A Positional Look into Harvard Men's Basketball Fortified Bench

Six games into the season, the Harvard men’s basketball team sits at an even .500 as it grudges through a competitive non-conference schedule. A marquee win over top mid-major Saint Mary’s on Saturday night bookended a California road trip that featured a trip to Twitter headquarters and a live Warriors-Blazers game in Oracle Arena for the team. The Crimson had previously fallen to San Francisco and Rhode Island by narrow margins, so this win against the Gaels without offensive centerpiece Chris Lewis (and of course, Bryce Aiken and Seth Towns) is indeed a promising sight for Crimson fans.

What the Saint Mary’s game revealed — as well as its two other victories over MIT and UMass — was how critical the second unit will be to not only holding fort as the team awaits Aiken and Towns’ return, but also to providing coach Tommy Amaker with a superfluous amount of options in his reserves even with a healthier team. The challenge of finding the necessary game minutes and getting players into rhythm and chemistry in the face of such a deep bench will be perhaps this team’s most critical task heading into the Ancient Eight slate.

Just to put simply, the Crimson reserves scored nine points or less combined in each of its three defeats. In its trio of victories? 35 bench points against MIT. 22 against UMass. 31 against Saint Mary’s. The numbers could not be more startling, and frankly, obvious.

Another evident stat? Amaker has given at least five reserves 9-plus minutes in each of those three victories. Compared to the tail end of last season when then-freshmen Rio Haskett and Danilo Djuricic were the only trusted reserves to earn double-digit minutes on a recurring basis, the Amaker catchphrase of “bench and balance” is no longer just an aphorism, but something actually enacted in practice.

More so, there is a system of pseudo-platooning that is in place now that allows more consistency between rest for starters and a comfortability in both units. Unlike last season when the likes of Christian Juzang and Justin Bassey were quite literally playing all 40 minutes of the game, minutes are more evenly split at the start of this campaign. In the past three games, for example, only Djuricic and Bassey had to play more than 30 minutes in one outing.

The ability to have this second group of able players, listed below, is a tremendous asset that few teams in the Ivies can match with their subbing. One can only look at Dartmouth, Yale, or Penn with largely a cast of two (or three at best) trusted reserves so far this year, to see the Crimson’s comparative advantage.

Here is that unit:

PG- Spencer Freedman

Wing- Noah Kirkwood

Wing- Corey Johnson

Big- Robert Baker

Big- Henry Welsh

Below, I quickly break down how each player has fared so far this season.

Spencer Freedman

This relatively small guard may have not yet put a major dent in the stat sheet, averaging 3.2 points per game and 1.3 assists per game, but there a few noticeable in-game changes that occur when the freshman is on the court. First, the Mater Dei product’s astute court awareness and ability to find open men while on the dribble is key to both court spacing and ball distribution. Freedman’s assist percentage is currently at 15.8 percent (proportion of teammate field goals assisted while on court), slightly below team leaders Juzang and Bassey.

Although limited at the rim, Freedman’s most lethal scoring weapon is his long-range three, something he has not been afraid of unleashing. His most impressive contest was his 3-of-3 tally against Northeastern. His speed off the dribble, ability to fight through tight corners and thread the needle, and potential danger from long range has earned him important back-up minutes. Here is one example of Freedman’s range.

Noah Kirkwood

Tabbed as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week, the Canadian put up a dozen points in both contests in the West Coast in about two times as many minutes per game. Kirkwood leads the bench in scoring averaging 8.0 PPG and trails only Lewis as far as scoring per 40 minutes with 16.7 points (with players who have seen more than 10 minutes of game action this season).

Kirkwood has two distinct strengths: his ability to finish off the isolation particularly with a dangerous step-back shot, as well as his aggressive and crafty style of attacking the basket for lay-ups (see below). Despite sometimes appearing undersized, Kirkwood is able to leverage his quickness and agility to his advantage in order to singlehandly create offensive opportunities.

Corey Johnson

Perhaps the most quiet player so far on Amaker’s bench has been his captain. Earning his first start of the season against Saint Mary’s, Johnson has yet to find his shooting touch yet from deep, converting just two triples in 14 attempts. Amaker has acknowledged several times last season the importance of his now-senior regaining confidence back in his shot, so patience appears to be key.

Johnson acknowledged in preseason his desire to diversify his game and create shots off the dribble, and some noticeable strides have been made on this front. Foremost however will be the rediscovery of the shooting touch for this long-distance specialist.

Robert Baker

Used rather sparingly in his first two seasons with the Crimson, this former top-100 recruit has solidified a more stable role coming off of the Harvard bench this season. A clear defensive threat with his 6’ 11” frame, Baker posted his first double-digit scoring night against Saint Mary’s with two critical hook finishes to seal the game, one of which is featured below.

Baker will continue to play an important role of the bench as a high-energy man, but his improvements as far as rebounding (a career-best 3.5 RPG) and improved confidence finishing at the rim with a 44.4 field goal percentage will continue to be critical. Another cool advanced stat? Baker leads the team as far as total rebounding percentage at 19.7, meaning that when he is on the court, he grabbed the highest proportion of available boards.

Henry Welsh

Things are pretty upbeat for the Welsh family these days. Elder brother Thomas Welsh just picked up his first NBA career basket on a top-of-the-arc triple with the Denver Nuggets after graduating from UCLA in the spring. Henry Welsh himself stepped up in huge fashion for the Lewis-less Crimson against Saint Mary’s, knocking down 15 points to lead his team and set a new career-high.

Another area of Henry’s game that he has invested in? Harkening back to his brother, the younger Welsh has been quite ambitious in expanding his own shooting range. The Redondo Beach, Calif., native has converted on two triples in six attempts so far this season after never before taking a three in his Crimson career.

On the interior, Welsh through six games is shooting at a rate that rivals the efficiency of starter Chris Lewis. While Lewis finished his sophomore year shooting at an Ivy-best 60.1 percent from the field, Welsh currently is at a 58.3 percent mark. His career average sits around 50 percent, and if his triples are discounted, the big man is shooting at a 15-for-23 rate. Not bad for someone who averaged less than eight minutes per game last season.

Much like Lewis, Welsh is extremely versatile with his post-move footwork, pick-and-roll movement, and overall ability to protect the interior with his 6-foot-10 frame. Here is one example of finishing off the screen.

— Staff writer Henry Zhu can be reached at henry.zhu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @Zhuhen88.