SEASON RECAP: Injury-Riddled Season Ends on High Note

Traditionally mired in the cellar of the Ivy League, the Harvard men’s basketball program showed signs of rejuvenation this season, capturing headlines and personal accolades en route to a .500 record.

The pre-Ivy League schedule brought the Crimson mixed success. Harvard enjoyed wins over strong programs such as Holy Cross and Santa Clara, but lost to local rivals Boston University and Northeastern.

But the Crimson's last game of the non-conference schedule provided the team with its signature moment of the season, when it defeated then-No. 17 Boston College. Days after the Eagles beat eventual national champion UNC, Harvard traveled to Chestnut Hill, where the Crimson shocked the basketball world.

Junior guard Jeremy Lin’s sensational effort—27 points, eight assists, and six steals—carried Harvard to an 82-70 victory, the Crimson’s first-ever win over a ranked opponent.

The game against BC was merely the start to a historic season for Lin. The junior, who averaged 17.8 points per game, 4.3 assists per game, and 5.5 rebounds per game, earned first-team All-Ivy honors and the team MVP award. Lin was the only player in the country to rank among the top 10 in his conference in every statistical category. Next season, Lin, along with junior forward Doug Miller, will serve as team captains.

“[Lin] was fantastic,” captain Andrew Pusar said. “He is so versatile and can help in so many ways…We were impressed by his ability every single game.”

After receiving attention from the national media for its stunning upset over BC, Harvard settled into Ivy League play. Yet during this pivotal stretch, injuries began to accumulate in the frontcourt. With prized recruit Andrew van Nest and junior Pat Magnarelli already out for the season, senior forward Evan Harris and Miller went down with injuries, and the Crimson stumbled to 2-7 in the Ancient Eight.

The silver lining to this bad luck was that Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker got to showcase his first-class recruits. Forwards Keith Wright and Peter Boehm filled the holes in the frontcourt, averaging 8.0 and 6.1 points per game, respectively, and guards Oliver McNally and Max Kenyi provided valuable minutes off the bench.

“It will help a lot in the coming years,” McNally said of the experience. “It will be positive in the sense that I made some mistakes and I learned a lot…Hopefully, I can build on that.”

As the freshmen gained experience, the Crimson started finding success. Harvard gutted out a 66-60 victory at Penn and prevailed, 72-63, over Columbia before facing Cornell in its last home game of the season. Lin and senior guard Drew Housman each poured in 20 points, and a late defensive stand gave the Crimson a 71-70 win over the tournament-bound Big Red.

Housman’s performance was one of the main ingredients in Harvard’s late turnaround. The senior reached double digits in points in his last eight games, averaging 15.3 points per game over this stretch.

In the final game of the season, the Crimson faced a Yale team that had won the last seven meetings. A complete team effort, with four players scoring in double figures, helped Harvard capture a 69-59 win in the final collegiate game for seniors Housman, Pusar, and Harris.

“The way we finished the season, the toughness we showed after struggling for a little bit, was the most impressive thing to me,” Pusar said.

The win over Yale brought the Crimson’s record to 14-14 and 6-8 in the Ivy League. The team, which returns seven players with at least 10 starts, as well as a healthy front line and a widely-heralded class of recruits, is poised to make a run next season for its elusive first Ivy League title.

“We have a pretty tough schedule, so it’s going to be fun,” McNally said. “I think we can do some really good things with what we learned, with a strong nucleus coming back and some good freshmen.”

“It’s a bright future for the program,” Pusar said.

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