The Cousy and Havlicek of Harvard

It’s easy to become just another face in the Harvard backcourt. With as many guards as the Crimson has—seven in all—it’s not hard to get lost in the shuffle.

But in Harvard’s case, each of the team’s veteran guards has developed his own on-court personality.

Junior point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman, of course, is the expert passer. Off guard Patrick Harvey is the dead-eye shooter and converted guard Drew Gellert is the defensive stopper.

And reserve Brady Merchant? Well, he is a little bit of everything rolled into one.

Once a starter at shooting guard as a freshman, Merchant has since come to fill the invaluable role of Harvard’s sixth man coming off the bench. It’s a quiet role, but one that Merchant fits perfectly, according to Prasse-Freeman—who, along with forward Sam Winter, lives with Merchant in Quincy House. Merchant, he says, is as selfless as anyone he’s ever met.

“Brady has amazing integrity,” Prasse-Freeman says. “He’s a really good person. I can rely on him for anything.”

Prasse-Freeman, for his part, has been a star since he first donned a Harvard uniform. Right away, the Mercer Island, Wash., native stepped into Harvard great Tim Hill’s shoes—and his No. 15 jersey. He has impressed ever since, posting assist and three-point shooting numbers that have grabbed the rest of the league’s attention.

Together, Merchant and Prasse-Freeman provide an energy that will power the Crimson’s up-tempo offense this year. Harvard doesn’t try to hide the fact that it’s going small this year. But while the Crimson’s backcourt-oriented style may not match up favorably size-wise, Merchant and Prasse-Freeman help give Harvard a combination of slashers and long-range shooters that creates just the right balance of penetration and perimeter play.

Harvard’s Hondo

There were lots of big plays over the course of last year’s drama-filled season, many of them by Harvey and departed captain Dan Clemente ’01. But a year later, one play stands out.

It was known, quite simply, as The Dunk.

With Harvard clinging to a three-point lead late in the first half against Penn, Merchant stole a pass in the Quakers’ end of the floor, drove the lane and threw down a slam over a much taller Penn player despite getting fouled. The play electrified the crowd at Lavietes Pavilion as Harvard marched to victory, snapping Penn’s 25-game Ivy winning streak.

“Beating Penn at home was my best personal moment, and I think Brady’s, too, because he dunked all over that kid,” Prasse-Freeman said.

A year removed from the historic game, Merchant remembers the play clear as day.

“I can’t forget it,” he said. “They were just pressuring the ball and I think there was a double-team down in the corner and the [Penn player] just had nowhere to go with it. He threw it up and I just anticipated it, got the ball and finished the play.”

Merchant’s slam only counted for two points, but Penn was never the same. It was a typical contribution from Merchant, who consistently provides a big lift for his teammates off the bench.

“Brady’s definitely a sparkplug for us,” Prasse-Freeman said. “Put him in anywhere at any time and he’ll give you a lift. He changes the complexion of the game with his athleticism.”

Merchant began his career as a starter at shooting guard. Harvey was not with the team then, and Gellert was out with a separated shoulder. Times have changed since that rookie season, but Merchant has no regrets about the way his responsibilities have shifted.

“ I love the role,” he says. “Each game brings something different. I come in and I’ve got to be ready to guard a one-man, a two-man, a three-man. Sometimes even a four.”

“I think the role of the sixth isn’t just filling in for the guy who’s taking a breather,” he adds. “The role of the sixth man is to come in and either change the momentum of the game or continue the momentum that the guys have built.”

Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan compares Merchant to another Ohio native who thrived in the sixth-man role.

“Brady is the John Havlicek of our program,” Sullivan says, referring to the Boston Celtic great. “All great programs have players who are willing to sacrifice personal ambition for the good of the order, and he personifies that.”

Before coming to Harvard, Merchant quarterbacked his Lebanon High School football team to a state championship his senior year. He had plenty of offers to play Division I football, but basketball has always been his—and his father’s—first love.

Brady’s father was his hoops coach in high school.

“I grew up in the gym,” Merchant says. “My dad was my coach in high school—he was my coach my entire life. He’d bring me to the gym when he had practices and I’d shoot on the side. Basketball is what I grew up with—it’s what I love.”

