Curry and Casey Return, Motivated

After a year away, when seniors Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry first stepped onto the floor of Lavietes Pavilion, there were no fans, only memories.

Announcing themselves to the Ivy League as freshmen against Brown with a combined 48 points on 19 shots... Curry’s back-to-back double-doubles against Penn and Princeton sophomore year, helping Harvard clinch its first-ever share of the Ivy League title... Casey’s monster 26 point, 10 rebound double-double effort junior year against St. Joseph’s, single-handedly willing the Crimson to a 74-69 victory... Their combined 23 points in the 67-63 Ancient Eight championship-clinching win over Cornell later that year, bringing the Crimson to its first-ever NCAA tournament.

“I had spent so much time there throughout the years, and we had done so much on that floor,” Curry said. “It was definitely a weird feeling, being there at Lavietes with these guys who are ready to do it with us [again].”

Fifteen months ago, Curry and Casey were preparing to leave on the team’s summer trip to Italy when they got an email from the Harvard Administrative Board. It said that they were included in an ongoing investigation into academic dishonesty on a Government 1310 take-home exam.

Students found guilty would have to withdraw and forfeit a year of eligibility—Curry and Casey’s last. Curry told the Charlotte Observer he lived out of a duffel bag until he decided whether or not to take that risk. In early September, he and Casey withdrew—among their fellow students, their names were the only ones publicly released in connection to the ongoing investigation. Curry returned home to sell insurance in his year off, and Casey worked for the 3PointFoundation, assisting inner-city children on both their grades and jumpers.

In their absence, the team surpassed all expectations. Then-freshman point guard Siyani Chambers, expected to back up Curry, won Ivy League Rookie of the Year and became the first freshman ever to make the All-Ivy First Team. Junior wing Wesley Saunders, a role player in 2011-12, co-led the league in scoring and steals. In March, the team shocked the highly-favored New Mexico Lobos in the second round of the NCAA tournament for Harvard’s first ever tournament win. Casey and Curry watched from afar, texting congratulations to the team they had been poised to captain.

A year later, the two seniors are back on campus to anchor a team surrounded by hype. The team was a unanimous pick to win the Ivy League; CBS analyst Seth Davis tweeted that it has Final Four talent. The Crimson returns six All-Ivy selections from the last two years; no other squad returns more than two.

“The expectations are going to be much higher,” Curry said. “We are going to have people coming after us this year.”

For Curry and Casey, however, the focus at the beginning of the year was not on the team’s Nov. 10 season opener against Holy Cross, but on integrating themselves back into campus.

“It was a bit different, at first, being gone for a year, but once you get back into classes and practice things fall back into schedule,” Curry said. “Now that I’m back, I realize how valuable time is. I’m trying to make the best use of the time I have [left].”

On the team, Curry and Casey have fit in as though they never left.

“They’ve done a terrific job of returning with the attitude of working hard and fitting in,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “They want to be part of this team, not just be who they were when they left.”

Assistant coach Christian Webster ’13 compared Casey to Kevin Garnett, citing his shot-blocking abilities and low-post presence. Chambers said that the two seniors have been leaders since day one for the Crimson. “He’s come in and been the vocal leader that we needed on the floor,” Chambers said. “Team chemistry, both on and off the court, is great.”

In a vote of confidence from his team, Curry was elected co-captain alongside incumbent senior Laurent Rivard. Although Casey wasn’t named captain, Rivard said that both he and Curry continue to lead by example on the hardwood and in the weight room.

“They bring a lot of experience and maturity to the team,” Rivard said. “They are powerful guys, and [they bring] the experience that we are going to need down the stretch and at the beginning of the season.”

For Chambers, who was thrust into a dual role as the team’s floor general and vocal leader, the return of Curry means a lighter load not only on the floor but in the locker room. The two Crimson point guards, both nominees for the 2014 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award, have flourished separately but will now get the opportunity to play together.

“[We have] a great relationship,” Chambers said. “We’re competitive in practice, but we’re also really good friends outside of practice. Brandyn helped recruit me to Harvard, so I think we have a really good relationship both on and off the court.”

Beyond Chambers and Curry in the backcourt, the team returns its leading scorers from the last two seasons in Saunders and Casey. The returning big man gives Harvard a four-deep rotation at the forward spots, which features an All-Ivy big man in junior Steve Moundou-Missi, a national top-100 recruit in freshman Zena Edosomwan, and the team’s returning center in junior Kenyatta Smith.

“I think that this year, everything will be different from last year,” Casey said. “We are going to have different people on the court, [but] we are going to be pushed like we were last year. I think if we play up to our potential, then we will be absolutely fine.”

Though they were locks for starting roles just a year ago, the two seniors will be competing for time this winter. Defense will be a key determinant for playing time, something that Casey and Curry have excelled at in the past. Both, Rivard said, will provide much-needed depth for a team that had four players average over 33 minutes a game last season.

“We are able to pressure the ball more [with them on the floor],” Rivard said. “Brandyn is a really good on-the-ball defender, and Kyle is a good shot blocker, so we got somebody behind us. On the offensive end, they are both scorers who can score the basketball, and especially for Brandyn, he just adds a lot of depth to the point guard position that we really didn’t have last year.”

When Casey and Curry take the court for the Crimson’s home opener on Nov. 12 against MIT, there won’t be memories on their mind—just unfinished business.

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.