Depending on whom you ask, the Harvard men's basketball team will enter its second-round matchup against Vanderbilt Thursday as the five- to six-point underdog.

Last week, the Commodores made history by knocking off the tournament’s top-seeded Kentucky to win its first SEC tournament in 61 years. The Crimson will end its own long drought in the Thursday matinee—the last time Harvard made the NCAA tournament, FDR ’03 had just finished his third term as president of the United States of America.

Some independent models give an idea of the Crimson’s chances of winning. Ken Pomeroy gives the squad a 33-percent chance of advancing, and a nine-percent chance of reaching Sweet 16. The ELO rubric, which takes both winning percentage and strength of schedule into account, predicts similar figures. With a few conversions, the model is revealed to pick Harvard’s winning its first game 33 percent of the time and its first two 10 percent of the time.

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The last few months have been full of ups and down for Harvard athletics. Here at The Back Page, we took a look back and compiled a list of the moments that made this winter one that we may never forget.

Biggest letdown: Penn 55, Harvard 54

Another year, another one-possession Harvard basketball loss with major postseason implications. The Crimson was in control, 49-40, with 7:56 left in the game. The 11-point-favorite just had to hold on to keep destiny in its own hands and essentially clinch its first ever outright Ivy League title.

No problem, right?

Wrong. Zach Rosen picks Harvard apart defensively, scoring 11 of his team’s final 15. Harvard forgets how to shoot, only recording a dunk, a lay-up, and two free throws the rest of the way. And in the waning moments, a shot that goes in is called back. Penn emerges victorious by the score of 55-54. Eager fans ready to storm the court go home stunned and appalled.

Coach of the winter: Tommy Amaker

Someone alert Coach K. Tommy Amaker is coming for you. After 15 losing campaigns in 16 years, Cambridge’s second-newest cult hero came to town. Amaker didn’t waste any time; in the next three seasons he led the Crimson to a combined record of 92-55. This season, his squad set a program record for victories in a season, made the top-25 for the first time in program history, and, just a week ago, earned its first NCAA tournament appearance in 66 years. Thanks in part to an invigorated recruiting process, Amaker has helped change the course of Harvard basketball and for that, he is our coach of the winter.

Biggest Surprise: Jeremy Lin

Have you heard of him? This question may seem silly now, but it didn’t a couple months ago. In fact, when the Crimson questioned many fans at Madison Square Garden about Jeremy Lin ’10 over winter break, it got responses such as: “Jeremy who?” Just weeks before his explosion, Lin couldn’t even reserve a spot at the end of the bench, as Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni sent him down to the D-League’s Erie Bayhawks. Regardless, Linsanity (Lin link below) has since swept the nation’s heart and is here to stay.

Play of the winter: Curry's dunk on Mangano

Wish we had a picture to show you. For now, we will settle with a description.

The odds are certainly stacked against the Harvard men’s basketball team heading into its matchup with fifth-seeded Vanderbilt Thursday afternoon.

The Commodores, which entered the season ranked No. 7 in the country, are coming off a victory over No. 1 Kentucky in the SEC championship and boast an experienced, talented, and athletic lineup.

But as history has shown, crazy things happen in college basketball during the month of March. Here are three keys for a Crimson victory Thursday afternoon.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Let me start off by saying that flights from Boston to Albuquerque are not cheap, which forced me (and the Crimson Sports board, with which I tagged along) to travel to Denver, where we rented an SUV to make the picturesque drive to Albuquerque, N.M. Thank you, NCAA committee, for that one, really.

Despite the remote location, I made the trip because I figured that, as a senior, it would be my last chance to go to the NCAA tournament as a current student and root for my own school.

Before earning its tournament berth this year, Harvard had not made it to the Big Dance since 1946, when the NCAA tournament invited only eight teams and was second to the then-bigger NIT.

Not only is this moment truly historic, but it is also a testament to how far the basketball program has come under Crimson coach Tommy Amaker.

In the time I’ve been here at Harvard, I’ve witnessed the drastic transformation, and I wanted to take in the final stage—the NCAA tournament—of such change for myself. Is it worth making my bank account cry as it took a significant hit?

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After a multi-year hiatus, the Harvard men’s hockey team is back in the national rankings.

With its dramatic victory over Yale in the best-of-three ECAC quarterfinals series, the Crimson rocketed up the polls, more than tripling its point total from the previous week to nab the No. 19 spot in this week’s poll.

The expectations for Harvard coming into the season were low, to say the least. One preseason poll picked the Crimson to finish last in the 12-team ECAC while another pegged Harvard at seventh place. After all, the squad had struggled mightily for much of the 2010-11 season—the team started the campaign with a 4-18 record—and graduated its two goaltenders and many of its top players.

But the 2011-12 version of the Harvard men’s hockey team defied expectations, riding an NCAA-record 11 ties to a third-place finish in the ECAC and a bye in the first round of the conference playoffs.

All the while, voters in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll were taking note. After receiving zero votes in the Feb. 20 poll, Harvard garnered 25 the following week. 14 days later, after topping Yale, the Crimson earned 95 points in Monday’s poll and leapfrogged a number of teams to enter the nation’s top 20 for the first time this season.

Harvard takes on rival Cornell in the ECAC semifinals this Friday in Atlantic City, N.J.