In football, Merchant’s bread-and-butter was the option. On the basketball court at Harvard, he provides much of the same—options. Gifted with the court sense of a Prasse-Freeman, the jump shot of a Harvey and the defensive instincts of a Gellert, Merchant can spell any one of them at any time.

“We’ve got a high-quality point guard with Elliott, a high-quality shooter with Pat and an extraordinary competitor in Andrew. Brady is a little bit of each one of them,”Sullivan said.

Most scouting reports on the Crimson this year have pegged depth as one of Harvard’s problems. After Merchant, the thinking goes, Harvard has little on the bench. The Crimson might reply, though, that in Merchant, Harvard has everything it could possibly want.

The Cousy of Cambridge

If Merchant is Harvard’s Havlicek, then consider Prasse-Freeman Bob Cousy.

Ever since he first took the court at Lavietes Pavilion, the Crimson floor general makes some of the prettiest passes you’ll ever see. Through his first two years, he is on pace to smash the Ivy League all-time assist mark, no small feat.

Coming from a top-flight high school team that produced four players at Division I colleges, Prasse-Freeman had options.

One was Stanford. The Cardinal coaches had expressed interest in Prasse-Freeman his senior year, and he likely could have suited up for Stanford, a perennial Final Four contender. Prasse-Freeman eventually turned down the Cardinal, however—he wanted to play right away and Harvard offered that chance.

Three years later, Prasse-Freeman , who finished in the top 15 nationally in assists last season, is plenty happy with his choice. Playing at Harvard doesn’t bring quite as much fame and attention as high school hoops did back in Washington state, but Prasse-Freeman has taken to Cambridge nonetheless.

“It’s very different to [play at Harvard] after coming from a program that just had thousands and thousands of fans at every game and the community was involved,” Prasse-Freeman. “We get pretty good fan support here, but it’s different. It’s a nice challenge to be here.”

He may not be playing in front of throngs, but Prasse-Freeman has emerging as one of the premier playmakers in the Ivy League. Having originally prided himself on his passing skills alone, Prasse-Freeman has developed into a legit scoring threat, especially from the outside. Last year he finished the season averaging just shy of 10 points per game.

Maybe the only phase of the gameholding Prasse-Freeman back from standing alone as the elite point guard in the Ivies is turnovers. For all his wowing passes, Prasse-Freeman remains prone to making mistakes. Last year, despite sensational assist numbers, his turnover ratios was one of the country’s worst. He’s working on that, though.

“He’s aware of it,” Sullivan said. “It’s something he’s talked to me about on his own...For a common player, that’s probably pretty good—1.7-to-1—but for him...that’s not the number we’re looking for.”

If Prasse-Freeman is aware of the problem, rest assured that it will not go unfixed. No one works harder than the Harvard guard. In the Crimson’s overtime loss to Yale last season, Prasse-Freeman missed a chance to win the game at the buzzer when his three-pointer rattled out. After shaking hands, he went into the locker room, changed out of his uniform, came back out onto the floor and shot jumpers for a good half hour. After the fans, the media and even some of his teammates had packed up and gone home, Prasse-Freeman stuck around to try to better himself.

This year, Prasse-Freeman intends to make those last-second shots.

“When you work so hard, it hurts when you don’t come through,” Prasse-Freeman said. “I just vowed never to miss one of those again.”

And as for Stanford? That’s ancient history these days.

“I have two real good friends who go there and [last year] they were like, ‘You should transfer. We don’t have any point guards now,’” Prasse-Freeman said. “But I wouldn’t transfer. Even if I knew I was going to play, I wouldn’t. I love it here and I love my friends here. I love the program. [Stanford] was a different route I didn’t take and I’m happy that I didn’t.”

So, too, are his teammates. Merchant, Prasse-Freeman and Winter, in particular, are very close.

“I’d say Elliott—and for the most all my teammates—are like brothers to me,” Merchant says. “You come up here, and some of us are from really far away—Elliott’s from Seattle, I’m from Ohio. These guys become your family.”

Which means, of course, that come the Ivy season, Harvard’s opponents will need to watch their step. The Crimson will have some family business to attend to.