NCAA Basketball
STANFORD WINS 75TH NIT FINALS @MSG in NYC
By JOSH ROSENFELD
(Special to the DigitalSportsDesk)
NEW YORK, MARCH 29, 2012 ---Stanford captured the 75th National Invitation Tournament title with a 75-51 victory over Minnesota, the most lopsided NIT championship game since Maryland blasted Niagara by 31 points in the 1972 final.
And now the mission for Stanford is to make sure that they don't repeat as NIT champions, for as much fun and entertainment they've had in the Big Apple, the Cardinal would prefer to play in that other tournament next year.
“Anytime you win a championship you're excited and I'm excited to have had this opportunity,” said Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins. “But in our sport the Holy Grail is playing in the Final Four, playing in the NCAA tournament, so when you fall short, there is disappointment,”
Stanford (26-11) seized control of the contest and held the lead for good after a 12-0 run late in the first half that staked a 29-21 advantage with 4:28 left before the break. Sophomore Aaron Bright, selected as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after coming off the bench to deliver 15 points and six assists in 25 minutes, had six points and two assists in the run including a four-point play that gave the Cardinal the lead for good.
“Personally, it got me going,” Bright said of the four-point play. “When you get a play like that early in the game, that gets you going offensively. After that went in and then I hit the free throw I felt very comfortable out there and I was able to just play my game.”
The Cardinal held Minnesota (23-15) without a field goal for a 13-minute span, beginning with the final nine minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second. The Golden Gophers first two baskets of the second half came on put-backs and its first five came from inside the paint, as Minnesota went nearly 24 minutes without hitting an outside shot.
“I thought we missed some easy baskets,” said Minnesota coach Tubby Smith. “Then they made some shots and we had some opportunities, but when you're missing shots like that you get a little frustrated. I thought a lot had to do with Stanford and their intensity. They did a good job of really getting up under us, being physical, and I thought that was the difference.”
Stanford led 31-25 at the break and opened the second half with a 20-6 blitz to forge a 20-point lead. The Cardinal led by as many as 30 points before settling for the 24-point final margin.
Chasson Randle shared scoring honors with Bright with 15 points while Rodney Williams led Minnesota with 12 points before fouling out with five minutes remaining.
“Our kids were excited to compete in the NIT,” Dawkins said. “We knew we were just short of playing in the NCAA tournament and we made the most of the opportunity. This will help us, this will be like a springboard for us when we talk in the future about what our potential is as a team.”
“It's great for our seniors to go out like this and, hopefully, it carries into the off-season for us and we'll just continue to work hard,” Bright said. “We know what it takes to win the tournament now. We won five in a row and I think we are going to use this experience for next year and making a run at the March Madness.”
STANFORD DEFEATS UMASS at NIT
BY TERRY LYONS
(Special to the DigitalSportsDesk)
NEW YORK, MARCH 27, 2012 - In the upper echelon of the collegiate basketball coaching ranks, the names Johnny Dawkins and Derek Kellogg don't resonate in the manner of a Bill Self, Thad Matta or, God-forbid, John Calipieri and Rick Pitino and that is a good thing. Stanford's Dawkins is separated from the Duke University umbilical cord attached to Coach Mike Krzyzewski while Kellogg's pedigree stems from his 1995 graduation from his UMass alma mater. Each coach is building their basketball program back to relevance and each took major steps in 2011-12 on the way to the semi-finals at the 75th annual National Invitation Tournament in New York.
Stanford took a larger step, however, as they defeated the University of Massachusetts 74-64 before a partisan UMass following at the World's Most Famous Arena, aka The Garden.
Once the most prestigious of postseason tourneys, the NIT is now considered a JV-type tourney but don't tell that to Dawkins, Kellogg or any of the Stanford and UMass players. The Road to MSG, while not the Boulevard of the Big Dance, is not an easy path and the experience of postseason play will pay major dividends in the year(s) to come, especially with each program expected to return some serious talent in 2012-13.
