HARVARD
Harvard is the unanimous favorite to win the Ivy League. Junior co-captain Siyani Chambers and reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Wesley Saunders are no longer stars—they are superstars. The dynamic backcourt is one of the most dangerous in the nation, and the return of senior center Kenyatta Smith will bring size to an already-loaded frontcourt. Ranked No. 25 in the AP preseason poll, the Crimson will surprise nobody this year as it looks poised to make a fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Player To Watch: Siyani Chambers, junior guard
Chambers is the team’s steadiest ballhandler on the floor and will take on a larger scoring role this year.
BROWN
After losing Sean McGonagill, the team’s starting point guard and leading scorer at 17.4 points per game last year, Brown will rely on its stout defense in 2014-2015. Reigning conference defensive player of the year Cedric Kuakumensah anchors a tough, gritty Brown squad that will have a hard time creating offense without McGonagill running the point.
Player To Watch: Leland King, sophomore forward
For Brown to move into the league’s top half, King must build upon a noteworthy first season.
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HARVARD
Having come in second in the league for the past six years, this Crimson squad is itching to return to the top. Though Harvard graduated its top scorer in guard Christine Clark ’14, the team welcomes four talented rookies and returns senior forward Temi Fagbenle, who averaged 13 points per game last season.
Player To Watch: Temi Fagbenle, senior forward
Fagbenle will be one of three 6’4” women on the Crimson’s squad, but the most experienced of the bunch.
BROWN
After finishing last season 4-10 in the Ivy League and 10-18 overall during longtime coach Jean Burr’s last season at the helm, the Bears will turn to first-year coach Sarah Behn. Behn has big shoes to fill, as Burr retired as the winningest coach in Brown women’s basketball history after 26 years. Senior guard Sophie Bikofsky should lead the Bears’ offense again this year.
Player To Watch: Sophie Bikofsky, senior guard
Bikofsky led the nation in shooting from deep last season and will be crucial to Brown’s offense again.
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Though they are now focused on the political arena, Massachusetts’s Governor-elect Charlie Baker ’79 and Attorney General-elect Maura Healey ’92 have past experience in a different type of arena—the basketball arena. Both newly elected officials were former members of the Harvard basketball program during their time in Cambridge.
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November has crept up without a warning, masked by deceivingly warm weather. With the next two months come the end of the fall sports regular season, and teams are now focusing on the post-season tournaments.
While you may have been keeping up with their stats, you may have missed some of Harvard’s athlete’s most entertaining tweets. Here at The Back Page, we have compiled a few tweets that made us chuckle.
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For over a year now, Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker has called junior co-captain Siyani Chambers the best point guard in the Ivy League and one of the best nationwide.
As of Monday, ESPN agrees.
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