BASKETBALL '06: Three’s a Crowd

After watching his team endure a total collapse at the end of last year, Harvard men’s basketball coach Frank Sullivan spent his off-season trying to right the ship. He put together a recruiting class ripe with sharp-shooting guards and slashing swingmen, and also worked on developing the pieces returning to the Crimson fold.

But with key veterans leaving, diplomas in hand, and the shocking and untimely loss of highly-touted recruit Tomas Balcetis due to a heart condition, many questions still remain unanswered for the Crimson. One gaping hole in particular is the three position on the court—traditionally reserved for a small forward.

Three spots in the starting five are set, with senior captain Jim Goffredo and sophomore Drew Housman at the guard positions, and senior Brian Cusworth manning center. Although the graduation of Matt Stehle ’06 leaves the power forward position vacant, Harvard has a slew of 6’8 bodies, chief among them sophomore Evan Harris, that can be plugged in there.

It’s that pesky third position that has been subject to the most debate, and holds the most uncertainty.

Last season, Michael Beal ’06 filled that role admirably. With a 6’5, 215-pound frame, Beal was your quintessential small forward—a position that in the Ivy League often becomes a swingman or third guard.

He could drive the lane and kick it out to the perimeter or take it to the hole when he had to. He could bang bodies underneath the rim, as evidenced by his 6.3 rebounds per game last year, good for third most on the team. He could play shut-down defense, and was routinely assigned to stifle the opposing teams’ top scoring threats.

This year, there is no sure thing at the three spot for Sullivan—just a lot of options.

One of those options is sophomore Andrew Pusar, who saw only limited action last year. Think Beal, but three inches shorter and fifteen pounds lighter.

A forward in a guard’s body, Pusar plays what Sullivan has referred to as “a junkyard-kind of game.” On defense, he is capable of guarding another offense’s playmaker and creating havoc for opposing teams by forcing turnovers that lead to fast breaks. On the other end of the court, Pusar can function as a slasher, creating open looks for the Crimson’s sharpshooters, and he can crash the boards for offensive rebounds.

“My role on the team is to be a defensive stopper and a dirty work player,” Pusar says. “There’s so much offensive firepower on this team that I would like to bring a defensive mind-set.”

Pusar started in both of Harvard’s preseason scrimmages, and also got the nod in the team’s season opener against Maine last Saturday, making him the early favorite to collect a significant chunk of the minutes tat the crucial spot.

“I felt like [the starting assignment] was an acknowledgement from the coaches that I was playing hard, and I appreciated that,” he says.

But while Pusar may seem like the most appropriate choice to play the three, his major weakness—lack of an outside shot, which he has worked on extensively in the offseason—might necessitate the Crimson rotating in more of a scoring threat from the outside. Harvard’s vast supply of guards, as well as the nature of the Ivy League, arouse several other intriguing possibilities.

The Ancient Eight is extremely perimeter-oriented, and teams with three or even four small, speedy players running the ball up and down the floor, driving and launching threes is not an uncommon sight.

If Sullivan chooses to, he certainly has the horses to take this kind of approach.

One option at the three-guard would be junior James Lambert, a good shooter with two years of college experience under his belt.

Should Sullivan decide to dip into his supply of freshmen, even more doors open up.

There’s Alek Blankenau and his pinpoint accuracy from behind the arc.

There’s Darryl Finkton and his slashing ability.

Then there’s Jeremy Lin, perhaps the most talked about freshman this preseason.

Lin played point guard in high school, but his 6’2 frame (the same height as Pusar) and ability to drive the ball and shoot from deep mean the three-guard position wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

“Jeremy as a freshman has played the best,” Sullivan says. “And his learning curve has been a little bit quicker than most of the freshmen.”

Lin has also shown maturity beyond his years, an attribute not unnoticed by his teammates.

“It’s clear that he’s very comfortable on the court,” Pusar says. “I think he really wants to help the team and he’s been working hard and he’ll find a good role for himself.”

If Harvard’s opener against Maine last Saturday is any indication, Lin has already found that role. He played 25 minutes, including the critical ones down the stretch, and led the Crimson with four steals and six rebounds. Pusar started the game and played 12 minutes.

With so many options at one position, a three-guard by committee is a distinct possibility. But Sullivan has traditionally shied away from implementing a timeshare at any position—Harvard was the only Ivy team to have all five of its starters play 30 or more minutes a game last season—and as the season progresses, the spot will most likely need to be solidified if Harvard hopes to climb higher than its preseason-projected seventh-place finish.

Will it be Pusar, the junkyard dog, who emerges from the competition with the main role? Lin, the upstart rookie? Or someone else?

Only time, and Coach Sullivan, will tell.