Dawkins' Stanford team established an early 12-point lead in the first half, at 28-16, but UMass stormed back to make the game hotly contested with a 36-33 halftime score and had ole 'mo on their side as the teams headed to the lockers as the UMass faithful stormed to the beer stands.
In the second half, the shooting percentages plummeted like spring training batting averages with the exception being Stanford's sophomore swingman Anthony Brown who finished the game with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Josh Owens, a senior All-Pac 12 standout added 15 points and 12 rebounds as he extended his collegiate career another game to be played this Thursday night against the winner of the Minnesota Gophers vs. Washington Huskies game, the nightcap of the two NIT semifinals.
Kellogg, a rising star in the college coaching community, bounded up and down the sidelines encouraging his young team to foul down the stretch as Dawkins stood stoically, a la Coach K or Harvard's Tommy Amaker, undoubtedly building his Stanford program. Both coaches are in their fourth year of rebuilding. Kellogg, a frequent contributor at the Basketball Hall of Fame, with everything from coaching clinics to summer-time work-outs for the patrons who stream into the Birthplace of Basketball, not far from the Amherst campus. The UMass coach cut his teeth in the coaching world with a year as a graduate assistant at UMass and two years at the side of Jim Larranega at George Mason, along with eight fun-filled years with Coach Cal at Memphis.
In the four years since taking over the head coaching spot at UMass, Kellogg has increased the win totals from 12, to 12, to 15 and 25.
Dawkins has the national reputation and now the exposure via the trip to New York City for the NIT which will certainly build his work in progress while fueling confidence in the returning players.
"Any time you can play in a tournament, especially a tournament like this where there has been a very good field, that's an accomplishment," said Dawkins as he sat beside Owens in the postgame press conference in the newly renovated Garden. "Our younger players have gained experience throughout this tournament and I think it will bode well for them in the future. I think it helps them understand how to win games in this type of atmosphere which will make us a better team in the future.
"It also helps in recruiting because of playing in The Garden and it's a televised game, so the visability of our program is lifted because of that and it helps us. We are a national school, an international school, basically. Kids come from all over the world. So for us to play in this kind of venue and for people to see us from outside of California is a big think for us. That's been good."
College Bball at The Garden: Iona & Louisville Shine in MACY*S Window
By Josh Rosenfeld - (Special to DigitalSportsDesk.com)
NEW YORK, JANUARY 3, 2012 -- On a special night for college basketball in the New York metropolitan area when unranked Seton Hall and Fordham each knocked off Top 25 opponents, St. John's wasn't quite up to the task to make it a threesome.
But Madison Square Garden was not totally void of its special brand of magic as Iona's Sean Armand erupted for a career-high 32 points, including his team's last 20 of the first half, and set an MAAC record with 10 3-pointers as the Gaels hammered Siena, 95-59, in the second game of the double-header..
While Seton Hall was thrashing No. 8 UConn across the river in Newark and Fordham pinned a six-point setback on 22nd-ranked Harvard, St. John's fell short in falling to No. 11 Louisville, 73-58, before 9,258 at The Garden. St. John's (7-7, 1-2) got off to an impressive start considering it started four freshmen and Louisville had some added motivation coming off back-to-back losses to Georgetown and Kentucky. The Red Storm raced to an early 8-3 lead three and a half minutes into the contest behind a pair of 3s by D'Angelo Harrison sandwiched around a baseline drive by Moe Harkless.
Things went horribly wrong from there as St. John's made just 2-of-30 shots over the remainder of the half, a dunk by Harkless with 10:15 remaining and a put-back by God'sgift Achiuwa with 20 seconds left. St. John's made just 5-of-35 shots in the first half (14 percent), making Louisville's 11-of-32 (34 percent) effort seem torrid by comparison.
“Eventually shots are going to fall. Unfortunately they weren't falling today when we needed them to fall, especially in the beginning of the game,” Harklress said. “We just got to do a better job of getting to the rim and I think we shot too many threes to start the game off.”
