Wolverines Present Unique Challenge

While both Harvard and Michigan students prepare for the debauchery of their respective versions of The Game this evening, the basketball squads of the two schools will face off at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor.

And while the contest between the Crimson and Wolverines will not have the allure of the next day’s classic football tilts—the national title implications of Michigan-Ohio State or the historic tension of Harvard-Yale—the contest represents a momentous opportunity for Harvard’s basketball team to steal some of the spotlight away from the gridiron with an upset victory.

“These are challenges that we need every year,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “You can’t do that in football because of the physical nature of football, but basketball you can play up that level and be better walking out the door than you were coming in the door.”

Harvard (1-1) takes on Big 10 power Michigan (4-0) at 7 p.m., beginning a three-game, three-year series between the teams. The agreement between the two schools’ athletic departments is a significant coup for Harvard, not only because it has locked a major D-I opponent onto its schedule for the next several years but also because Michigan has agreed to travel to Lavietes for a game in 2007.

In general, teams of the Wolverines’ ilk never deign to visit the homes of lesser-renowned programs—the top dogs are just doing the smaller teams a favor by letting them grace their schedule, the thinking goes, and thus the Harvards of the college basketball universe should be honored just to get the privilege of playing in the major team’s gym. But Michigan, to the Crimson’s pleasant surprise, initiated contact regarding the series and floated the home-and-home offer itself.

Michigan’s willingness to play the Crimson for three straight years is also a surprise, considering that local rival Boston College has only agreed to play Harvard every fourth year.

“We always want to give the team a challenge,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a high major program willing to go to an Ivy school. I was shocked. That was something we couldn’t pass up.”

Of course, Harvard is not looking to give the impression that the team is just happy to be playing Michigan. The Crimson wants to compete—and the squad feels that it has the chance to pull out an upset victory.

“Anything can happen—you saw with Vermont beating BC the other night” senior center Brian Cusworth said. “We look at [the Michigan game] as a game we can definitely win. We feel that we can play with them.”

Cusworth is, not surprisingly, the key to whether or not Harvard will be able to stay in the game. His assignment is 6’11 Wolverines center Courtney Sims, one of the top players in the Big 10. Sims, a senior, is off to his best start with Michigan, as he has scored 17.8 ppg in the team’s four easy wins on a mind-boggling 26-of-36 from the floor.

“I take it as a personal challenge,” Cusworth said of his matchup with Sims. “It’s going to be a huge testament to the will of this team.”

Harvard’s big man, who is competing in just the first semester of the season due to his impending graduation, has been the Crimson’s best player thus far. He scored 20 points and grabbed six boards in the Crimson’s season-opening win over Maine, and added a career-high-tying 24 points and nine rebounds in a loss to Boston University on Tuesday.

Cusworth has also converted on 14-of-19 field goals this season, a vast improvement on his sub-.500 percentage from last year.

To win, however, the Crimson will need more than a big game from its big man. They will also have to avoid the fate that befell the squad last year against Boston College, when Harvard—visibly rattled by the major-college atmosphere and talent level of the Eagles—was blown out in the early minutes. Michigan’s Crisler Arena seats 13,700 fans, a far cry from the 2,200 of Lavietes Pavilion, and is a good bet to be chock full of maize-clad Michigan students.

Harvard can try to neutralize that psychological edge, as Cusworth mentioned, by gaining confidence from Vermont’s stunning 14-point upset of No. 14 Boston College in Chestnut Hill on Monday. That same Catamounts squad was beaten by Harvard in last year’s opener.

The Crimson has only met Michigan once before, falling 100-73 in 1970, and has not played a Big 10 school since losing to Penn State in 1975.

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