Harvard Heads North

Just 245 days after the end of its disappointing 2007-08 season, the Harvard men’s basketball team is back and ready to begin again with a clean slate. The Crimson opens its campaign today on the road against New Hampshire.

Expectations and enthusiasm are high entering the first game of the year, but even before the games begin, Harvard has taken some blows, as injuries have stricken several of its most experienced players.

The senior trifecta of captain and guard Andrew Pusar, forward Evan Harris, and guard Drew Housman has picked up knocks in the past few weeks, while junior forward Pat Magnarelli went down in practice Monday with an apparent knee injury.

“We’ve been hobbling, we’ve been patching and moving guys around,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said.

Pusar, with an injured chest, is likely to miss the season opener, but Housman and Harris practiced earlier this week and should see some minutes. It is unclear what the extent of Magnarelli’s injury is. He injured his knee in mid-January and missed the rest of last season’s campaign.

With the absence and possible restrictions on these veteran performers, Amaker will look to some of his highly-touted freshmen to step up in their collegiate debuts. He tapped forward Keith Wright and guards Max Kenyi and Oliver McNally to make an impact against the Wildcats.

“I think they have proven themselves to be in a position where they would be in our rotation now,” Amaker said. “I don’t know what that rotation will consist of with many guys possibly not playing because of injuries. If those kids are healthy, we anticipate them being in our rotation because they have proven themselves to be strong contributors thus far in our practices, and we think they will definitely have a chance to help this team.”

Two other healthy players that will need to step up are junior guards Jeremy Lin and Dan McGeary. This game is a homecoming of sorts for McGeary, who played for UNH his freshman year before transferring to Harvard. He and Lin will need to contend with the Wildcats’ talented senior backcourt of Eric Gilchrese and Tyrece Gibbs.

That duo scored 21 and 18 points respectively in UNH’s first game of the season, a 101-50 win over Suffolk. a result that would look more impressive if the opponent wasn’t a Division III team. Regardless, stopping the opposing guards is a must for the Crimson.

“They are a perimeter-oriented team, and we are going to have our hands full defending their perimeter players,” Amaker said. “Are we going to have the discipline to play our pressure defense without fouling, can we limit their touches and deny the ball at times? They can’t score if they don’t have the ball, so can we limit the touches of their better players on the perimeter? So we’re going to have our hands full, being on the road, which was certainly not a positive moment for our team a year ago.”

Harvard lost all of its road games last year, but the Crimson beat UNH 72-67 at home last November and won a thriller two years ago against the Wildcats on the road in overtime. To keep up the streak, Harvard may look to exploit its advantage inside.

“I think one of the things we feel really confident in is our big men and their post game,” Pusar said. “They have the ability to be strong down low and pass out, that’s what our focus will be: an inside-outside attack. The freshman big men have all done a great job. From an interior scoring standpoint, Keith [Wright] has asserted himself. We want him to get more touches down low.”

If all goes well for the visitors today, even with injury uncertainty, that could be a positive harbinger of things to come in the year.

“Coach Amaker emphasized that is the type of team where we all want to play aggressive, play one style,” Pusar said. “We’re so deep, that any lineup can give us what we want. It doesn’t matter, we’re going to be the same team, and we’re going to out-compete them.”

—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.