Louisville closed out the half by outscoring St. John's by a 26-10 margin over the final 16:28 to take a 29-18 lead at the break. The Cardinals blocked five St. John's shots in the half, four by 6-11 sophomore Gorgui Dieng.
“I think we did a good job on their shooters,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “I think Gorgui (seven blocks total) did a tremendous job in guarding the rim. They had good looks in the first half, but they didn't have many good looks in the second half.”
St. John's made 13-of-29 shots in the second half, missing all four from distance, to finish 18-of-64 (28 percent). The Red Storm did a better job of attacking the rim in the second half, getting into the bonus in less than nine minutes, and pulled to within a manageable 51-39 deficit with 8:43 remaining before Louisville secured the outcome with an 18-4 spurt.
“Obviously we want to win and a loss is never good for anybody,” said Harkless, who scored 12 points. “We don't like moral victories but we just have to look at the positives for the game and just try to move forward and get better.”
Russ Smith, coming off a career-high 30-point salvo against Kentucky Saturday, led the balanced Loiosville attack with 17 points, Kyle Kuric scored 15 while Dieng contributed 12 points and nine boards along with his seven blocks. Harrison's 24 points for St. John's led all scorers.
The St. John's-Louisville contest had just one lead change while the nightcap featured six in its first seven minutes before Iona took control. The Gaels enjoyed a 37-25 advantage with 6:33 left in the half before Armand went to work. The 6-3 sophomore from Brooklyn canned a jumper with 6:04 remaining, then drained six 3-pointers over the final six minutes to extend the lead to 57-31 at the break.
“It was just in the flow of the game, I just kept shooting,” said Armand, who raised his league-leading 49 percent shooting from the arc with a 10-of-19 performance. “My teammates were really looking for me, more than usual. They look for me a lot, but more than usual tonight. I kept shooting and it kept going down.”
Armand added four more 3s in the second half and also claimed a career-high six rebounds.
“There's been a few times at practice I've gone on streaks like that, hitting a lot of shots in a row,” Armand said. “I'm a scorer and when scorers' get hot, that's what happens. Tonight was my night.”
Armand's performance nearly over-shadowed a devastating, total team effort for Iona, coming off a painful 83-75 loss at Hofstra.
“I am so proud of the effort that they put out tonight, bouncing back from what was a real ugly game to playing really well as a team and to work really hard for 40 minutes,” Iona coach Tim Cluess said. “I was very proud and very happy to be here.”
Iona (11-3) made 17-of-39 3s (44 percent) and had assists on 27 of its 34 field goals.
“Sharing the ball is our most important trait as a team,” Cluess said.
Scott Machado, the national leader in assists, led Iona with nine while Lamont “MoMo” Jones had seven to go along with his 14 points. Jermel Jenkins scored 16 points while Mike Glover added 10. Evan Hymes topped Siena (5-8) with 22 points while OD Anosike had 12 and a game-high 13 boards.
Iona hosts Niagara on Friday, its first home game since Nov., 28. The Gaels played eight consecutive road games before heading downtown to play Siena.
Exams Over: Harvard Hoops Back for a Doubleheader
Men's Game - 7pm vs. Florida Atlantic:
By TERRY LYONS
BOSTON - December 22, 2011 - (Special to DigitalSportsDesk.com) - There have been quite a few doubleheaders in sports history, most coming in the sport of baseball. Teams play all kinds of doubleheaders, like day-night versions, same-day doubleheaders between the same two teams in the same city but in different venues. In 2011, a doubleheader is a rare occasion as league schedule makers for all sports want to maximize revenue in this day of a $295 ho-hum, field box seat. Today, the Harvard Crimson staged a women's and men's basketball doubleheader with a 3pm women's tip-off vs. St. John's and a 7pm men's game against Florida Atlantics.
