M. Basketball Notebook: Living on a Prayer

The Harvard men’s basketball team will be able to look to the past as a source of inspiration for its road swing through New England.

Coming off the biggest win in recent memory, a 61-57 thriller over league-nemesis Princeton, the Crimson will hit I-95 for games against Brown and Yale this weekend. In 1999, the last year Harvard beat the Tigers, the Crimson was able to convert the momentum from that overtime victory into a road sweep of Brown and Yale to finish at 7-7 in league play.

“It’s great that [the 1998-99 team] did that, because we’re looking to do the same thing,” captain Jason Norman said.

Harvard needs to take both games this weekend to maintain its slender shot of advancing into postseason competition. Penn is fast pulling away from the rest of the league—its record stands at 5-0 after a wild comeback win over Princeton—meaning that Harvard has to run the table, and then get help, in order to entertain any notions of playing for a championship on March 5th at the Palestra.

“We have to win out,” junior center Brian Cusworth said. “This is an enormous weekend for us...we need to try to carry our momentum from the Princeton game over.”

OFFENSE IS THEIR FORTE

Facing Brown’s offense on Friday night will be a challenge for Harvard, especially coming on the heels of Princeton’s methodical, shot clock-milking attack. The Bears’ scheme is predicated upon constant motion, with few set plays and more emphasis on energetic ball movement.

“They have some initial sets, but a lot of [the offense] is just them flowing off each other,” Cusworth said. “It’s a very high paced, very aggressive offense.”

Led by reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Jason Forte, a quick and athletic guard who leads the league with 18.2 points per game, Brown aims to ratchet up the speed of the game to a level at which its opponent cannot keep up.

“One of their objectives is to try to blow a team out of the water right from the get-go,” Cusworth said. “One of the most important things is for us to keep the game at our tempo.”

Harvard is already familiar with the devastation Brown’s offensive style can create—all five starters were around last year, when Forte and the Bears used the same frenetic approach to hang a pair of double-digit losses on the Crimson. Brown was one of two Ivy League squads to put up 100 points against Harvard last season, which they did on February 28th in Providence.

NO LOVE LOST

Any notion that the storied Harvard-Yale rivalry had fizzled on the hardwood was dispelled last season. Harvard entered its initial contest against Yale with a 2-18 overall record, but played its most inspired game of the year to shock the Bulldogs, 78-71. The loss was the deadly fourth for Yale, eliminated them from contention in a humiliating manner—only twice has an Ivy team ever won a title with four league defeats on its ledger.

“They’re definitely going to have motivation,” Norman said. “That [loss] put them out of the race last year, and they’re looking to do the same thing to us this year.”

Yale may well get the chance to return the favor Saturday night. If Harvard beats Brown, and the Bulldogs beat Dartmouth, both teams will enter the game in New Haven with three defeats, setting up a scenario where the two rivals would each be fighting for their postseason lives.

“Our backs are against the wall a little bit,” senior point guard David Giovacchini said. “A loss for either team would take a lot of steam out of the engine...that’s why it should be a good game.”

FEAST OR FAMINE

It has been a season of extremes for Harvard’s senior shooting guard, Kevin Rogus. The team’s deadliest option from the perimeter has been the focus of most opposing defenses this season, and has found open looks from behind the arc to be especially scarce. When able to get free, however, his accuracy has often been the difference for Harvard.

“We just have to move the ball and get some open looks for him,” Norman said, “because when he plays well the team plays well.”

Harvard’s reliance on the long-range dimension that Rogus adds was on display this past weekend against Penn and Princeton. The fast, strong guards of the Quakers kept on his heels all game, holding him to three points in Harvard’s loss, while he scored a team-high 17 in the Crimson’s successful effort to combat Princeton’s matchup zone.

“We’re working on setting better screens, and working to get the guards open,” Cusworth said.

Brown and Yale may be the combination that allows Rogus to build on his solid effort against Princeton. The shooting guard racked up 28 points in last season’s game at Brown, and averaged 16 in the two contests versus Yale.

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.