Confident Nyla Harris focuses on helping lead the Cardinals

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) - Louisville forward Nyla Harris remembers watching now fifth-year senior Olivia Cochran when Harris was just a freshman.

"I have looked up to her, her game and how she carries herself as a woman," Harris explained. "She may have not known my freshman year because I may have never said it, but I was looking up to her and every move that she was doing."

Now, the junior has to help fill that role for eight different Cardinal freshmen. After two seasons of standing out as a pivotal piece for Louisville's success, Harris sat at Louisville's media day and broke down how she is focused on being a leader for this team. 

"It is being more on top of myself before I am trying to lead one of my teammates and just making sure that I have everything in order for myself," Harris said. "That's when I can definitely lead my teammates in the best way possible. And that might have taken this this whole time doing those things up to this point where now, I can show up with those leadership skills. And when we're in tight games or whatever it may be, I'm kind of one of those people that they look up to on what the decision may be."

She can understand where a highly-touted group of young Cards are coming from. A former five-star prospect, Harris stood out early as a Cardinal freshman with her tenacious effort and rebounding, playing in 38 games and making 15 starts. 

Since there is a lot of inexperience coming into this roster, head coach Jeff Walz will have no choice but to play his freshmen early and often. That's where Harris says she and the other four older Cardinals have to take the younger Cards under their wings. 

"Things that we do, we have to make sure that we're doing them correctly and that we're on the right page," Harris said. "Then, the freshmen have someone to look up to and see, 'Okay, they're working together on a string. They're communicating, they're talking.' That's what the freshmen will need, and that's what we have."

All that being said, she maintains the veterans on this team have a lot confidence in this group of first-year players, which was ranked as the sixth-best recruiting class in the country. And that is based off of what they have seen early in practice and preseason preparation.

"They are way ahead of the game than any freshmen I've ever seen," Harris said. "There's obviously things that they're going to have to work on because they are freshmen. You would expect, 'Oh, I have to help them a little bit more.'

But they come in with some things that are just self taught. The IQ is good. Mack (Mackenly Randolph) is talking. She's constantly trying to lead and I really look up to that. Because as a vet, I would love to lead. But like, when I see that other freshmen are trying to lead as well, that brings more joy to me because we need it."

Harris and Cochran are the only two forwards on this team who have deep collegiate experience. They readily welcome someone like Randolph noticing what they have come to learn at a program that expects to consistently be a national contender.

"It's a team effort," Harris said. "When we win, we're winning as a team. And that's the one thing that I stressed to the freshmen was just take your time. Calm down.

"Like, I remember in my freshman year, I wanted everything to happen so fast. I wanted to be so perfect. I didn't want to mess up. But I keep telling them the game is imperfect for a reason.

"Coach Walz says it all the time: If basketball was perfect, he wouldn't be coaching. If we could make every basket, there wouldn't be a reason for a coach. The game would be tied.

"So, I think it's instilling that into their minds and understanding that it's going to be a lot of different roller coaster moments. It's going to be downs, ups, whatever it may be. But don't get stuck there."

Her sophomore season did not see Harris get stuck in any praise she earned as a freshman. The 6-2 forward averaged 10.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game while doubling her minutes per contest, starting all 34 games for Louisville. She continued to be a menace on the offensive glass, averaging about three offensive boards per game.

There isn't much that would tell you she felt uncomfortable in any way during her first two campaigns. Now though? She insists she is different, working on continuing to expand her offensive game with a better mid-range jumper while also attacking the basket more.

"I'm just definitely comfortable now, you guys are definitely going to see that," Harris said. "I don't ever want a defender to feel comfortable knowing, 'Okay, I'm just going to play her like this the whole entire game. She's not going to notice.' No, I'm going to notice this year.

"I'm going to notice if you back up off me about 10 feet or five feet, whatever it may be. I'm going to shoot the shot. And if you're not playing hard enough defense on me, and I feel like you're relaxed, I'm going to take you to the basket. So, I'm just trying to make sure that I'm completing my all-around game."

That does not mean you shouldn't expect her to continue to be a reliable rebounder for the Cards. Harris said she has been doing two-a-day workouts all summer while also studying WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier's game and two-time NBA All-Star Anthony Edwards' confidence.

"You can never be comfortable, because when you're comfortable, the next person next who may be up when you're sleeping is putting more into their game than you are," Harris said. "And that's definitely what I remind myself all the time is that person that thinks they're going to catch me, they're not going to catch me. Because I'm going to keep going ahead so you're never going to catch me."

It is a confidence she has earned, honed and learned from someone like Cochran. Together, they hope to hold Louisville together down low and uphold the program's high expectations, with Harris stepping up to help do it.

"Just knowing that I can play with her for her last year here, and we can go out with a bang after having that bad taste in our mouths last year, and being able to know we're on the same page of what we want, we can come together," Harris said.

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