Harvard Looks for Ivy Turnaround at Home

The last time the Harvard men’s basketball team beat Yale, “Let Me Love You” by Mario topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hitch reigned over the box office.

Since then, the Bulldogs have taken six straight from the Crimson. Harvard (9-9, 1-3 Ivy) hopes to reverse that trend this weekend in its penultimate slate of home games. The Crimson faces Yale (7-11, 2-2 Ivy) tonight and Brown (6-12, 0-4 Ivy) tomorrow night at Lavietes Pavilion.

Last weekend, Harvard dropped a pair of close games to Penn and Princeton at home. The losses, part of a three-game losing streak, were largely a product of errant free-throw shooting and poor transition defense.

“We feel like we can just dig and scrap and claw a little bit more...and make it more difficult for people to get interior shots,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “That’s going to be big for us this weekend coming up against Yale and Brown.”

The Bulldogs enter this weekend losers of their last two games but tied for third in the Ivy League. Led by a pair of second team All-Ivy selections in the frontcourt–senior Travis Pinick and team captain Ross Morin–Yale poses a serious challenge to the Crimson’s big men.

“The concern we’re going to have is their ability to pound the interior,” Amaker said. “They have the physical size and strength up front.”

This matchup is especially problematic in light of the injuries plaguing Harvard’s frontcourt. Junior forward Doug Miller, who had started every game during a breakout season, suffered a foot injury last weekend and will miss extended action. This setback comes while junior forward Pat Magnarelli recovers from a shoulder injury and senior forward Evan Harris recuperates from knee surgery.

In the meantime, the Crimson will need someone to step up and fill the middle.

“We’ve got Evan coming back to hopefully get some minutes and obviously [freshman forward] Keith [Wright] and [freshman forward] Peter Boehm will have to play more than they’ve been playing,” Miller said. “[Freshman center] Peter Swiatek too. [Swiatek] played well at the beginning of the year. He hasn’t had that many minutes lately, but he is capable of stepping in and being effective.”

Tonight’s game, though it’s not The Game, still affects the pageantry associated with Harvard-Yale.

“I think our kids will be very excited because we want to play well, we’re at home, and we’d like to see if we can win,” Amaker said. “But I think certainly, because it’s Yale, there’s a little extra incentive.”

“I’ve learned about that since I’ve been here,” he added.

Tomorrow night, the Crimson faces a similar test against Brown. The Bears come into Cambridge without a league win, having lost to Yale twice, as well as Columbia and Cornell. Last year, Brown swept Harvard in the season series, winning 71-51 in Providence and 81-65 in Cambridge.

The Bears feature three scorers averaging double digits, junior forward Matt Mullery, sophomore forward Peter Sullivan, and sophomore guard Adrian Williams at 15.7, 14.1, and 12.6 points-per-game respectively. While Sullivan and Williams are prolific outside shooters, the catalyst for Brown’s offence is their big man, Mullery.

“The big kid is the key. He shoots a high percentage...he’s one of the top scorers [in the league]. He’s a load in there,” Amaker said. “I think they play off of him and play through him. And that for us is an area that we’re very much concerned with.”

In the midst of a three-game losing streak, this weekend offers the Crimson a chance to right the ship and climb back up in the Ivy League standings.

“They’ve handled the attention and notoriety and all the glitz and glamour that came their way because of a strong performance a little bit ago,” Amaker said. “They’ve come back to work, and been enthusiastic. And I think that they’re eager and anxious to see if we can stop the slide on Friday.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu.