Ohio State, to which Harmon committed today, is going to be there, for sure. But back when she was in the 8th grade, the local school levy was failing and one of the threatened consequences was the end of interscholastic sports. So the Harmons moved from Hebron, Ohio, about an hour away to Pickerington.

In addition to Ohio State, Duke, Notre Dame, Purdue and Stanford comprised Harmon's final five. She'd expected to take official visits before deciding. However, during a ride to a club tournament last week, Harmon was going over the pros and cons of her finalists in her mind. Stanford was too far away. Last year's coaching change made Duke seem risky. Ohio State simply was home and, as Harmon put it, "perfect."

From a basketball standpoint, Harmon will fit nicely with the Buckeyes. Super point guard Samantha Prahalis and athletic guard Amber Stokes arrive in Columbus this coming fall to join inside bedrock Jantel Lavender. Harmon, who averaged 18.8 points for Pickerington Central as a junior, will provide more perimeter firepower, as well as a player who knows her way around the low boxes.

That kind of offensive flexibility also will give Harmon a good shot at making the USA Basketball U18 team, to whose trials she has been invited. Harmon was one of a handful of underclassmen invited to USA Basketball's Youth Development Festival last spring. She had just missed five weeks with a stress fracture in her lower right leg, and had to cope with some of the nation's top high-school players lacking top conditioning amid the breath-robbing altitude of Colorado Springs, Colo.

"That was rough," Harmon said. But the experience, particularly the forced inaction, taught her something.

"I pushed myself to where I couldn't play anymore," Harmon said. "And I had to sit out longer because of that. If anything, not being able to play showed how much I really loved the sport."

Harmon is leaning toward studying criminology, following in the footsteps of her father and brother, who both are policemen. If she makes the USA team, her summer is spoken for. Otherwise, she will continue to play for the Dayton Lady Hoopstars club team.

Playing before college coaches never really was a source of pressure, Harmon says. That's not why she decided to commit early. The commitment, further, won't change her approach to the club season.

"I never looked at it as an audition," Harmon said of the summer circuit. "I just loved playing."

Click Here