He was this rangy kid who knew how to shoot and that was his game out of McKinleyville, Calif., when he enrolled at Humboldt State University four years ago.
Thursday night, when Parker Farris plays his last home game as a Hawaii Hilo Vulcan (8-14, 6-10 Pacific West Conference) in a 7:30 game against Dixie State University (16-6, 13-3 PWC), at Hilo Civic, about the only thing that hasn’t changed is that he still has that length that creates issue for defenders out on the perimeter.
In the time since he got out of high school, things have changed, including the shot.
He’s a better shooter now, averaging 22 points a game — good for 21st nationally, second in the conference — with a .457 shooting percentage, a .367 3-point percentage and a torrid .857 percentage from the foul line.
Farris leads the PWC in playing time, averaging 35.9 minutes per game, which figures out to a total of two more minutes than second place Trevor Hill of Dixie State.
That’s two years in a row, playing more minutes than anyone else in one of the top Division II conferences in the western half of the country.
“The thing about him any coach would like,” said UHH coach GE Coleman, “is his work ethic. This guy is in the gym every day, to the point that in the second half of the season here, I’ve had to get in there and make him go home, you worry about the stress on his legs, but he would be in there all night if I let him.”
At some point in their development, shooters with exceptional ability begin to appreciate the gift, they understand how to make it grow, they become more familiar with mechanics and how to fine tune the shot. For Farris, some of that has to do with Mark McLaughlin, Coleman’s assistant coach. When Coleman was an assistant at Central Washington (2013-14), McLaughlin led the nation in scoring at 27.1 points per game.
“He’s been a big influence on me,” Farris said, “and a part of it has been just how he approaches the game. (McLaughlin) is in there every day, shooting, working on it, and he’s not even on a team; it’s just a part of who he is as a person.
“When he first got here,” Farris said of McLaughlin, “there was one day he asked me how many shots I got up the night before. I realized he was in there shooting and I wasn’t. That had an impact on me.”
The kid you will see against Dixie State has learned a lot in the last four years.
“When I went to Humboldt, I was a 3-point guy and that was about it, I stood in the corner, almost like a decoy and every once in a while I’d get the basketball and I’d shoot it,” he said. “At Santa Rosa (junior college) as a sophomore I was mostly a shooter but I moved around a little bit.
“When I got here, GE put a great deal of faith in me, he urged me to handle the ball more, to find more spots to shoot. Mark showed some things, talked about getting to the basket, playing to contact instead of trying to avoid it, which gets you to the line.”
McLaughlin preaches taking open shots, but also taking the ball to the basket, forcing the defense to play you in different ways.
“It helps the team, it helps your game,” McLaughlin said, describing his approach. “If you go to the line five times, there’s 10 points for you, if you get a couple layups along the way you’ve got almost 20 points without even taking a 3-pointer.”
That philosophy has worked well. Farris had a 36-point game at BYU-Hawaii and went over 30 points three other times.
Opposing coaches are always complaining about the challenges Farris presents when he moves around for the ball. Sometimes, it’s best to cover him with a guard, other times, you need a wing player, but when he moves without the ball, the defense can get confused. When that happens he might have a shorter playing guarding him, which opens up a 3-point shot, or a bigger player finds himself checking the 6-4 senior on the wing and has to foul him when Farris heads to the hoop.
“We knew we had a great shooter when he got here,” Coleman said, “but he’s a different, much better player now. He’s been a pleasure to coach very day.”
A guy with a Have Shot Will Travel business card at his size just might find a good fit in international basketball, a chance to make some post graduation money that he can apply to his major in economics when he graduates in May.
The end? He sees no end.
“I really haven’t thought about it,” Farris said of the final home game, “my mindset has been one game at a time, practice, get focused and all that but I guess it’s here, isn’t it?
“To be honest, I really don’t want to think about it now,” he said. “I just want to play this game and then we have three more, so there will be a chance to look back on it later.”
With that, he excused himself. There was a gym with a couple baskets that needed to be filled.
