Crimson Seeks Elusive Wins

After five straight Ivy contests in the friendly confines of Lavietes Pavilion, the Harvard men’s basketball team will hit the road this weekend to take on two Ivy foes, Princeton tonight and Penn tomorrow.

This may be the Crimson’s best chance in years to knock off both squads on the road. The Tigers (9-9, 0-4 Ivy) have lost four straight Ivy League games, while the Quakers (12-8, 3-1 Ivy) are coming off their first conference loss of the season at Yale last Saturday.

Two Harvard wins would put the Crimson (10-10, 3-3 Ivy) back in the race for the top spot—and that elusive automatic NCAA tournament berth—in the Ancient Eight.

Unfortunately, history has not treated Harvard so kindly on this road trip. The Crimson will head to Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium tonight seeking their first win since 1989, and will enter The Palestra tomorrow having not been victorious since 1991. Harvard’s last sweep of this road trip was in 1985.

“We’re trying to find a balance between not trying to put too much pressure on ourselves, but realizing that hey, Princeton’s down right now, and Penn is not invincible” said sophomore point guard Drew Housman. “So if we could come in and get two games, that would be fantastic for our confidence.”

With all the added historical pressure, Harvard knows it must take care of business to get the victories.

“Coach has been preaching all year the importance of every single Ivy League game. I don’t think we’re going to go into this one with a different mindset,” said sophomore Evan Harris.

Tonight’s game with Princeton will be a defensive battle—the Tigers rank last in the Ivy league at just 50.4 points per game, but first in team defense, giving up only 52.4 points per game.

“I think we need to score, I think we need to do a good job on the defensive boards, and we have to find some spots within their offense for deflections or steals,” coach Frank Sullivan said.

But the real keys against the Tigers will be ignoring their 0-4 Ivy record. Princeton is still tough on its home court—they are 3-1—and all four of those Ivy losses were on the road.

Tomorrow’s contest with Penn will contrast sharply with tonight’s matchup. Penn is league’s highest scoring team, led by two of the Ivy League’s most effective scorers in Mark Zoller and Ibrahim Jaaber.

After such a solid effort against Cornell last weekend, Harris will get the nod to guard Zoller and will attempt to carry much of the Crimson’s offensive load for the entire weekend. But the sophomore big man wants to accomplish the team goals in the system.

“The important thing is just to win,” Harris said. “That’s clearly the most important thing in my mind right now.”

--Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.