Amaker Makes Return Back to Ann Arbor

“We got Tommy! We got Tommy!”

So cheered the sell-out crowd three years ago at Lavietes Pavilion, as it witnessed the Crimson’s 62-51 upset victory over Michigan. It was only Tommy Amaker’s eighth game as Harvard men’s basketball coach after being dismissed from the same post with the Wolverines just nine months earlier.

Forty-four more tallies in the win column later, the Crimson (5-1) remains very happy to have Amaker, whose squad will attempt to earn him a second win against Michigan (4-2) tomorrow afternoon at Crisler Arena, in Harvard’s first televised game of the season.

“From the way he talks...he’s going to treat it a lot like any other road game, except there could be more people that he knows around,” said Michael Rothstein, who covers Wolverine basketball for AnnArbor.com.

Amaker has repeatedly downplayed the inevitable emotions accompanying his return.

“Honestly, because we’ve already played Michigan once since I’ve been here at Harvard, we’ve had the chance to work through a number of those kinds of feelings [of facing a team he once coached],” the former Duke star said yesterday. “It seems like it’s been a lifetime ago.”

After leading last year’s Harvard team to the best season in school history, Amaker now appears to be leading a program turnaround similar to the one he instituted in Ann Arbor, where he accumulated a record of 109-83 during a six-year tenure.

Amaker’s Wolverines went to three NITs and won the tournament in 2004, but they failed to reach the NCAA tournament—a key factor in his firing.

“I’m not really sure what the reception will be,” Rothstein said. “I think there’s a group of people that realize what Tommy had accomplished here...and I think there are people who are just going to always want to win...but I don’t think Tommy will be booed. I don’t think Michigan fans will do that.”

Now Amaker is trying to accomplish in Cambridge what no Crimson coach has ever done before: capture an Ivy League title.

Meanwhile, current Michigan coach John Beilein has had an up-and-down time as Amaker’s successor, and this season has been no exception.

The Wolverines enter tomorrow’s contest coming off their best performance of the season—a 69-61 win at Clemson Tuesday night, the team’s first victory in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge since 2005.

The success was a bit of an upset for Michigan, which rebounded from two straight road losses against Syracuse and UTEP in the Legends Classic two weeks ago.

“It looked like they were very confident and shot the ball well,” Amaker said. “It’ll certainly be a handful for us.”

Sophomore point guard Darius Morris had a near triple-double against the Tigers, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds to go along with eight assists.

His efforts were accompanied by freshman forward Evan Smotrycz’s 18 points, a game-high.

The Wolverines, which lost Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims—their top two scorers and rebounders in 2009-10—were predicted to occupy the cellar of their conference, during a clear rebuilding year for a team that features no seniors.

But as Amaker knows all too well, taking down a Big Ten team on its own floor will be a tall task for the Crimson, which arrives in Ann Arbor on a tear of its own.

Fordham visited Lavietes Pavilion Wednesday evening and left on the wrong end of a 80-57 blowout. The rout was the fifth consecutive victory for Harvard, which was buoyed by 15 three-pointers and 56 percent shooting from behind the arc in the contest.

The long-range accuracy will need to continue against a stingy Michigan defense that has allowed its opponents to shoot just under 25 percent from three—good for ninth-best in the nation.

Look for Amaker to rely on big man Keith Wright, especially early in the game. Currently sixth in the nation in shooting percentage, the junior co-captain will have to make his presence felt in order to free up space for perimeter shooters—of which the Crimson has plenty.

Junior co-captain Oliver McNally, freshman Laurent Rivard, and sophomore wing Christian Webster have combined to drain 36 three-pointers on the year.

With no players Amaker recruited or members of his coaching staff remaining with the Wolverines, tomorrow afternoon’s contest will be a chance for the visitors to take a clean slate and make a lasting statement—not about Amaker but about his budding program.

“We’re all thinking about it; we’re not dumb,” McNally said. “It’d be awesome to be able to get it for coach. He won’t admit it...but there’s going to be an extra something because he came from there. But essentially it’s still about us making strides, doing what we’ve been doing, and trying to get another tough road win.”

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.