What the Experts are Saying About Harvard-New Mexico

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—In the midst of Open Practice Day at EnergySolutions Arena, brackets are everywhere. From the posters on the wall in the media room to the hundreds of printable brackets floating around, every writer has an opinion to share about tomorrow’s West Region games.

Finally out of their Cambridge bubble, the Harvard basketball beat writers take a look at what the national media is saying about the Crimson’s matchup with the No. 3 Lobos.

Vegas Line:

New Mexico minus-11

ESPN’s Dave Tuley:

"The Tony Snell and Kendall Williams combination will be too much for Harvard, which lacks the playing experience necessary to compete with New Mexico coming from the Ivy League and not having gone through a post-season conference tournament."

ESPN’s Jay Bilas:

"The Lobos’ clean defense and ability to get to the line will overcome Harvard’s 40 percent three-point shooting."

Fox News:

"The top scoring combination of Siyani Chambers and Wes Saunders will be hard pressed to hold off a more complete New Mexico team that relies on Williams to dish the ball to Snell and Alex Kirk."

NESN:

"Harvard is at a disadvantage without a conference tournament because it hasn’t played since closing out its season against Cornell two weeks ago. New Mexico has the number two RPI in the country and is riding high on its success in the Mountain West tournament."

The Quad (New York Times):

"New Mexico lives and dies by its defense. The low scoring and relatively inefficient offensive Lobos’ greatest weakness would be against a strong three-point shooting team."

SB Nation Mid-Major Madness:

"Chambers and Laurent Rivard contribute to an efficient offense for the Crimson. New Mexico has suffered some startling road losses, but are generally more athletic and deeper than the Crimson."