NOTEBOOK: Harvard Basketball Overwhelmed by UConn Frontcourt

STORRS, Conn.—Much has been made of the University of Connecticut’s elite guard duo of Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier, but Thursday night at Gampel Pavilion, it was the Huskies frontcourt that did in the Harvard men’s basketball team.

UConn, led by forwards Andre Drummond and Alex Oriakhi, controlled the interior all night, outrebounding the Crimson, 35-28, and outscoring its opponents in the paint, 30-18.

Co-captain forward Keith Wright, who entered the contest averaging a team-best 11.3 points per game, finished with just nine points on 3-of-10 shooting, his second worst shooting performance of the year.

The 6’8 forward struggled to get touches in the early going, as UConn’s physical frontcourt and aggressive guard play made it difficult for the Crimson to get the ball inside and run its traditional inside-out offense.

In the first half, Wright was held to just three shot attempts, including one 10-footer, and was unable to find the bottom of the net. Wright got more touches in the second frame, shooting 3-of-7 from the field and getting to the line four times.

“Certainly what they can do with their size on the backboard limited our effectiveness around the goal,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “We didn’t get much of anything easy around the basket, which is probably going to happen to a lot of teams when they face this basketball team with their size and athleticism.”

On the other end, the Huskies—and particularly Drummond—posed matchup problems for the Crimson. Drummond, a 6’10 rookie projected to go among the top five picks in the 2012 NBA draft, was simply too athletic for the Crimson, scoring 12 points on five dunks.

“That’s one of the best stats we’ve had all year,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said of Drummond’s five dunks. “We don’t want to try to finesse. When you’re as big and strong as him, finesse doesn’t come into the picture.”

Drummond’s final dunk—an alley-oop that put the Huskies ahead by 15 with 6:54 to play—was so powerful that the shotclock on the top of the backboard was knocked off its base and sat tilted for the remainder of the game.

“He is a very naturally gifted athlete,” Calhoun said. “We want him to be naturally gifted athlete who is a terrific basketball player. That is what he’s going to be eventually.”

But Drummond wasn’t the only big getting it done for the Huskies. Tyler Olander finished with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting and six rebounds, while Oriakhi added five points and six boards.

KING CASEY

The handful of NBA scouts in attendance at Gampel Pavilion on Thursday night may have been there to watch Drummond and Lamb, but junior Kyle Casey may have drawn some attention to himself.

The 6’7 forward, who finished with a team-high 12 points, posed some matchup problems for the Huskies and beat UConn’s bigger defenders with his ability to knock down open looks from the perimeter.

“[Casey’s] quick. He can shoot; he’s athletic—he does a lot of things a small forward does, but he’s a power forward,” said Napier, a close friend of Casey’s.

Casey, who shot 4-of-9 from the field on the night, knocked down a pair of three-pointers, including one with 6:07 to play in the first half that ended a 9-0 UConn run and brought Harvard within six.

“Kyle should be able to be an inside-out player for us, which is what’s done,” Amaker said. “I thought he played very hard and fairly well. He made some perimeter shots, which is something we’re going to need to stretch the defense against any opponent.”

Perhaps even more impressive than his final stat line, Casey managed to stay out of foul trouble throughout the contest despite playing a season-high 33 minutes.

MISFIRING

With Wright and the Crimson’s post offense limited by UConn’s size up front, Harvard needed a strong shooting performance if it was going to come away from Storrs with a victory.

But Harvard, which has been plagued by shooting woes all season, continued to struggle on Thursday, as the Crimson shot just 7-of-21 from beyond the arc.

“With their perimeter players, I thought they increased the pressure, forced us into some bad things, some quick things,” Amaker said.

Through nine games, Harvard has yet to shoot over 40 percent from deep on a single night, a feat it accomplished 14 times a season ago.

Wings Christian Webster and Laurent Rivard, the Crimson’s leaders in made three-pointers this season, connected on just 4-of-14 attempts.

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.