Too Many Point Guards? Look to Villanova to Resolve the Backcourt Logjam

Call it a logjam. Call it a loaded backcourt. Call it a quarterback competition. Call it what you want, but Harvard has three starter-caliber point guards on its roster.

Co-captain Siyani Chambers is a four-year starter and three-time All-Ivy selection, sophomore Tommy McCarthy started in Chambers’ place last season and averaged nearly nine points and four assists per game, while freshman Bryce Aiken is the most highly touted guard to ever put on a jersey for the Crimson and has the highest ceiling of the trio. Unfortunately, all three play the same position. Does that mean that they can’t be on the floor together this season? For a potential answer to this question, let’s take a 300-mile trip to the Philadelphia Main Line.

You could say Villanova coach Jay Wright is the antithesis of Harvard head man Tommy Amaker. While Amaker opts for an open collar on the sideline and sweats at practice, a three-piece suit is as much a Wright trademark as the discipline of his teams.

Wright graces the cover of GQ while Amaker is reluctant to reveal which quarter of his team will be starting that night. Wright gets in his players’ faces and has no shortage of words for referees while Amaker has not picked up a technical foul since 2007.

However, both coaches have made it a priority to recruit and develop players who fit their systems and have been successful in reinvigorating previously dormant programs.

Taking chances on undervalued talent has recently paid dividends for Wright, who is beginning his 16th season on the Main Line, and his Wildcats. Wright has often steered clear of the basketball hotbeds that are the Philadelphia Catholic and Public Leagues in favor of creating a group composed of players from across the East Coast who fit his team-first system.

Villanova has brought in the four or five-star recruit every now and again but it is by no means outrecruiting Kansas or North Carolina, two teams it defeated last season. Instead, Wright is instilling the “Villanova Way” in his players. Wright’s teams are known for their talented guards, suffocating full-court defense, and ability to shoot the lights out. Few players leave early for the NBA and young players are eased into the college game. The Wildcats rarely beat themselves, largely due to the team’s continuity and personnel. Each player knows his role on the team.

The recruiting and incorporation strategies have worked. In case you forgot, Villanova won the national championship last season in what was perhaps the most exciting title game in NCAA history. Last year’s starting five for the Wildcats featured two seniors, two juniors, and just one freshman, something that has become almost unheard of in today’s power basketball conferences. Perhaps more impressively, neither of the juniors left for the draft and Villanova entered this season ranked fourth in the preseason coaches’ poll.

The last team to repeat as national champions was Florida in 2007. Villanova seems as likely as any team to return to the Final Four this season. The team is not starting a single freshman and players who got their feet wet last season will be eased into bigger roles for Wright this year.

You’re probably asking, what does this mean for the Crimson and its point guard dilemma? Bryce Aiken, meet Jalen Brunson. Siyani Chambers, you be Harvard’s Ryan Arcidiacano.

Villanova entered last season ranked 11th in the country, with several important players returning. The keys to the Corvette belonged to Arcidiacano, a three-year starter and captain since his freshman season. Brunson was the heir apparent but exclusively played point guard in high school. Where would he fit in? An old adage in baseball says that if you can hit, you’ll be in the lineup. Wright found out very early on that Jalen Brunson can hit and started him alongside Arcidiacano from the get-go.

Brunson remained a starter all season and went on to average 9.6 points per game, including a 25-point performance against Temple, his father’s alma mater. The similarities between the Harvard and Villanova situations abound. Chambers is the heart and soul of this year’s Crimson while Aiken is the crown jewel of a loaded recruit class.

“Siyani’s definitely a leader as everyone knows,” Aiken said. “Playing with him, he makes it a lot easier because he’s experienced, he’s been here for three years. He makes the job easier for everyone, he’s always communicating, the loudest person on the floor and I’m learning from him everyday. I’m thankful that he’s on my side.”

The parallels between Aiken and Brunson are striking. Each player grew up in New Jersey—Aiken in Randolph and Brunson 100 miles south in Cherry Hill. Each comes from an athletic family.

