Gunning for the Number One Spot

The spotlight shined on the Harvard men’s basketball team last winter when the Crimson soundly defeated No. 17 Boston College by 12 points, on the road, two days after the Eagles had defeated eventual national champion North Carolina. But Harvard couldn’t live up to the expectations of stardom, as the Crimson faltered in Ivy League play and the program’s fifteen minutes of fame all but expired.

This year’s team hopes to return to center stage, but via another route—an Ivy championship.

With first team All-Ivy co-captain Jeremy Lin returning and coach Tommy Amaker’s new cast of standout recruits set to hit the floor, Harvard has its best opportunity in years to win its first ever Ivy League title.

“Our goal since Coach Amaker got here is to win the Ivy League championship and advance in the dance,” co-captain Doug Miller says.

But such a dramatic turnaround from last season’s 6-8 conference record and sixth place finish will be no easy task, especially in a league in which the top two finishers from last season—Cornell and Princeton—return with their entire starting lineups.

“Our conference is always going to be challenging,” Amaker says. “We’re hopeful that we can show the world that we’re one of those kind of teams that will contend in our conference.”

Any hope the Crimson has of upsetting the traditional balance of power in the Ancient Eight rests on the shoulders of Lin, who has led the team in scoring the last two seasons.

But if Harvard seeks to improve on its sixth-place finish, the squad will need help from more than just Lin.

“Jeremy’s the face [of the program] but everybody plays his part,” sophomore forward Keith Wright says.

Wright, who logged significant minutes as a freshman after several frontcourt players went down with injuries, proved his worth, averaging eight points and 5.5 rebounds per game. This season, the Crimson is looking for more out of Wright, who shed 30 pounds in the off-season and may emerge as Harvard’s number-two scorer.

“He’s got a much better touch this year,” Miller says. “He’s our main low post threat on the offensive end, so we’re looking to get the ball inside to him and trust that he’ll finish.”

The Crimson will rely on its healthy frontcourt to improve upon its league-worst rebounding margin from a season ago.

Defense is also a major concern for a Harvard team that surrendered 67.4 points per game and posted the worst defensive field goal percentage in the conference.

“We’re changing our attitude,” says Lin, who finished 17th in the nation with 2.4 steals per game. “In the past we’ve been just been more focused on putting up numbers, getting a lot of points on the board, but this year we’re clamping down on that.”

Lin looks to get help on the defensive end from freshman point guard Brandyn Curry who, along with 6-7 forward Kyle Casey, leads a recruiting class that is slotted to play an immediate role on a team that features only four upperclassmen.

The Harvard newcomers will not only be expected to contribute, they will be forced to do so amid one of the Crimson’s most difficult schedules ever. Harvard will take to the road for consecutive contests against No. 12 University of Connecticut, Boston College, and No. 20 Georgetown on Dec. 6, 9, and 23, respectively.

“Maybe I’ve lost my mind [with the scheduling],” Amaker jokes. “We’re trying to upgrade it, and we may have gone overboard...but we have certainly wanted to feel like we’re going to go out and try to play some folks.”

These road matchups give Harvard ample opportunity to score a third victory over a top program in as many years, after defeating Michigan and Boston College the past two seasons.

“We like playing against big-name teams because you don’t have any pressure,” Lin says. “You’re just going out there trying to upset a big-time powerhouse.”

Along with the Crimson’s tough non-conference schedule, the Ivy League also presents no easy games. Eight of the league’s top-10 scorers from last season return to rosters that have been bolstered by highly-touted transfers and freshmen.

Any road to the Ivy League championship must pass through Cornell. The two-time defending league titleholder returns all its starters including last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Wittman, Defensive Player of the Year Jeff Foote, and former Player of the Year Louis Dale, not to mention the reigning Rookie of the Year Chris Wroblewski coming off the bench. The Big Red has beefed up its bench by adding Kentucky transfer Mark Coury and UMass transfer Max Groebe.

But Harvard has proven it is more than capable of toppling the reigning Ancient Eight champions. In its final home game last season, the Crimson defeated Cornell 71-70, and Amaker’s players seem unfazed by the Big Red.

“We’re not too concerned [about Cornell],” Miller says. “We know what it takes to win in the Ivy League.”

Harvard gets its first shot at Cornell on Jan. 30, when the Crimson travels to Ithaca for its fourth league match of season.

Also certain to pose a challenge to Harvard in conference play are perennial Ivy League powerhouses Penn and Princeton, who have combined for 50 of 62 Ancient Eight championships.

Penn, led by junior guard Tyler Bernardini, looks to return to the top of the Ivy League standings after third and sixth-place finishes the past two seasons. Princeton, which ended last season tied for second place with an 8-6 record, returns a powerful guard combo of junior Dan Mavraides and sophomore Douglas Davis.

With newfound parity in the Ivy League—six teams finished within two games of each other last season—the Crimson cannot afford to take any nights off and still hope to finish in front of a Cornell team some analysts predict to finish the Ivy League schedule undefeated.

“Every night it’s like, you’re literally trying to play for the championship,” Amaker says.

While last year’s team proved it could play with the nation’s best, this year’s squad must show that it can play consistently.

“[Our goals are to] get better every day and take it one game at a time,” Curry says. “We think that by doing that we’ll definitely have a good chance of winning the Ivy League this year and the next four years.”