M. Hoops Notebook: Home Improving

Although Saturday night’s wrenching loss at Yale may have eliminated the Ivy title prospects of the Harvard men’s basketball team, the Crimson will return home this weekend to face Columbia and Cornell with a good deal still left to play for.

Harvard (9-12, 4-4 Ivy) has little realistic hope of catching a streaking Penn team, which is undefeated in league play, but the remaining games on the schedule present a significant opportunity for the Crimson nonetheless. Harvard has the chance to end the season above .500 with a 5-1 finish, a major accomplishment in light of last year’s disappointing record.

“To go from 4-23 to a winning season is, I think, a big step, and it’s something this team can be proud of,” senior point guard David Giovacchini said.

By capturing four or more of its final six games, the Crimson can also lock up a winning record in league play for the first time since the 1996-97 team went 10-4. That year was also the last time a Harvard squad finished as high as second in Ivy play, and with only Cornell (10-11, 5-3) separating the Crimson from the Quakers in the current standings, Harvard can set its sights on that goal as well.

“That is there in front of us,” junior center Brian Cusworth said. “It’s not on my agenda to go 3-3, 4-2...we plan on taking every game.”

Coming off the devastating loss against Yale, the Crimson will need to show its resolve this weekend in order to prove yet again that this year’s team has a different outlook and a greater motivation than in the past.

“We’ve got a group of guys now that expect to win every time they lace ‘em up,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said, “and that’s a big step.”

HOMESTAND HOPEFUL

Harvard is closer to holding a 7-1 record in Ivy play and challenging for the title than it appears: three of its four league losses have come by a combined six points, with all three defeats coming on the road.

“With a little bit of luck right now we’d have a winning record at this point in time,” Sullivan said, “and [might be] in second place.”

To turn its luck around and make the move into second, the Crimson will need to take care of business at home, where it plays the next four games—the longest homestand in two years.

“It’s always great to play at home,” Giovacchini said. “You gain a little momentum...[this] homestand is a good opportunity for us.”

Harvard has not taken back-to-back games at Lavietes Pavilion in either of the past two seasons, and has not swept Columbia (12-9, 3-5) and Cornell at home since the 2001-2002 season.

“They need to [sweep], whether it be this weekend or next weekend,” Sullivan said. “That would be a strong indication of how far they’ve really come.”

Two weekend victories would be another impressive achievement for a team coming off of big wins over Princeton and Brown.

“We just want to finish up what we started, and go out with a bang,” Cusworth said. “I’m fully confident that we can take this weekend and the next two weekends.”

IN LIKE A LION

If Harvard hopes to avenge its earlier road loss at Columbia on Friday night, it will have to play better in the early going. The Crimson has habitually started games slowly of late—Yale put 12 points on the board before Harvard scored a single basket in New Haven, and the Crimson was up by just one against Brown at halftime in a game they eventually won by double figures.

A bad first half was also pivotal in Harvard’s 57-55 loss to the Lions in New York. Sloppy play and poor shooting out of the gate resulted in a 34-23 halftime deficit, which the Crimson trimmed significantly once it got going after the intermission.

“We need to plan on coming out with the energy that we had at the beginning of the Cornell game,” Cusworth said, “[to] establish the line of scrimmage right from the get go.”

Harvard’s 74-65 win at Cornell, in which they outscored the Big Red by 10 in the first half, was played on a Friday night, when the team was fresh, whereas the losses at Columbia and Yale were both early Saturday games—2 p.m. in New York, and 5:30 p.m. in New Haven.

“It’s the classic Saturday night [scenario]—Saturday night legs,” Sullivan said. “That extra hour of rest on Saturday night might make a difference.”

Back to its normal home schedule this weekend, Harvard should be well rested for both games, and will look to exploit a tired Cornell team, which plays at Dartmouth Friday night, right out of the gate.

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