Reassessing Where Men's Basketball Stands

After its thrilling come-from-behind win against Princeton, the Harvard men’s basketball team (19-5, 9-1 Ivy) stands alone atop the Ancient Eight. Joe Lunardi, who has had the Crimson in his bracket since Harvard won in New Haven, has projected the Crimson—which holds its fate in its own hands—to be a 12 seed for the third time in four years, playing Wichita State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s what some other outlets have been saying about the Ancient Eight race as it heads towards its conclusion:

Ken Pomeroy: College basketball’s most famous statistician has the Crimson as the 67th best team in the country, roughly unchanged from previous weekends. Harvard was ranked in the top 40 early in the season, but losses to Holy Cross and Virginia knocked it down several rungs. Yale remains in the low 80s (currently 81) after losing to Columbia, which the model sees as the third best team in the conference.

Vegas: While I couldn’t find any source telling Harvard’s odds of winning the Ivy League—@ivybball pegged the odds of a solo victory at around 90 percent—Vegas online sportsbook Bovada gives the Crimson 500/1 odds to win the national championship. Oddly enough, it gives Georgia Tech the same odds but has suspended bets on that channel. Per vegasinsider.com, the Crimson has been a sloppy cover, going just 8-10 on the year and failing four times to cover spreads of at least nine points.

ESPN: In ESPN: The Magazine’s latest issue, Jordan Brenner and Peter Keating identified Harvard as a ‘Generic Killer’ type of underdog for the NCAA Tournament. Grouped with Xavier, the Crimson was pegged as a tough matchup for Generic Giants Northern Iowa and Oklahoma. Lo and behold, the Sooners are the fourth seed in Harvard’s projected region.

CollegeInsider: Before the season, we took a look at whether Harvard would be the top mid-major program in the country if you stripped out “name only” mid-majors like Wichita State. The performance this year has not given the Crimson a credible claim to first, as Harvard ranks seventh in the latest mid-major top 25, five spots below Yale and directly below Murray State, Valparaiso, and Stephen F. Austin.