Pros and Harvard Ballers Share Court

In a game highlighted by former NBA players and Division One standouts from the nation’s top basketball conferences, two Harvard men’s basketball players made the Ivy League proud.

Rising sophomore Kyle Casey and incoming freshman Matt Brown shared the court with the likes of Memphis’s Antonio Anderson and Providence’s Jeff Xavier this past Saturday in the Boston Athletes United for Change Summer League and led their team to victory—combining for more than a third of their team’s points.

While many onlookers at the Tobin Community Center in Boston may have expected Casey—the reigning Ivy League rookie of the year—to be the more impressive of the two Crimson players, it was Brown—a six-foot-three shooting guard out of Northfield Mount Hermon—who stole the show.

Without a game of college basketball under his belt, Brown poured in 20 points while he was matched up against Anderson, a 25-year-old Lynn, Mass. native who did two ten-day stints with the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder this past NBA season.

Brown went off in the second half, connecting on a series of transition layups and jump shots to combine for 15 points. Brown got off to a hot start in the second frame, knocking down a three ball from NBA range, then attacking the basket and finishing with a floater over the outstretched arms of Brown sophomore Andrew McCarthy.

The shooting guard tacked on three more layups and a two-handed dunk before the game concluded, but also showed off some range by hitting a deep two early in the second. Receiving the ball beyond the NBA three point line, Brown up faked, then took one dribble and let a shot fly from college range that sank through the net.

While Brown had an impressive performance, Casey was relatively quiet, finishing with just nine points. Characteristically, Casey struggled with staying out of foul trouble, as the 6-foot-7 forward with a 42-inch vertical leap was overly aggressive jumping for rebounds and blocks.

Casey got off to a hot start, combining with Brown to score 10 of their team’s first 13 points. Casey made an and-one layup in transition, and then threw down a two-handed slam on a fast break in the opening minutes.

But Casey struggled with turnovers and missed shots until late in the game when he eventually got to the basket and finished with a layup. Casey capped the game off with a ferocious windmill in the contest’s final second.

Defensively, Casey and Brown alternated between covering Anderson, a small forward who averaged 8.6 points per game as a starter on the Memphis team that reached the NCAA finals in 2008.

While Brown played solid defense and got some shots to fall, he will need to work on shoring up his jump shot and ball handling before he begins his rookie season with the Crimson. Brown will likely start the season deep in the Crimson’s rotation given their strong backcourt, which is led by rising juniors Oliver McNally and Max Kenyi, rising sophomores Brandyn Curry and Christian Webster, and rising freshman Laurent Rivard.

But if Brown’s strong summer league performances can carry over into the upcoming Harvard season, that could soon change.

The Boston Athletes United for Change Summer League takes place Friday nights and Saturday afternoons at the Tobin Community Center in Boston’s Mission Hill. It is one of only two summer leagues in Massachusetts certified by the NCAA and pits current and former NCAA players against professional basketball players of all levels.