Locked and Loaded: Men's Basketball Aims to Return to Top of Ivy League

There is new energy around this year’s men’s basketball team.

Last season, the team’s quest for a sixth straight Ivy League crown hit a wall before the campaign had even started, as an ACL injury ended the season of point guard Siyani Chambers and proved too much for an already inexperienced Crimson squad to overcome. Although Harvard had its tournament hopes dashed before Valentine’s Day, the team managed to knock off Princeton and Penn in the regular season’s final weekend to finish 6-8, good for fourth in the Ancient Eight.

Now, with Chambers running the show once more for a core group of returners led by senior forward Zena Edosomwan and sophomore shooting guard Corey Johnson, the focus shifts to a program that already has undergone a number of sea changes—the arrival of the most historic recruiting class in program history, the multi-million dollar upgrade to its arena, and the adoption of a conference postseason tournament.

Amaker’s teams are known for being some of the stingiest in the nation on the defensive end and for gaining offense through its bigs. Integrating new pieces and establishing chemistry early on will be keys for this year’s team.

“We have a lot of moving pieces with our team, and now we’re trying to settle in and figure it out,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “That may take a while. It might be a long while before things get settled, but that’s the fun part—the tinkering, the moving, the finding out who’s going to give us what.”

While a significant portion of the team lacks big-game experience—or college experience in general—the 2016-2017 roster could go down as the one of the most talented of the Tommy Amaker era. It boasts six recruits who were rated as top 150 players in their high school classes and returns two All-Ivy selections in Chambers and Edosomwan. Depth should not be an issue this season, as seven players on this year’s roster averaged at least eight minutes a game last year, while Chambers and up to five freshmen figure to compete for playing time.

Amaker traditionally utilizes an eight- or nine-man rotation and is a big proponent of easing his freshmen into the college game. This year could be a different story with all of the weapons the 10th-year head coach has in his arsenal. Playing time this season will largely be dictated by which players fit in best with Harvard’s core group of Chambers, Johnson, and Edosomwan.

Sophomore Tommy McCarthy and freshman Bryce Aiken will compete for minutes as Chambers’ backup. McCarthy started 25 games last season, putting up numbers similar to those that Chambers put up during his junior campaign.

“They did a great job last year,” Chambers said of last year’s team. “I just try to add my voice. They’re doing a great job. I just try to fit in. I’m still trying to work on coming back, a lot of new faces that I haven’t seen or played with before, not just the freshmen but also the sophomores, so I’m just trying to fit in where I can.”

Both McCarthy and Aiken could see time on the wing, Harvard’s biggest question mark offensively entering the season. Johnson figures to be a key for the Crimson at the two-spot, and co-captain Corbin Miller will likely see significant minutes as the team’s sixth man and three-point specialist. However, the sharpshooting duo rarely played together last season due to their similar skill sets and struggles on the defensive end.

Freshman Seth Towns could be the X-factor on the wing. He’s long (6’7”) and a natural scorer. The Columbus, Ohio native seems like an ideal fit to play alongside either Johnson or Miller, while junior Andre Chatfield figures to see limited minutes as a defensive specialist.

Sophomore Weisner Perez was used as an undersized four last season, but could see time on the wing this year due to the logjam in the frontcourt. Regardless the offense will run through Edosomwan; who is playing alongside the Ivy League’s double-double leader from a year ago remains to be seen.

Junior Chris Egi has the most experience of Harvard’s other big men, but his skill set as a back-to-the-basket big could limit the amount of time he is on the floor with Edosomwan. Freshmen Robert Baker and Chris Lewis each bring intriguing attributes to the Harvard backline. Baker is long and lanky, has a polished midrange game, and possesses jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism. Lewis, on the other hand, is more of a power guy, who figures to use his size and upper body strength to become an elite rebounder and shot blocker in the Ivy League.

“I’m getting such a variety of big men that I play alongside and against that I can’t wait to continue to understand how they play and grow their games,” Edosomwan said. “It’s been really good. It’s something I didn’t have last year, so it’s something that I think will help me grow regardless.”

This year’s team will be longer and more athletic than in past years but still figures to pride itself on suffocating defense and playing an inside-out game through its big men on the offensive end.

The 2016-2017 campaign gets off to a unique start on Nov. 11. The Crimson will take on Stanford in the second annual Pac-12 China Game in Shanghai. While the game is historic for both programs, it is also a major opportunity for this year’s Harvard team to establish itself on an international stage against a major conference opponent.

Harvard’s nonconference schedule does not feature a team like Virginia or Kansas like it has the past two seasons. But the Crimson does have dates with New England foes and other mid-major opponents.

Harvard went 4-5 last season against the teams it squares off against in this year’s non-conference slate. Patrick Steeves ’16 returns to Cambridge for the Crimson’s clash with George Washington on Nov. 29. Harvard will also make trips to Vermont, the favorite in the America East, and Houston, a darkhorse pick to win the American.

Come January, this year’s Ivy League will go through Princeton. The Tigers were picked first (seven votes ahead of the Crimson) in the Ivy League preseason media poll and return 98.9 percent of their minutes and 99.3 percent of their offensive production from a season ago. Led by senior All-Ivy forwards Henry Caruso, Spencer Weisz, and Steven Cook, Princeton is looking to make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2011.

Unlike last season, in which the Ivy’s top four teams had their travel partners fall in the bottom half of the league standings, the Penn-Princeton matchup this year looms large. This competition harkens back to early days, when the programs claimed every Ancient Eight title from 1963 to 2007. In 2016-2017, the Quakers are led by a strong sophomore class and have a bevy of talented guards. Steve Donahue’s squad was picked fourth in the preseason poll.

The big wild card in the league is Yale. The Elis took home the Ivy League crown last season and defeated Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Yale returns Makai Mason, the conference’s best player, but lost All-Ivy forwards Justin Sears and Brandon Sherrod. Several sophomores and juniors who saw time coming off the bench last season will look to plug in the holes left by the duo. Overshadowed by the hype of Harvard’s 2016 recruiting class are Jordan Bruner and Miye Oni. Bruner was rated a three-star recruit in his own right coming out of South Carolina, while Oni is a long wing and dynamic scorer.

Dartmouth and Cornell, respectively tabbed sixth and seventh in the preseason poll, both have new coaches but return players who gave Harvard fits last season. The Big Green has Ivy League Rookie of the Year Evan Boudreaux back, while the Big Red will be led by the high-volume-shooting backcourt of Robert Hatter and Matt Morgan, both of whom could compete for the conference’s scoring title.

After finishing third in the conference and winning the CollegeInsider.com Tournament last season, Columbia will be in rebuilding mode following the graduation of its best senior class in program history and coach Kyle Smith’s decision to take the head job at San Francisco. Meanwhile Brown returns a core group of seniors and hopes to get out of the conference’s basement in Mike Martin’s fifth season at the helm.

“A lot of us as coaches have been saying this, but I think over the last ten years we’ve seen how incredibly strong and challenging and difficult our league has been from top to bottom,” Amaker said. “I’m not sure it’s gotten the kind of attention and recognition outside of our league outside of the last few years, but we’re known that internally. Our league is going to be difficult.”

—Staff writer Stephen Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.