Harbour gives dad reason to be proud

By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 8, 1996

When former UA basketball player John Harbour came into McKale Center last night for the Arizona-Stanford game, he knew he was going to be a bit disappointed no matter what the outcome.

The main reason was Harbour's son David is a starter for the Cardinal.

"In recent years it has been tough, but this year I had to root for David because it was his senior year" said the elder Harbour, who played small forward for the Wildcats from 1968-69. "It looks like he decided to come out here and prove something to dear-old dad."

Harbour's performance had to lessen the blow of the 85-79 UA loss for his dad, as he finished with 19 points on 50 percent shooting. His offensive outing more than doubled his season average of 9.2 points.

For the younger Harbour, this game could not have come against a better team.

"This is a great win for me personally. My whole family is basically from Tucson," David Harbour said. "When I was a young kid here in Tucson, all I wanted was to play at Arizona. But when I finished high school (at Camarillo (Calif.) High School), they didn't even look at me. It was nice to come out and show them I could play."

The Harbour family has become famous for basketball in Tucson. In addition to John and David, brothers Jim, who was a walk-on for Arizona early in the season and Matthew, a senior a Salpointe High School, are also both active in basketball.

While Harbour was returning home, he wasn't what could be classified as a fan favorite. In fact, a chanting of boos resounded through McKale Center everytime he touched the ball. The boos resulted from a hard foul Harbour committed in the second half on Michael Dickerson.

"I loved the crowd," Harbour said, smiling. "Anytime the crowd is against me, it gives me more incentive to go out and play well. And after they started booing, I got going offensively and knew I could help the team."

But Harbour was a bit defensive about the intentional foul called on him.

"When I was yelling after the foul, I wasn't disputing it," Harbour said. "I was mad because we only had four guys on the floor and the ref was giving their team the ball. All I wanted to do was make sure they didn't throw the ball in until our guy came out."

With the win essentially cinching an NCAA berth for the Cardinal, Harbour's effort was especially timely.

"When they started to key on Dion (Cross, who had 27 points on a perfect 9-for-9 shooting performance), they left David open," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "It was good to see him knock down a couple of three's and hit his free throws. I'm sure he feels like a million bucks right now."

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