The good folks at DigitalSportsDesk.com thought it would be a good idea to cover the rare basketball doubleheader and made a family affair of it as the holidays draw near and the wife and two daughters had a day off from school and work, a sister-in-law bolted out of work as early as she could and a brother-in-law, visiting from the District of Columbia stopped in for the night cap and to see the #25th ranked Harvard Crimson.
Just how often does that happen? Never.
The men of Harvard are ranked #25 in the popular ESPN/USA Today poll but fell eight votes short of #25 Illinois in the more official and prestigious Associated Press college basketball poll. Harvard was ranked in both polls two weeks ago, but the Crimson fell to #9 UConn, 67-53, on December 8th, after ripping out of the gates with an 8-0 start, including an impressive in-season tournament win at the Battle of Atlantis in The Bahamas. Those victories, plus hard earned wins at Vermont (55-48 on Dec. 1) and vs. Seattle (80-70 on Dec. 4) earned Coach Tommy Amaker and his club a spot in both polls for the first time in school history. Of recent times in the IVY League, only the 2010 Cornell Red can be compared, but Cornell gained a mid-season ranking in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll but was only named in the AP poll after a run to the Sweet 16 in the March NCAA tournament, a strong showing for the #12 seeded Big Red who eventually fell to Kentucky, 6-45. In 1997-98, the Princeton Tigers were ranked as high as #8 during the season and were the only other Ivy League teams to be ranked with the NCAA's eleite basketball programs.
The 2011-12 edition of Harvard runs a highly disciplined offense, orchestrated by 6-3 senior point guard Oliver McNally, a name that would have Ally McGraw swooning and has Amaker thrilled and maybe even has Amaker's old boss, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski a little jealous. McNally, starting his 63rd game in the Harvard backcourt, calls the shots and distributes the ball to a balanced-scoring frontline led by 6-8 senior forward Keith Wright and 6-7 junior forward Kyle Casey. Casey is averaging 11.9 points on a sharp 54% FG shooting on the season.
In a well-played first half, Harvard maintained a 34-28 lead over Mike Jarvis' Florida Atlantic team. Jarvis, whose very name makes St. John's fans cringe because of his dismantling of the once-proud program, took a short college hoops sabbatical and did a bit of TV and radio work from his abrupt firing on Dec. 19, 2003 an anniversary that is not to be celebrated at Madison Square garden anytime soon.
Jarvis took on an opportunity at Florida Atlantic, disrespectfully and constantly calling his program a "project," a comment that must make his recruits feel proud and exhilarated at the same time, wouldn't you say? But for a coach who once mentored Patrick Ewing at Cambridge Rindge & Latin, once coached an upstart George Washington team to the NCAAs with the infamous Yinka Dare, once roamed the sidelines at The Garden in New York, looking for an open table at Il Mulino before he even conducted his first practice, a stint at little-known FAU - a 29,000 student factory in sunny Boca Raton, FL is not a bad reconstruction assignment.
Who knew that Jarvis and his agent once sat with Michael Jordan, then basketball wiz of the Washington Wizards, to discuss the final x's and o's, dollars and cents of an NBA coaching contract? Plenty knew that Jarvis and his agent, Ron Ades, having the job offer nearly signed and sealed, pissed-off the stubborn-minded Jordan to the point where all hell broke loose, never mind the negotiations coming to an end. Who knew? Well, St, John's knew when they offered Jarvis the moon over the Manhattan Bridge, which connects the Brookly-Queens Expressway (BQE) with the lights on Broadway. He paid them back by moaning about the lack of funding for his program while he now cracks-wise about wiring The Vatican for some cash when the Johnnie's need to rebuild.
Before tonight's psuedo-homecoming game for Jarvis, the Boston Globe advanced the Harvard vs. FAU game with a column that spoke of the memories Jarvis has for his days as an assistant at Harvard, but it made one think Coach Jarvis once had the keys to the head coaching job at Lavietes Pavilion, too. It seems he could've had the job after Celtics legend, Tom "Satch" Sanders stepped down from harvard to head to Red Auerbach's aid a few miles cross the Charles River. It wasn't meant to be, said Jarvis to the Globe's Julian Benbow reminiscing about coming back to Boston as though there would be a banner day, duck parade.
