Male Breakout Athlete Runner-Up: Matt Stehle

He was no more than a blip on the radar screen that was the Harvard men’s basketball team.

Sure, sophomore forward Matt Stehle was the de facto starter in a depleted front court, but coming off an injury-plagued freshman campaign, no one expected much from the 6’8 post player from Newton, Mass.

The scouting report pointed to his lean frame as proof that he’d have trouble competing in the post. He might record a few blocked shots and snag a few boards, but looking to him as a source of offensive production would be a stretch.

Three games into the season, it appeared that the scouts had him pegged. Stehle blocked six shots and pulled down 13 boards in that span, while contributing nine points per contest.

But after scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 boards—his first of five double-doubles on the season—in the matchup with Maine, Stehle appeared ready to prove he was more than just a big body in the frontcourt.

“He really makes our team offense a lot easier,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said.

That certainly was not the expectation coming into the year, but as the Ivy season got underway, Stehle became the Crimson’s most consistent scorer—recording double-figures in points for 12 consecutive games. In Harvard’s 58-50 double-overtime loss to Princeton, Stehle scored 14 points and snagged 13 boards, nearly leading the Crimson to the biggest upset of the season.

His shining moment came in the Crimson’s 66-57 loss to Columbia, when he scored 15 of Harvard’s 27 first half points, en route to a 21 point, 12 rebound performance.

“He was the one offensive force that we had [against Columbia],” Sullivan said. “Everybody else across the board really labored scoring. He’s such a stability factor for us.”

Despite starting the season in relative obscurity, Stehle had worked his way to the top of the league as the year came to a close, finishing among the top ten in the Ivy League in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and steals, and first in the conference in blocks.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.