Chris Lewis

Harvard’s 2016 recruiting class ranked No. 10 in the nation, a historic accomplishment for the Ivy League University. The Crimson was ahead of every single 2016 Final Four team and six of the eight Elite Eight teams—trailing only Kansas and Virginia. David Freed profiles each of the seven members of the class before they step on the floor for the season opener against Stanford, covering their recruiting process, playing style, and potential fit on this year’s team. In this one, he covers power forward Chris Lewis.

The highest ranked recruit to ever commit to the Crimson, Chris Lewis will battle with junior Chris Egi and senior Zena Edomsowan for playing time. By Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications

Recruiting Process:

Lewis was the first big recruit to commit to Harvard, having made his decision in January 2015. At the time, he was ranked 44th in his class, making him the highest-ranked recruit ever to commit to Harvard.

Although his decision made waves nationally—garnering coverage from the New York Times—Lewis’ hype started far earlier, when he received Division I offers as an eighth grader. He ultimately received offers from 15 different Division I schools before he decided to commit to the Crimson.

Yet, one of Harvard’s biggest competitors for Lewis was the school just across the river; as a prospective engineering student, he seriously considered playing for Division III MIT. Harvard coach Tommy Amaker admitted in a late-season interview that the ability of Harvard students to take classes across the river was a big selling point in the recruiting process.

Playing Style:

In the words of ESPN’s scouting report, “Lewis is a true power forward.” What that means is that Lewis likes to attack the rim and isn’t a stretch four in the model of Christian Webster ’13 or sophomore Weisner Perez, adept finishers around the basket who are comfortable launching from the perimeter. On his highlight tapes (see here and here), we can see Lewis viciously attacking the rim for dunk after dunk. He is able to get out in transition and finish effectively around the rim. Lewis is bigger than all his opponents in the video, something that will not hold true in college, but his athleticism and savvy around the rim is evident.

The major areas of development for Lewis, as the scouting report notes, are his low post game and his face-up game. The Alpharetta, Georgia native has not demonstrated a robust passing game, something that it took senior Zena Edosomwan—a similar prospect at age 18 and perhaps the best current comparsion on the roster for Lewis’ skill set—nearly three whole years to develop.

Lewis’ jump shot looks much better than Edosomwan’s did at his age, however. Around the one-minute mark of this video, we can see Lewis running pick-and-rolls with fellow freshman Bryce Aiken in which he pops out for elbow jumpers. Neither Edosomwan nor Evan Cummins ’16 was able to do this with regularity last year, and Lewis will add another dimension to the offense if he can do it consistently.

Potential Fit:

Lewis should compete immediately for a starting spot alongside Edosomwan. Amaker is reticent to start freshmen and will have to juggle the minutes of junior Chris Egi and fellow freshmen Robert Baker and Seth Towns along those of Lewis. Yet, the freshman looks like an immediate impact player on tape and has a more polished game than Egi. He is lucky to come into a rotation that is so thin behind Edosomwan, having been decimated by the graduation of three seniors who were the senior’s primary frontcourt partners a year ago.

–Staff writer David Freed can be reached at davidpabanfreed@gmail.com.