KING JAMES BIBLE: Harvard Hosts ‘The Real Game’

Dear Brown and Penn fans,

You’re all headed in the wrong directions.

Brown faithful, why are you headed to Manhattan to watch the Bears take on Columbia? Penn followers, why are you traversing the New Hampshire wilderness to watch the Quakers crush what little pride the Big Green has left? (Or, even more inconceivably, why are you headed off to Pago Pago for spring break while your postseason hopes still hang in the balance?)

The most important game of your respective seasons is taking place at Lavietes Pavilion tonight. That’s right, there’s still hope. Harvard holds the keys to your postseason fate.

But you refuse to acknowledge that situation, tacitly penciling in a Princeton win before the game has even been played. All you can muster is acquiescent banter about how the NIT might come calling, while conceding that you’ll merely keep an eye on the scoreboard to see if the Crimson can knock off the mighty Tigers.

This behavior is unacceptable and unbecoming of Brown and Penn fans. You should be nowhere but Boston tonight, begging, borrowing or stealing tickets to get into this sold-out contest.

You should be plotting how to bring the Palestra and Pizzitola environments to Lavietes. You should adopt this Harvard squad as your own, if only for one night, in a desperate attempt to pry open the door that Princeton has seemingly nailed shut.

The one-loss Tigers have to split this weekend in order for the Bears and the Quakers—both two games back in the loss column—to have a chance of forcing a playoff for the automatic NCAA tournament bid, heading into Penn’s matchup with Princeton next Tuesday.

My intuition tells me that Dartmouth won’t pull out of its 16-game opossum-like “asleep at home, dead on the road” losing streak and upset the Tigers tomorrow night. And though I can see the emotions of senior night and Dave Faucher’s last game as the Big Green’s coach sparking some emotional play to at least keep the game close, such a run will only last for the first five to ten minutes.

But after that brief prelude, I see Dartmouth field-goal droughts, Princeton runs, fans politely trickling out of Leede Arena and the Tigers planting an orange-and-black flag at center court claiming it as “Jadwin North.”

Harvard, on the other hand, has some recent history that should serve to give Brown and Penn fans hope.

The Crimson took the Tigers to double-overtime in New Jersey four weekends ago. In fact, it was Princeton that needed a late bucket from freshman Harrison Schaen just to force overtime in the first place.

Then, consider all of the heartbreaks of the past few years—the Wente heave in 2001 and the defensive escapes of 2002 and 2003. True, some might say that the Crimson have a history of choking against the Tigers. However, I’d say that these games prove Harvard has a knack for being right with them at the end. Maybe this is the year that Princeton’s good fortune runs out. And

with the Tigers having so much to lose, how fitting would that be?

The Crimson will need all the help it can get in this endeavor, and that encouragement will most likely not come from Harvard fans—who, when actually in attendance, have a propensity for confusing Lavietes with Lamont and affording the arena the requisite silence due a library.

So that’s where you come in, Brown and Penn fans. Stop resigning yourself to second place and start focusing on what you can do to prevent the Tigers from coming away with a sweep this weekend. Scrap the plans to head to Columbia, Dartmouth or the South Pacific and travel to Boston instead. Help make Lavietes an inhospitable environment for the Ivy leader. Help turn Princeton’s victory lap down the Champs-Elysees into a treacherous climb through the Pyrenees.

If you want your teams to have a shot at making the Big Dance, please help, because one thing is for sure; Harvard fans will have a really tough time creating the necessary environment themselves.

Sincerely,

King James

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.