Weekend Brings Challenging Contests At Yale, Brown

After getting swept for the sixteenth consecutive year on its annual Princeton-Penn roadtrip, the Harvard men’s basketball team travels to Brown and Yale this weekend hoping to avoid recent history.

Last season, following a sweep at home to the Tigers and Quakers, the Crimson was swept the next weekend by the Bears and Bulldogs, sending the team deeper into a tailspin that lasted eight games and only ended with a win in the season finale against Columbia.

Harvard (10-12, 3-5 Ivy) saw each of this weekend’s opponents as home earlier in the season. In two of its better offensive games, but subpar defensive performances, the Crimson fell to Yale 88-78 on January 26, but rebounded to beat Brown 92-88 the next day.

The Bulldogs’ (10-11, 6-2 Ivy) used that January win to vault into the Ivy League race. Yale was tied for first in the league until it lost 60-59 last Saturday at Cornell, a game in which forward Casey Hughes missed two free throws with two seconds left. It currently holds the same record as the Big Red and sits one game behind league-leading Penn, which has a 6-1 record in the league and beat Harvard 67-53 last Saturday.

The Bulldogs also have done very well against the Crimson recently. They swept Harvard last year, and, having already won at Lavietes Pavilion, needs only to win on Saturday at the John J. Lee Amphitheatre to complete the season sweep. The Crimson faces a daunting task if it wants to avoid an oh-for against its rival for the second consecutive season. Lee Amphitheatre may be the most difficult place to play in the Ivy League, thanks to its acoustics and the swarms of loud students packed very close to the court. Harvard has not won at that arena since 1999.

“Yale is a very challenging environment,” said Crimson head coach Frank Sullivan. “Not only do we have to play solid, disciplined basketball, we have to have the mental toughness to focus on what is going on between the lines.

In last year’s 82-74 loss in New Haven, the Bulldog fans were particularly rough on then-freshman guard Drew Housman, who had not faced so rough a collegiate crowd up to that point. This year, however, Housman is a year older and is coming off the best performance of his career in a Harvard uniform. At Princeton on Friday, he scored 33 points, the 12th highest total in team history, in a 74-68 double-overtime loss and is ready to ride that momentum into tonight’s game.

“I’m excited, I’m looking forward to it,” Housman said. “I don’t think we have guys who will be afraid, or scared, or anything. I’m looking forward to quieting the crowd and hopefully we can do that as a team and get our first win their in eight years.”

In the first game, the Crimson led by as many as 13 in the first half, but couldn’t get stops in the second half, as the Bulldogs scored 51 points in that frame and shot 58.3 percent from the floor on the game. Guard Caleb Holmes had a team-high 19 points, while Hughes was 8-of-10 from the floor, en route to 16 points.

But Yale’s main threat is junior guard Eric Flato. Flato ranks fourth in the Ivy League in both scoring and assists, averaging 15.3 points per game and 3.43 assists per game. He is the reigning Ivy League co-player of the week after averaging 22 points in road games at Columbia and Cornell.

The opponent tonight, Brown, has had a rough time since last season ended. First, coach Glen Miller left to become the coach at league rival Penn. Then, star player Keenan Jeppesen tried to follow Miller to Philadelphia. He wasn’t allowed to leave and returned to the Bears, but quit again early in the season.

The Bears are led by junior guard Mark McAndrew, the other reigning Ivy League co-Player of the Week Harvard will see this weekend. McAndrew is third in the league in both scoring and three-point field goal percentage. He is averaging 15.7 points per game and shooting 44.2 percent from long range. His 61 made threes rank him second in the league behind Ryan Wittman of Cornell.

“Three-point shooting with Brown is absolutely critical to being successful in the game,” Sullivan said. “Certainly Mark is the most dangerous one. He is as dangerous a shooter as there is in this league. Great with rhythm and great with timing.”

In the matchup in January, Harvard held McAndrew relatively in check, as he had 16 points, but shot just 4-of-11 from the floor.

The Crimson has its own three-point threat in captain and guard Jim

Goffredo. In last year’s 75-58 win at the Pizzatola Sports Center, he shot 8-of-10 from three-point range and had 30 points. This year, he leads Harvard with 15 points per game but has struggled recently. He scored only 7 points at Princeton and while he led the team with 14 points the next night at Penn, it took 19 field goal attempts, of which he made just five.

A return to a venue where the team has known success may be just what he and the Crimson need.

“Personally, I’ve always liked playing at that gym down there for one reason or another,” Goffredo said. “It’s definitely a good way to get back on track against a team we have already beaten. I think a lot of guys like playing down there, so it should be good.”

Staff Writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.