Late in the second half, with Harvard and FAU tied at 45, the Crimson made a 12-2 run to take a commanding 59-47 lead with 2:35 left. Guard Brandon Curry and Wright led the charge for Harvard as they outclassed Florida Atlantic with defensive stops, strong rebounding to close the game with a 20-6 scoring edge over the last 9:49 to record their 10th win of the young NCAA college season.
Harvard will flirt with five of the next six games being non-conference with the exception being a January 7 home game against IVY opponent Dartmouth. Harvard is favored for the IVY title, and their play of late has to make one wonder if they can run the table in conference play.
Women's Game - 3pm vs. St. John's:
BOSTON - December 22, 2011 - (Special to Digital Sports Desk) - This afternoon's Harvard women's game against St. John's is part of a doubleheader for the Crimson. Tonight, at 7pm (et), the men's team will take on Florida Atlantic. The last time Harvard played a men's and women's double-header was January 5, 2008 when the women lost to Dartmouth, 52-47, before the men took down the Dartmouth men, 82-56.
The Crimson women are playing their first game since a 79-53 loss at Minnesota on December 10 which came on the heals of Harvard winning four of their previous five games, including a victories over Alcorn State and at New Hampshire. Harvard is 4-5 coming into their game against St. John's, a BIG EAST conference power with a 7-5 record before today including recent victories over Prairie View A&M and their coach, Hall of Famer Cynthia Cooper. St. john's defeated Prairie View and Memphis (64-60) to take the St. John's Holiday Festival.
Kathy Delaney-Smith enters today's game with 30 years of coaching experience and a record of 460-324 all-time. She is 274-120 (.695) in IVY League play all-time, second only to Princeton's Hall of Fame men's coach Pete Carril. Delaney and her Harvard team are coming off a two-week break for final exams and will play three more non-conference games before beginning their IVY League schedule at Dartmouth on January 14th.
The doubleheader has a decisively St. John's theme with the women's angle being quite obvious but the men taking on a Florida Atlantic team coached by former St. John's coach Mike Jarvis. Jarvis began his coaching career in nearby Cambridge when he coached a young Patrick Ewing at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School.
***
HARVARD WOMEN, 63, ST. JOHN'S 56: Harvard started strong today, showing no signs of fatigue or rust after their two-week break for exams. Early in the first half, Harvard extended their lead to 11 points, 25-14, with 7:34 remaining. St, John's closed the lead to three points at the half, and trailed 32-29. Victoria Lippert, a 6-0 foot junior forward from San Diego led Harvard with 10 first half points while St. John's had three players - Amber Thompson, Eugeneia McPherson and Shenneika Smith - tied with eight points.
In the second half, Harvard regained their touch and their lead with Brogan Berry and Emma Golen contributing towards a nine-point lead (50-41) with 7:57 remaining in the game. St. John's closed the mark to 59-56 with :45.6 left when the Crimson turned the ball over allowing St. John's offense to attempt a three-point field goal by Keylantra Langley which missed and was eventually rebounded by Harvard. Bery was fouled and calmly drained two free throws to give Harvard a five point lead before Christine Clark, a 5-11 sophomore guard added another pair of free throws to extend the lead to 63-56 which was the final.
Coach Delaney-Smith gained her 461st career win and now trails Pete Carril -- (Princeton: 514-261; IVY: 310-96; Career: 525-273) -- by only 64 victories to become the winningest coach in IVY League sports history. Deleney-Smith needs 36 IVY League wins to surpass Carril's record.
***
NOTES: A very Interesting story by way of the Harvard Crimson school paper, posted back in November:
It looked like Harvard women’s basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith had hit it the jackpot in November 2010 when she signed Temi Fagbenle, the Crimson’s first top-20 recruit in recent memory.
