THE REYES REVIEW: Harvard Down, But Not Yet Out

Let’s take a trip back to the night of December 1.

Tied 51-51 with 3:18 to play, the Harvard men’s basketball team used a 9-0 run to finish the game and knock off a Big Ten Michigan squad in Lavietes, giving new Crimson coach Tommy Amaker revenge over the team that fired him and giving Harvard increased confidence heading into the rest of the season.

The Crimson followed that win (one I called “the greatest win in Harvard men’s basketball history” in this column) with seven straight losses.

Blips in the road, I dismissed. Just some troubles along the way. Wait until the Ivy League, I said. I was still confident.

An 82-56 convincing defeat of Dartmouth broke the streak and opened 2008 with a victory in the Ivy League opener, and things didn’t look so bad.

Since? Three straight losses. The first was to a bad Dartmouth team who the Crimson had just trounced the week before. But, the last two stung even worse.

Penn and Princeton weekend—the “Killer P’s”—has given the men’s basketball team trouble for many years.

In 16 years at the helm, former Coach Frank Sullivan couldn’t secure a win at either school. Every trip for Sullivan resulted in a sweep.

But this year was different. Amaker fever swept the Crimson, and while December 1 seems so long ago, I was still holding out hope that the Ivies would be a different ballgame this year.

Not only that, but Penn and Princeton are both way down this season. The Quakers lost their two stars, while the Tigers are coming off a last place, 2-12 finish in the 2006-2007 Ivy season.

Harvard up; Penn and Princeton both down—sounded like easy math to me. This was the best chance that the Crimson has had in years—no, decades—to defeat not just one, but both teams.

That’s what makes it so disappointing to have come up empty-handed last weekend.

The Crimson entered The Palestra on Friday night with an air of confidence. Fully rested after a nearly three-week break for exams, Harvard battled the Quakers all night and even led with just 2:43 to play.

But, when Penn scored five straight down the stretch, and Drew Housman missed a tough potential game-tying three-pointer with five seconds left, that confidence turned to dismay, knowing that the streak of futility would go on. The saving grace was that the Crimson would get another shot at breaking another streak the next night at Princeton.

The Tigers had other plans. Having won the previous night against Dartmouth, Princeton was already halfway to its 2007 Ivy League win total.

And with every Kyle Koncz three-pointer in the first half (all five of them—he finished with six and 24 points), and every Lincoln Gunn long ball in the second half (four, en route to 17 points), the Tigers were set to make Harvard their second victim of the young season.

The problems? Rebounding was a big issue at Penn—Harvard was out-boarded 44-32, giving the Quakers 20 second chance points. Not getting out on the shooters was obviously an error at Princeton.

Foul shooting also haunted the Crimson all weekend. Improving an 18-for-28 performance at Penn could have easily put Harvard in a much better position in the final minutes. At Princeton, after sinking 8-of-8 in the first half, the Crimson again faltered, finishing 4-for-12 in the second.

Granted, it didn’t help to be without sophomore center Pat Magnarelli, absent due to a knee injury sustained in the Dartmouth loss weeks earlier. Magnarelli had been quickly becoming Harvard’s go-to-guy in the paint, and losing him was a big blow.

So what now? A glance at the Ivy League standings shows that Harvard is certainly not out of anything yet. This year’s Ancient Eight may prove to be an incredibly close race, and teams may beat up on each other all year long.

Cornell’s at the top, at 4-0, but will face Penn and Princeton (both undefeated as well, at 2-0) this weekend.

Everyone else is at .500 or below, though, which means that two Crimson wins at Yale and Brown tonight and tomorrow, respectively, will put them right back in the race.

And that wouldn’t be so bad, with six of Harvard’s final eight conference games in the friendly confines of Lavietes Pavilion.

A couple more losses this weekend, though, and we might soon be hearing a phrase that’s always been associated with Harvard men’s basketball: better luck next year.

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.