Rutgers had been one of the more hyped teams throughout the college basketball preseason, holding two of the top three recruits in the country in Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper.

The former hasn’t played yet due to injury, but the latter has shown plenty through two games.

There’s no question Harper has played well, but it may not be the way scouts saw it prior to the season. 

In the Scarlet Knights’ season opener, the bigger guard poured on 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting, adding four assists and three steals. In Monday night’s action against Saint Peter’s, he excelled again in the scoring department, adding a blistering 24 points on 47% shooting, and another six rebounds.

It’s hard to argue his pure talent with 44 points through two games, and he’s done well to stuff the sheet in other areas as well, adding nine total rebounds and a trio of steals in the opener. 

But there’s a number of areas that Harper will still need to show more in order to find himself as high as No. 2, where some think his ceiling is in the 2025 NBA Draft class.

For starters, he’s 2-for-10 from beyond the arc, a number that will need obvious improvement for teams to feel comfortable in taking him. His jumper has somewhat been a question mark for some time now, and his start hasn’t inspired supreme confidence.

Even still, his shooting concerns pale in comparison to the questions and doubts surrounding his role moving forward.

Harper has long been marketed as a potential jumbo point guard, able to handle the rock often, score at all three levels and, most importantly, facilitate at a high level.

Through just two games, he’s looked more like a scoring guard, or connective forward, more than a lead guard. He’s totaled just five assists to seven turnovers, and generally just seems to be looking for his own shot more.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing for Harper to shy more towards shooting guard. But a 6-foot-6 point guard is in much rarer supply, certainly.

Luckily, there’s plenty more tape to come on Harper for NBA franchises.

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