Only a year later, Delaney-Smith found out that her new recruit would be ineligible to play her freshman season in a Harvard jersey. According to the NCAA, Fagbenle, who came to the United States after her sophomore year of high school, stayed at Blair Academy in New Jersey for an extra year for athletic rather than academic purposes, making her eligible for only three years of college basketball.
But Fagbenle, Blair Academy, and Delaney-Smith tell a different story, calling her choice an academic decision. They also question the NCAA’s decision to use the GSCE exam, comparable to the PSAT, to determine her graduation date, meaning that Fagbenle can only suit up for the Crimson once she’s a sophomore.
“The NCAA is trying to get a handle on players coming from Europe,” Delaney-Smith says. “As you can imagine, a lot of those players do abuse the system and stay back to gain an athletic advantage.”
“[Temi] realized that the academics were different in both countries and so Blair Academy suggested she repeat her junior year because of academics,” Delaney-Smith continues. “At that time the NCAA instituted a rule to try to control everything and arbitrarily chose the GSCE as her graduation date. … That’s the wrong test to choose, and we put in a waiver and we were denied the waiver. It’s very wrong.”
Fagbenle feels particular anger at the decision because of her family’s long-standing prioritizing of academics over athletics, one of her main reasons for choosing Harvard.
“I thought it would be perfect for me both academically and athletically,” Fagbenle says. “Academics is always the focus for me and my family, so what better place than Harvard, right?”
For the Crimson, Fagbenle’s potential benching leaves a gap in the starting rotation.
“Temi is an impact player flat out,” Delaney-Smith says. “Temi can step on the floor and impact the game immediately. She’s probably in the top five of any college player I’ve ever coached right now. We have a whole system we’re using because she’s at the core of it.”
While Harvard tries to change the NCAA’s mind, Fagbenle continues to practice with the team. If the NCAA does not overturn its decision, Fagbenle would sit in residence for a year, training with the team and starting her sophomore season as a true sophomore.
A Program Grows in Cambridge (Allston, actually)
By TERRY LYONS
(Special to SheridanHoops.com)
CAMBRIDGE - (December 1, 2011) - The "Think-Tanks" abound in the congested enclave located across the Charles River from Boston. The bustling suburb of Cambridge is known for its smarts and, in fact, was named as the fourth "smartest" city by Forbes Magazine a year or two ago. But that survey surely factored in the dim bulbs of Wall Street in the 10001-10005 zip codes and we know where their smarts got them.
Down the road and across the river from Harvard Square, you'll find an athletic complex in Allston, actually, that dates back to 1903. Harvard Stadium and the surrounding facilities don't define the institution as its medical school second is to none in working the miracles of stem-cell research while the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School both seem to matter a lot more to this world than IVY league athletics. But tucked in, just off Soldier's Field Road behind Harvard Stadium and Dillon Field House and just a short walk away from the Bright Hockey Center where Oliver Barrett IV fell in love with Jennifer Cavelleri (look-up Love Story if you don't get the reference), there is Lavietes Pavillion, a 2,195-seat excuse for a gym that houses the men's and women's basketball teams of Harvard University.
The building honors Ray Lavietes '36, a two-year letterman for men's hoops team who donated a couple million to help the Crimson update the gym with some new offices, a lounge, a nice lobby and trophy case. But, the trophies in that case mostly belong to Harvard women's basketball team as its coach, Kathy Delaney-Smith, is in her 30th season as head coach and only trails Princeton's legend and Hall of Famer Pete Carill's and his 514 victories. A quick look at the math shows Harvard's victory over Boston University last night to be Delaney-Smith's 458th to rank her only 56 behind the wizard of Princeton, to steal a phrase from UCLA, Hollywood and Westwood. Just 56 more and the popular Harvard coach will be the winningest coach for any sport in all of IVY League athletics history. Not bad.
