Saved by the Bell: Veteran Crimson Unfazed On Road

PHILADELPHIA—“Harvard Will Lose, But Get An A Just For Showing Up!” screamed the banner as it cascaded down the stands at the Palestra in the first half.

Two hours later, senior point guard Elliot Prasse-Freeman grumbled about his team’s 21 turnovers and inability to rotate effectively on defense. And he paused.

“We’ve never played these teams this well on the road,” Prasse-Freeman said. “That says something.”

The words sounded empty, more of a grudging partial credit from Prasse-Freeman than anything resembling an inflated A. He knew that both games this weekend were winnable, even though the annual trip to Princeton and Penn is usually when the season dies.

Harvard men’s basketball hasn’t won at Princeton since 1989. The Crimson hasn’t won at Penn since 1991. In the last 44 years, the Killer P’s have a 379-31 record against the rest of the Ivy League. Their buildings have become the stuff of legend, the Palestra in particular. The most historic and acoustically insufferable gym in the Ancient Eight, the Palestra practically spills its fans onto the court, where they can scream at a guy like Sam Winter from three inches away as he inbounds the ball. The sixth-man clichés abound.

It has been the site of blowouts, close losses and an ever-growing mystique surrounding both domes of Ivy doom.

But this weekend, there was no awe in Winter’s eyes when he hit two free throws to give Harvard a late lead against Princeton. Nor was there any Palestra-induced hesitation in Jason Norman when—for a two-minute stretch, anyway—he became a profile of cornrowed fury, throwing down breakaway dunks on consecutive possessions to spark a first-half rally that kept the game close.

There were also, unfortunately, a flood of turnovers, a barrage of Penn three-pointers and a lot more Judson Wallace than anyone had bargained for.

The road trip came freakishly early in the Ivy League schedule this year, and with Yale and Brown looming on the road next week, the Crimson finds its season already teetering on the brink. Perhaps the best team Frank Sullivan has fielded in several years—given its non-league accomplishments and combined experience—it could also fall out of the Ivy race the earliest.

After 20 days of exams and papers, Harvard was thrown into the heart of its road schedule immediately, and at times the rust showed. The schedule maker, as Don Cheadle might say, turned cruelty into cruelty. Even the order of the games was a killer—Harvard didn’t play Penn until Saturday, thus missing the game Andrew Toole sat out due to an ankle injury. This, of course, gave Toole the necessary 24 hours any player who hasn’t practiced for a week needs to miraculously heal and drop 21, six and five.

Prasse-Freeman expressed confidence that these were teams Harvard could beat later in the year at home. Here’s hoping the games still matter.

But if they do, and if Harvard knocks off either Killer P, it won’t be because the games were at Lavietes Pavilion. It will be because Harvard committed far fewer than 17 turnovers and because Pat Harvey’s runners fell. If they lose, it will be because Spencer Gloger got hot and Toole time reigned once again.

And that’s the way it should be. It’s easy to talk about homecourt advantage. It’s also depressing and, often, unfair. Ivy League basketball should be about the players and, when you’re Harvey and are bringing the ball up the court trailing by one with a minute to go, about possibility. Not about ghosts and domes.

Gyms don’t kill people; people kill people.

—Staff writer Martin S. Bell can be reached at msbell@fas.harvard.edu