Crimson Madness Offers First Look at 2013-2014 Men's Basketball Squad

For the third-straight year, the Harvard men’s basketball team will give fans their first look at the team with Crimson Madness, an open practice featuring an intra-squad scrimmage at Lavietes Pavilion at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18.

Newly added to the event’s program for this year are a dunk contest and a three-point shootout. The festivities will be a little more interactive than in years past, with fans able to take part as judges for the dunk contest and participants in the three-point contest by submitting photos of themselves with Crimson apparel on social media.

Following some introductory remarks by Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker, the dunk contest will kick off the night’s program before the players take to the court for the Crimson and Black scrimmage.

Fans can expect to see plenty of familiar faces on the floor Friday night, including the lone senior from last year’s team, Christian Webster, who returns to the Crimson as an assistant coach for the 2013-14 season.

The event will also mark the first time seniors Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry don a Harvard jersey at Lavietes following their departures from the university last year, but Amaker expects the two to pick up right where they left off after their Ivy title-winning season in 2011-12.

“They know our program inside and out,” Amaker said. “There’s nothing for them to feel uncomfortable with in terms of our system.”

Amaker stressed that partaking in the pre-scrimmage events was an individual choice he left up to his players, but he cited a couple of names as favorites in the dunk contest, neither of which was Wesley Saunders, whose dunk last season at Yale made SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays on Feb. 23.

“Kyle [Casey] has always been a pretty spectacular dunker—I wouldn't vote against him,” Amaker said. “Agunwa [Okolie] is a high flyer, so he could be entertaining when it comes to that.”

The event is patterned after the “Midnight Madness” tradition popular among Division I basketball programs, celebrating the first official NCAA-sanctioned practice day of season by holding practice in front of fans and media. Amaker hinted that a live look-in at Crimson Madness may be featured on ESPNU or ESPN3, which are airing over four hours of coverage of various Midnight Madness events from around the country.

“It’s exciting to have our program and our team on display for our fans,” Amaker said.

—Staff writer Andrew R. Mooney can be reached at andrew.mooney@thecrimson.com.