That might seem to be a bit daunting to the coach of the Harvard men's basketball team, but Tommy Amaker has enjoyed an amazing basketball career himself, as he is mostly known for his backcourt work for the Duke Blue Devils where he led the team as its point guard extraordinaire during four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and the 1986 NCAA championship when Duke boasted a stunning 37-3 record. He later became an assistant coach to Duke's Hall of Fame head man, Mike Krzyzewski, and Amaker helped guide Duke during two other NCAA championships and five Final Fours. He left Durham to become the head coach at Seton Hall University in the rough and tough BIG EAST Conference, then went on to coach Michigan in the Big Ten when it actually had just 10 teams. In 2007, Amaker was named head coach of the Harvard Crimson and he is entering his fifth year at the school, a year after coaching his team to a co-championship in the IVY League but a disappointing loss in a playoff game which left Harvard without a ticket to the big NCAA dance -- the same result for the school since its appearance n the 1946 NCAAs, that is (2011 - 1946 = 65) for you Ivy leaguers and the other mathematically challenged.
***
The years of 2011-12 (A.D.) might just be the time for Harvard men's basketball. In many preseason polls, Amaker and the Crimson were pencilled-in as the odds-on favorites to win the IVY League title, a feat to be noted, as last year's Anastasia/Drizella act was the only NCAA basketball title the men have ever shared. The team is off to a 6-0 start in 2011, including two impressive wins at Holy Cross and Loyola Marymount (LA) and an in-season tournament win after three victories at The Bahamas' Paradise Island versus Utah, Florida State and upstart Central Florida, the semi-final winner over then-#4 ranked UConn. Take that Brendan Suhr.
In Harvard's 46-41 win over the ACC's Florida State Seminoles, the halftime score of 14-14 gave viewers the cause for a double-take to be sure the Crimson weren't dabbling in big-time NCAA football rather than hoops. The Harvard faithful, however, are now very accustomed to a lock-down defensive strategy that Amaker has installed with a gradual success rate that will make Duke and Coach K envious. But, to say the least, the IVY League honchos know the story because the Crimson earned 16 of the 17 first-place votes in a preseason poll to predict the league champions with rival Yale registering one first-place vote and tied for second in the poll with Princeton. Rounding out the poll were Penn, Brown, Cornell, Columbia and Dartmouth.
Harvard is coming off a 23-7 season and a trip to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) for the first time in program history. Amaker has 12 players returning from last year's team, including senior co-captain and reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, Keith Wright. Wright, who led Harvard with 14.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game last season, was named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50.
Oliver McNally, also a senior co-captain, finished second in the nation and established a new Harvard record last year when he made 92.6 percent (100-of-108) of his free throw attempts. Juniors Kyle Casey, Brandyn Curry and Christian Webster also return after being honored to the All-Ivy League team. Casey averaged 10.7 points and 6.0 boards per game, while Curry was an Academic All-Ivy League choice.
“We’ve been building towards something like this,” said Amaker after winning the Thanksgiving tournament at the Atlantis in the Bahamas. “It’s nice to see it happen for us. We’ve talked about and worked toward it, but we certainly needed to see it happen, and it certainly happened for us here.”
The 6-0 start placed Harvard a few votes away from a Top 25 ranking in this week's major college polls. In the Associated Press rankings, Harvard claimed 101 votes, just 14 away from #25 Texas A&M while in the ESPN/USA Today poll, Harvard was 17 votes shy of #25 St. Louis. While an appearance in the Top 25 polls would be gratifying, the real deal will be Harvard's IVY League record and the league schedule doesn't begin until a January 7th tilt versus Dartmouth. In the week ahead, the undefeated record will likely go down the test tubes when the Crimson travel to Vermont (tonight, Dec 1) and to Connecticut on Dec. 8. After that, while juggling their term finals and the holidays, Harvard will play the locals, Boston University (Dec. 10) and Boston College (December 29). With the BC Eagles struggling mightily, the Crimson will be a likely scourge to the ACC.
Until then, Tommy Amaker and the ten thousand men of Harvard will just want victory today.
