NOTEBOOK: Men's Basketball Still Looking for "Road Toughness"

The greatest enigma in college basketball is something seemingly too simple: win on the road.

Yet in any league, for any team, it is the hardest thing to do.

To become a road warrior, gain road fortitude, or excel in any other cliché one can choose is a challenge that brings even the best of programs to its knees.

For Harvard, the team has dubbed it “road toughness.” And despite the disappointments of the weekend past, punctuated by its hard-fought 75-63 loss to Penn on Saturday night, the Crimson still believes it can transfer this ideal into Ivy wins.

The test begins next week, playing at Ivy rivals Brown (7-16, 2-6 Ivy) and first-place Yale (10-11, 6-2).

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Harvard began its non-conference season with stiff road tests: playing against a Vermont squad that had just upset Boston College and a Central Connecticut State team that had beaten the Crimson in Lavietes the year before.

The result: Harvard took out the Cantamounts, 84-76, in overtime and came back from 18 down to defeat the Blue Devils, 72-65.

An ideal was formed from these games that the team has sought to make a staple of its program this year: road toughness.

And for 33 minutes on Friday night, Harvard demonstrated this tenacity, staying within eight points of Penn at 52-44 after Jim Goffredo nailed two free throws with 6:55 remaining in the game.

But a 10-0 rally from the Quakers following Goffredo’s shots ended all hopes for the Crimson.

Now comes the next step for Harvard: sustain this effort for seven minutes longer and get that elusive Ivy road win.

“We won at Vermont and CCSU. The major challenge was to transfer this road toughness into an Ivy-league back-to-back,” coach Frank Sullivan said. “I think it didn’t get away from us either night—it was good to see we could put out the effort back-to-back.”

But to get a victory, Harvard must put it all together. The team exhibited great improvement in three-point field goal defense Saturday, holding a third-place Penn squad to 1-of-10 shooting from behind the arc.

Its defense down low was a different story. Penn shot over 50 percent from the field in the second frame, dominating the tired Crimson squad.

Bring both to the table, and Harvard can put its cliché of road toughness, finally, to its full use.

“Eventually, it’s not good enough to just be in it—we’ve got to start winning some of these games,” sophomore Drew Housman said. “But the fact that we were tough in a tough environment says we have some fortitude.”

THE THRILLA IN PHILA

In Housman’s third matchup against the Ivy’s top point guard, Penn senior Ibrahim Jaaber, the proverbial gloves came off.

It was Housman vs. Jaaber III, a heavyweight bout for the ages.

And, as expected, both players had solid performances—nine points apiece, combined with six assists for Jaaber and three helpers for Housman.

So, maybe on paper, the matchup between two of the best point guards in the Ivies did not pan out to be the epic outing it could have been.

Rather, the challenge was more a meeting of the minds on court, with Housman and Jaaber each trying to figure out the other’s game, slowly and methodically.

Jaaber came out on top, showcasing his remarkable defensive abilities in gaining six steals—but only two of them came off Housman.

It showed that the senior, with years more of experience and development, still has the young sophomore’s number—but that it may not be long until the roles are reversed.

“Obviously, I would have liked to do a lot more,” Housman said. “But he’s a great defender, and our offense wasn’t moving very well, which made it harder for everybody.”

Keeping up with the elusive Jaaber, holding him to nine points, while getting nine of his own, however, shows Housman’s progression—especially against the best point guard in recent Ivy history.

“[Housman] learned from his effort the first time around,” Sullivan said. “I thought [Housman] did a much better job, but Jaaber’s got pro hands and pro quickness. It’s no fluke he’s so great.”

VOTEL OR DIE

Coming off of a draining loss to Princeton on Friday night, Harvard was not expected to have much left in the tank.

Its wary frontline would eventually hit the wall, and, most likely, the Ivy-league’s leading scorer in Penn senior Mark Zoller would take full advantage.

No one predicted that the scarcely used Brennan Votel, averaging just 1.8 points per game coming into the contest, would instead fill this void. In dropping a career-high 11 points on the Crimson, Votel seized his opportunity to step into the spotlight and squashed all hopes for a Harvard upset in the process.

“Our numbers are down in the frontcourt,” Sullivan said. “That was where our fatigue showed. I knew we would hit the wall at some point—it was clear it was in the second half, in the low post.”

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.