Aiken and Benzan Headline Ivy Postseason Awards for Men's and Women's Basketball

Freshman guard Bryce Aiken earned the Ivy League Rookie of the Year title for the men, beating out a slew of strong freshman such as Miye Oni of Yale and Penn's AJ Brodeur. By Timothy R. O'Meara

For Harvard basketball this year it hasn’t been a matter of pure freshman talent or veteran senior experience—in fact for the most part, it’s been a lot of both.

For the men it’s been a tale of two guards. Led by co-captain Siyani Chambers and freshman Bryce Aiken, the Crimson have what is arguably one of the best backcourts in the conference. The two have combined to average 24.1 points and 8.8 dimes per game.

As of Wednesday, Aiken has followed in the steps of Chambers as he was voted the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, with Chambers earning the honor after the 2012-2013 season. The duo was also given first-team All-Ivy nods.

On the women’s side, it’s a similar story. For coach Kathy Delaney-Smith’s squad it’s been a combination of co-captain Destiny Nunley and freshman guard Katie Benzan.

Benzan, while coming just short of Rookie of the Year behind Princeton’s Bella Alarie, was given a first-team All-Ivy nod while Nunley earned an Honorable Mention All-Ivy.

For women’s coach Kathy Delaney Smith, the talent is something that isn’t exclusive to her squad, it’s across the league.

“I’ve said all year long the league is the strongest—I’ve been in it 35 years, I know I don’t look that old, but it’s the strongest in my 35 years,” Delaney-Smith said. “This is the strongest top to bottom it’s ever been.”

IVY LEAGUE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: BRYCE AIKEN

Despite coming off the bench for the better part of the Crimson’s season, Aiken has become all but a bench player for the Crimson—he has instead become a staple of the Harvard offense.

In a class full of freshman talent with teammate Seth Towns, Yale’s Miye Oni, Columbia’s Mike Smith, and Penn’s AJ Brodeur, Aiken’s campaign has been nothing short of spectacular. The freshman leads the Crimson in scoring with 14 points a game.

As the Crimson takes on Yale tomorrow, Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker will likely look to the freshman in hopes of a third win against the Bulldogs this season.

“Bryce is a good player,” Amaker said. “No matter who we’ve played he’s been a focal point for our opponents. I’m sure that’s going to take place again. Yale did do that in the earlier games, Bryce has been a very good ball player for us and we’re going to need him to be really good again.”

It would be hard to pick the best game of the rookie’s season—perhaps it would be a series of back-to-back threes late to give the Crimson its best non-conference win of the season against Houston or maybe it would be the 27 points he dropped against Yale in New Haven to hand the Bulldogs their first home loss in nearly two years.

Either way, Aiken will likely be headache for Ivy League for years to come.

FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY: KATIE BENZAN

On a team full of talented guards, Benzan has proven she’s the one Delaney-Smith can count on—so much so that last weekend against Penn and Princeton the guard played a full forty minutes in both contests.

Benzan leads the Crimson in scoring and assists with 13.6 points and a conference-leading 4.1 assists per game while shooting 40 percent from the field. She has also put up a team-best 21 points in double figures this season.

The freshman has also established herself as a threat from deep. She ranks first in the Ivy League in three pointers made per game at 2.9 while shooting .395 from long range.

Before earning the end-of-season All-Ivy honor, Benzan nabbed six Ivy Rookie of the Week honors, along with earning the Player of the Week honor on Jan. 2.

FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY: SIYANI CHAMBERS

After taking a voluntary leave of absence to preserve his last year of eligibility following an ACL injury during the summer of 2015, Chambers has come back in spectacular fashion. Despite the emergence of Aiken, the co-captain has continued to lead the Crimson. Always among the most emphatic of the Crimson squad, Chambers is no stranger to the success as this is his fourth All-Ivy selection.

“We go as [Siyani] goes,” Amaker said. “And I’m proud of what he’s been able to accomplish coming back off a season ending knee injury and to be voted first team all league his final year, really neat things going on for our basketball team and certainly an opportunity to continue that this weekend.”

Coming into what will be his last weekend of Ivy League basketball, the senior sits at second in all time assists and 7th in all-time in three point field goals among Harvard players.

The Minnesota native has earned All-Ivy honors in each of his four seasons in Cambridge, landing a spot on the first team in his freshman and senior campaigns and on the second team his sophomore and junior years.

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY: DESTINY NUNLEY

Despite only playing limited minutes behind standout forward AnnMarie Healy last season, Nunley has become a force to be reckoned with this season.

Nunley comes in averaging 11.4 points and a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game, good for fourth best in the Ivy League. On a guard heavy squad, the Crimson has looked to Nunley for production on both ends of the floor—the senior has added nearly two blocks a game while shooting over 40 percent from the field.

As the Crimson take on a substantially tall Princeton squad tomorrow, all eyes will be on Nunley for the Crimson. While even the 6’1’’ Texas native will be outsized by the Tigers’ frontcourt, Nunley is confident in her and her teammates’ ability to evade the struggles of a size differential.

“You throw a shot fake, you throw her off her feet, you just have to put your smart cap on and put some IQ in your head and play around that,” Nunley said.

—Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at troy.boccelli@thecrimson.com.