Life Of Brian: It's A Smaller World

DURHAM, N.H.—For the Harvard men’s basketball team last night, size did matter. Or, more precisely, lack of it.

Playing against the most undersized team it has faced all season, the Crimson—a small team by nature—went even smaller.

With no player bigger than 6’8, UNH might cause some coaches to drool over themselves at the thought of size advantages in the low post. Not Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan. Entering this season, he said that priority No. 1 for his team would be defense. It was no surprise, then, that against the Wildcats—who play four guards at times—Sullivan deployed his troops based on defensive matchups more than anything else.

Just how preoccupied was Sullivan with defense? Well, at times last night, 6’8 Sam Winter played center and the 6’1 Drew Gellert played the power forward spot. Harvard’s biggest player—7’0 center Brian Sigafoos—played just nine minutes in the game. When Sigafoos was late jumping out to cover his assignment, 6’4 forward Chris Brown, on two straight three-point shots, he almost immediately got the hook. Sigafoos didn’t play again.

The same was true with UNH. Wildcat center Kyle Peterson was on the floor to take the opening tip, but when and UNH needed to play catch-up, Rowe went with smaller and quicker options off the bench. Peterson played just three minutes after halftime.

The decision worked well for Harvard, which limited UNH to 35 percent shooting in the first half. The Wildcats top two scorers, Brown and Austin Ganley, combined to shoot just 3-for-11 in the first half.

Even with its smaller lineup, Harvard was able to take advantage of the undersized Wildcats on the offensive end. Usually known for its perimeter play, Harvard made a concerted effort to go inside on UNH. Point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman finished the first half with just one assist, but that’s because his first inkling was to penetrate. Sometimes it was for the worse, resulting in a blocked shot, a charging call or—on one occasion when he stalled while waiting for a seam to open up—a five-second violation. But more often than not it was for the better, as Prasse-Freeman scored eight first-half points, six on lay-ups.

The rest of the Harvard backcourt got into the act as well. Senior Drew Gellert scored a season-high 12 points, again mostly by driving through the lane. Harvard sharp-shooter Patrick Harvey, who entered last night, relied more on his signature running jumper through the lane than the three-point shot.

Harvard as a team attempted just three threes in the first half.

“I think at the start of the game, we did a good job getting to the free throw line with our perimeter guys, which we hadn’t been doing,” Sullivan said.

When Harvard’s guards weren’t creating shots for themselves, they were working the ball down low to Harvard’s (relatively) big men. In particular, there was one Harvard forward who turned Lundholm Gymnasium into a Winter Wonderland.

By most standards, junior Sam Winter’s size would be average for his position, but at times last night he was the biggest man on the floor. He played like it, too, matching his previous career high for rebounds (10) in the first half alone.

Winter finished with 14 boards along with 15 points—his highest total since his rookie season—for his second double-double of the season.

“I’m just feeling more comfortable with my role,” Winter said. “Earlier this season, I wasn’t getting the ball quite as much or where I can be most effective—down in the blocks. Now I’ve tried to get some shots inside before I make an effort to move out.”

Winter’s play helped Harvard build a 12-point halftime cushion. But in the second half, as UNH went even smaller, Harvard struggled more and more to handle the Wildcats’ outside shooting. It’s not asking too much to defend one or two outside threats at a given time; guarding against five perimeter players all at once is an entirely different matter. Last night, five different UNH players fired three or more trey attempts. Harvard struggled just to get a hand in their face and UNH ended up shooting 7-of-15 from behind the arc in the second half. In fact, the Wildcats shot better from the three-point line than the free-throw line.

“If New Hampshire had won, the story of the game would have been our inability to guard the three at a critical time, which is what they do,” Sullivan said.

At the same time last night, Harvard’s offense was stalling, shooting just 37 percent. The penetration seen in the first half was lacking. “We were a little soft getting to the [foul] line,” Sullivan said. Prasse-Freeman was still stuck on eight points, and, when senior center Tim Coleman fouled out with five minutes left to play, Harvard was short on options close to the basket.

All of which required Harvard to get back to what works—Harvey. A three-pointer with 1:55 left gave Harvard some breathing room after the Wildcats had cut the Crimson lead to three. On Harvard’s next possession, Harvey earned a trip to the free throw line to push the lead to six.

Prior to those free throws, Harvard had taken just six shots from the line in the second half. Harvey would add two more shots from the charity stripe in the game’s final minute. He thus accounted for all of Harvard’s final six points as the bite-size version of the Crimson proved too much for UNH.

“They out-toughed us at every position,” UNH Coach Phil Rowe said.

Out-toughed? More like out-smalled.