Aiken’s parents were varsity athletes at UConn and his two older brothers played college basketball. Brunson is the son of former Temple great Rick Brunson, now an assistant coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Their styles of play are extremely similar as well. Both players are seen as slightly undersized (more than slightly in Aiken’s case) pure point guards who thrive at getting their teammates involved. Future150 praises both players’ three-point shooting and ball-handling. Brunson was rated a consensus five-star prospect coming out of high school, the highest-rated recruit Villanova had received since Mouphtaou Yarou. Aiken is certainly not your typical Harvard recruit nor even your typical Amaker recruit. He has the most scoring potential of any Harvard point guard since Jeremy Lin ’10.

While Harvard recruits under Amaker have come from basketball hotbeds like Los Angeles, Atlanta, and North Carolina, the North Jersey portion of the NJSIAA is an entirely different animal.

Much like how Brunson was tested against the likes of Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor in high school, Aiken is no stranger to big name hoopsters. He considers Kyrie Irving a mentor, and Mike Rice, formerly the head man at Rutgers was his high school coach. He played against New Jersey high school stars Isaiah Briscoe (Kentucky), Markis McDuffie (Wichita State), and Malachi Richardson (Syracuse, Sacramento Kings) and nine of his AAU teammates are playing at Division I schools.

While being a pure point guard today means an emphasis on involving one’s teammates, that does not mean that Aiken and Brunson are scared to score. Aiken went for 21 points in his collegiate debut while Brunson had double-digit scoring outputs in 15 games last season. It also doesn’t mean that they can’t play off the ball. Aiken playing with Chambers or Brunson playing with Arcidiacano isn’t John Wall playing with Bradley Beal or Jahlil Okafor trying to coexist with Nerlens Noel.

“We’re both interchangeable,” Aiken said of his on-court dynamic with Chambers. “If he gets the ball, I’ll gladly run the wing and vice versa. We’re very effective when we play together because we’re both ball handlers and we can both create for ourselves and our teammates. Throughout the season, that will be a really effective duo to have on the court.”

It might not be conventional but convention doesn’t always lead to success. Just ask Wright—Wright, who is fond of playing four guards at a time, Wright, who likes using small forwards as centers, Wright, who is not afraid to go 10 or 11 deep so that he has fresh legs to press after his team scores.

While Amaker is somewhat conventional in his inside-out style of play, he can be creative when he needs to be. He went into zone defense more last season to capitalize on his team’s length, brought in a 6’7” natural scorer to be a wing in the Ivy League (Seth Towns), and sat the best player on last year’s team (Zena Edosomwan) to keep up with teams who utilized smaller lineups.

Being a pure point guard these days doesn’t mean putting up Kendall Marshall-esque assist numbers. It also doesn’t mean always bringing up the ball. With wing being Harvard’s biggest question mark and thinnest position, Aiken can fill a hole for Amaker much like Brunson did for Wright a season ago.

Additionally, Aiken will most likely be the team’s starting point guard next November with McCarthy as his backup. Playing Aiken off the ball with Chambers running the point will also allow McCarthy to log meaningful minutes, much like how Phil Booth did on Villanova’s championship team. Harvard needs at least three wings around Chambers this year in order to be successful, so why not have one of them be Aiken? He can get to the rim and makes his teammates better. A lineup with Chambers and Aiken may be undersized but both can get to the rim and create spacing, whether or not they have the ball in their hands.

“The chemistry we’ve still got to get to,” Chambers said. “It’s a lot of new faces for me. For the freshmen, it’s new to play with them and for them to play with us. We just have to really get the chemistry down, but we’ve been working hard at it in practice. If we stick to our identity and be unselfish and continue to move the ball, I think we’ll be alright.”

Does this mean that Aiken will have started and played 22 minutes in a game in which Corey Johnson hits a buzzer-beating three to send Harvard to a national championship this April in Phoenix? Probably not.

Does this mean that Aiken will get Amaker out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament just like how Brunson was able to get the monkey off of Wright’s back? It seems like a stretch.

But does this mean that the Crimson will win an extra Ivy League game or two by having its two most talented ball handlers on the floor at the same time for a majority of the game? In that case, I would say that it might be worth bucking convention.

Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.