Trip Has Harvard in Empire State of Mind

New York, New York.

According to Frank Sinatra, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

It’s a fitting lyric for the Harvard men’s basketball team, which knows that the road to its first Ivy League championship and just its second NCAA tournament appearance ever—the other coming in 1947—runs through Ithaca, New York.

After a Friday night date in the city with the Columbia Lions, the Crimson will take on the two-time defending Ivy champion Cornell Big Red tomorrow night in a match-up that’s getting an enormous amount of publicity for an Ivy League basketball game due to the two teams' success.

Both Cornell and Harvard are having phenomenal seasons that have seen them knock off big programs while receiving votes multiple times in the national polls. The Crimson (13-3, 2-0 Ivy) has impressive wins over Boston College and William & Mary, while the Big Red (16-3, 2-0) has taken down Alabama and St. John’s. But it may have been in their losses in which the two teams have been the most impressive. Cornell led then-No.1 Kansas for most of their game before eventually falling by five, while Harvard hung tough with then-No.13 Connecticut before losing by six.

It’s rare for an Ivy League team to possess such an impressive resume—let alone two in the same season—and the pundits are starting to take notice. The Big Red received 38 points in the most recent ESPN/USA Today poll, placing it at 27th in the nation. The Crimson has received a top-25 vote in the AP Poll for three consecutive weeks.

For the first time in history, the Ancient Eight has a realistic, though unlikely, chance of being a two-bid league for the Big Dance. And because the conference is the only Division I grouping in the country to not feature a conference tournament, a trip to the tournament is determined by conference record—thus making tomorrow night’s game, along with the Feb. 19 matchup in Cambridge, crucial.

“Honestly, I think it’s very exciting,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “I think our kids have worked hard and I think anybody in our league or anybody that plays or loves basketball, wants to be in positions such as this.”

The two teams are centered around their stars, guard Jeremy Lin for Harvard and forward Ryan Wittman for Cornell. Last season, Lin was the only player in the country to finish in the top 10 of his conference in every major statistical category. This year, the Wooden and Cousy award finalist is fourth in the Ivy in points per game (17.1), second in assists per game (4.8), and fourth in blocks per game (1.3). He also ranks fifth in the country in steals per game (2.9).

Wittman, the son of former NBA player and head coach Randy Wittman, is second in the conference in points per game with 18.2, and, as of Thursday, ranked 12th in the country in three pointers made, with 62. The two players are the heavy frontrunners for Ivy League Player of the Year; Wittman has won Ivy player of the week five times, while Lin has done so three times.

“He stretches you and he’s a gunslinger,” Amaker said of Wittman. “He catches it and he’s incredibly quick and fast into his shot...he has good size anyway, but he just gets his shot up so quickly.”

A key matchup is in the front court, where Harvard’s Keith Wright will try to contain Cornell center Jeff Foote, who, at a height of seven feet, has four inches on Wright. Foote leads the conference in rebounds per game; Wright leads in blocks per game and field goal percentage.

“[I’ll defend him] just like any other player in the post,” Wright said. “I’ve played against 7 footers before...so I don’t think it’s any different.”

While Cornell is a veteran team, relying on its senior trio of Wittman, Foote, and point guard Louis Dale for most of its offense, a key to the Crimson’s success has been the play of its three freshman–forward Kyle Casey and guards Christian Webster and Brandyn Curry.

All three have had successful spurts–most recently Casey, the reigning Ivy Rookie of the Week who has averaged over 17 points per game in his five prior contests.

Webster’s sometimes inconsistent shot will have to be on if Harvard is going to be able to go bucket-for-bucket with Cornell, which ranks fourth in the country in three-point shooting.

And Curry will rotate with sophomore guard Oliver McNally in trying to stop Dale, a former Ivy League Player of the Year who leads the conference in assists but has also struggled at times this year.

“We’ve got to play Harvard basketball,” Wright said. “Keep doing what we’ve been doing the whole season–all that starts with defense.”

While the battle with the Big Red has been getting most of the attention, Harvard will have to be careful if it is to make it upstate undefeated. The Crimson travels tonight to New York City to take on a dangerous Columbia team that ranks fifth nationally in three-point shooting. Though Cornell defeated the Lions by a combined 47 points in its previous two games, Columbia could still challenge the Crimson. The Lions feature one of the best scorers in the conference, guard Noruwa Agho.

“The trap and the worry we have as coaches is that we’re thinking of Saturday and not necessarily thinking of Friday,” Amaker said. “Saturday is going to be there and Saturday is going to be a heck of a lot more to us and everyone else that has circled it or is excited about it if we play well and win on Friday.”

If Harvard can emerge from the Lion’s den unscathed, all eyes will turn to Ithaca, which ESPN’s Andy Katz recently deemed his “place to be” this week in college basketball. Darren Everson of The Wall Street Journal added that “the game of the year in college basketball just might be in the Ivy League.” And Sports Illustrated’s Pablo Torre ‘07, a former Crimson sports editor, called it “the most anticipated conference game in decades.”

For Cornell, a win could mean a top-25 berth for the first time since 1950. For Harvard, a victory would open up a path to its first-ever Ivy title. The stakes have never been higher. So start spreading the news.