court dealings than his role in Ute victories.
After awhile it may have become a superstition for the coach because the Utes couldn't lose once Harvey started playing and stopped talking. The Utes rebounded from a shaky 5-4 start to reel off a school-record 23 straight victories and vault into their usual position in the nation's Top 10. The Utes didn't lose until Miami (Ohio) upset them in a second-round NCAA upset.
For Harvey, it was tough to keep his mouth shut while his other teammates talked freely, but the time sitting out last year was the hardest. He had to miss a trip to Maui as well as one back to his home turf in California. He would practice for two hours by himself or with a Ute assistant coach, using chairs in place of opponents and teammates.
Harvey and his coach prefer not to talk about details of last year's suspension, but Harvey does say, "It was a learning experience for me knowing what mistakes were made and who you can trust. I learned about responsibility and not to abuse that."
Harvey came to Utah from Cerritos JC as a swingman, an athletic 6-5 player who could either play shooting guard or small forward. Instead he became a backup to all-American Andre Miller at point guard, while also playing the 2 and 3 positions.
Everyone assumed he'd take over as the starting off-guard this year, but when the two point guards the Utes were counting on, Gary Colbert and Trent Whiting, took longer to get acclimated to the Utah program, Harvey went back to the point. Then when Colbert started making great strides at the point and with Jeremy Killion playing well at the off-guard, Majerus decided Harvey would be more valuable coming off the bench. And that suits Harvey just fine.
"I've never been the kind of guy who has to start so I can run out between the cheerleaders," he said. "My thing is, who finishes the game. I'd rather not start and play at the end, than start the game and sit out when the game is on the line."
Even though at 6-5, 200, Harvey doesn't fit the point guard mold, he enjoys playing the position. "I like to be the coach on the floor, a vocal leader."
Majerus has often praised Harvey for being an intelligent player to which Harvey shrugs off with, "I've been blessed with the ability to learn plays." Harvey's assist-to-turnover ratio is better than 2-to-1, which ranks him third in the Mountain West Conference.
He loves to drive to the basket but can also spot up and knock down the 3-pointer. His free throw shooting has improved dramatically, from 62 percent last year to 83 percent this year, second best in the MWC.
After twice earning league player of the year honors at Cerritos, Harvey started getting letters and recruiting offers from all over. He decided USC and UCLA were too close to home and Tulane and Illinois were too far away. Kansas came on to him late but by then he had already decided Utah was the place to go.
He liked the straight-forward approach of coach Majerus and the fact that it was "the most successful program" that recruited him.
"(Majerus) told me straight up what kind of team he had and how I could help them and how he could help my game," said Harvey. "He didn't come on with a car salesman line."
Although he played basketball for AAU teams as a youngster, when Harvey got to Carson High School, football was the sport to play. Harvey excelled as both a quarterback and wide receiver and several colleges were after him, including a few WAC schools. He was all set to go to San Jose State before changing his mind and opting to attend El Camino Junior College nearer his home.
However, he didn't stay there long and decided to transfer to Cerritos where a friend told him he could play right away. But during football practice, Harvey became enthralled with basketball, which he had played just one year at Carson, after walking through the gym one day and watching tryouts. Before long, he quit football and made the basketball team, although he sat out his first year.
Finally in the fall of 1996, two years after he graduated from high school, Harvey was playing sports again. He was an immediate hit, averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds per game, while earning freshman and player of the year honors. The next year he repeated his feat of being player of the year after averaging 22 points per game.
Besides excelling on the court, Harvey is doing well in school and plans to graduate this summer with a degree in sociology. While he'd love the chance to play pro basketball at some level, he's looking to the future and would like to get an advanced degree.
And what would Harvey like to do for a living?
"I want to go into communications or public relations, in something where I'm dealing with people outside of an office."
Somewhere he can put those speaking skills to good use, of course.