Ivy League Men's Basketball Power Rankings: Pre-Conference Play

By Ben Zauzmer

Ivy League play tips off on Saturday night with a double-header: Penn and Princeton get the show underway at 5:00, followed by Harvard and Dartmouth at 7:00. The latter game will be broadcast live on www.whrb.org, and the first half will also be on 95.3 FM WHRB (the airwaves will then switch to coverage of #3 Harvard men’s hockey vs. #19 Yale at the Madison Square Garden).

Thanks to some not-so-great non-conference losses from all eight Ivy League teams, it has become quite clear that, as always, only one Ivy league team will represent the conference in March Madness. Furthermore, that conference champion will almost surely get a low seed, probably between 12 and 14, regardless of how conference play turns out.

And so, given that information, the season truly starts on Saturday night. Let’s see how the teams rank heading into those crucial 14 games:

1. Harvard (9-3)

Yes, the Crimson have struggled mightily away from home, with a neutral-court loss to Holy Cross, a loss at Arizona State, an embarrassing blowout at #3 Virginia, and requiring overtime to win at Vermont. But at the very least, they beat UMass, who is barely a top-100 team, and they’ve taken care of business against lesser competition at Lavietes. There is also a whole lot more talent and experience on this team than any other in the list, starting with the guard pair of Siyani Chambers and Wesley Saunders that is legitimately one of the top 30 backcourt combos in the nation. The Crimson have offensive struggles, but the defense is one of the 15 best in America. I’m not saying they’re as good as the Crimson teams from any of the past three years (they’re not), but I am saying they’re still the favorites to win the Ivy League.

2. Yale (10-6)

That said, the most impressive victory on the season has to go to Yale. The Bulldogs managed to stun the Connecticut Huskies 45-44 on a buzzer-beater three-pointer. It was only the second time an Ivy school beat a defending champion, the other being Princeton’s legendary upset of UCLA in the 1996 NCAA tournament. Yale is led by Javier Duren and Justin Sears, both of whom have experience beating Harvard and have Ivy League Player of the Week honors already this year. But Yale has also shown vulnerabilities: the losses to Providence, Vanderbilt, and even the blowout at Florida are excusable; falling at Quinnipiac and NJIT and at home against Albany is not. In fairness, Harvard does have an even worse loss in Holy Cross, but the Crimson haven’t looked that bad since (other than the UVa game), whereas NJIT was just yesterday.

3. Columbia (7-6)

I still maintain that with Alex Rosenberg, the first-team All-Ivy forward taking a year off due to injury, the Lions are the best team in the Ivy League. But that’s all academic now, as it’s up to Maodo Lo and impressive freshman Kyle Castlin to lead the team heading into conference play. Strangely enough, the high point of Columbia’s resume came in a loss, but it was a 56-46 loss on the road to undefeated #1 Kentucky, a game that the Lions actually led in the second half. And trust me, if you can play with Kentucky, you can certainly play with Harvard and Yale. But since then, the Lions have stumbled, losing to UConn by 15, St. Francis (NY) by 8, and Stony Brook by 9. They need to pick things up immediately, since their first conference match – on the road at Cornell – won’t be the cakewalk it has been in recent years.

4. Dartmouth (6-6)

Every year, it seems Dartmouth has finally found its stride. And then they play Harvard twice to start of conference play, fall to 0-2, and are never able to seriously reenter the race. Having fallen to the Crimson 10 times in a row, is this the year? I think there’s a chance, though a long shot. Alex Mitola is shooting lights-out, Gabas Maldunas is healthy again, and the Big Green could easily be 8-4 if a couple more buzzer-beaters had fallen in. They really only have one truly bad loss, a 79-67 stumble against a weak Jacksonville State team, though on the other hand they don’t have any top-150 wins either.

5. Princeton (6-9)

The Tigers’ season started off disastrously. After an opening-day victory over Rider, Princeton lost its next five games in a row. But they seem to have picked up a little steam recently, winning three of their last four, and the lone loss came to borderline top-100 team Wake Forest. Now, I know the wins weren’t anything spectacular (Lipscomb, Liberty, and Norfolk State), but they did beat each of those teams handily. They don’t have the resume of a usual top-five Ivy League team, but that’s because I think there’s a very large gap between the top three and everyone else on this list.

6. Brown (8-8)           

Cedric Kuakumensah and Leland King have really come into their own this season, and along with Rafael Maia they could make an argument for having the best frontcourt in the conference. Among them, only Maia is graduating, and both guards (Steven Speith and Tavon Blackmon) are sophomores. This team could be scary next year, with legitimate Ivy title hopes. And that core managed to come together and beat top-50 team Providence earlier this year in one of the season’s biggest upsets, right up there with Yale over UConn. But among their other 14 games, they’ve really just beat some bad teams and lost to some not-that-great teams, and it’s not enough to convince me to rank them any higher.

7. Cornell (7-8)

The Big Red have definitely taken a step forward with the return of injured star Shonn Miller. But frankly, he’s the entire team, and it’s really showed in losses against the likes of Buffalo, St. Peter’s, Radford, Drexel, and Loyola (MD). They did manage to come within one point of an impressive Penn State team, thanks to double-figures from Galal Cancer, Robert Hatter, and Devin Cherry, and if they see more teamwork like that, this team could still be competitive for a surprising Ivy title.

8. Penn (3-7)

While 1-3 could all be rearranged, as could 4-7, #8 is unquestionably Penn. They have yet to beat a top-250 team, and there are only 351 teams in Division I. Navy is their best victory, and with all due respect, that’s not much to write home about. It’s not just that they scheduled harder – one of their losses was to Wagner, a team that even Penn should beat. But there is a core that could emerge here, just not quite yet this season: Penn has four Ivy Freshman of the Week awards this year … and all four went to different players. That’s a recipe for success in 2018, maybe even 2017, but not 2015.

Basketball Schedule Released!

The 2011-2012 Harvard men's basketball schedule has been released after much speculation.


11/11 vs. MIT, LAVIETES PAVILION
Harvard opens with rematch with the Engineers of Division III. The Crimson won last years matchup 84-58.

11/15 @ Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.
The Crimson stay in-state for their first road game.

11/19 @ Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, CA.
Traveling West will bring Harvard into fertile recruiting grounds and will be a return to the Golden state for senior Oliver McNally (San Francisco) and sophomore Jamie Moore (Rocklin, CA.)

11/24 TBA, Battle 4 Atlantis, Bahamas.
The field will include Florida State, Connecticut, Central Florida, Utah, College of Charleston, UMass, and UNC-Asheville. Harvard will be guaranteed 3 games in the Bahamas.


11/25 TBA, Battle 4 Atlantis, Bahamas.

11/26 TBA, Battle 4 Atlantis, Bahamas.


12/1 @ Vermont, Burlington, VT
The Catamounts were a 20+ game winner last year, losing in the semifinals of the American East championship and earning an NIT bid.

12/4 vs. Seattle, LAVIETES PAVILION
The Redhawks travel cross-country for this early December matchup.

12/7 @ Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
This will be the third year in a row that the Crimson travel to UConn, with the Huskies winning the last two meetings. Connecticut is the defending national champion. This could be the second matchup between the two teams in the season (providing they also meet in the Bahamas.)

12/10 @ Boston University, Boston, MA.
Harvard won last year's matchup with BU convincingly.

12/22 vs. Florida Atlantic, LAVIETES PAVILION
No, not the team Isaiah Thomas coaches (Florida International).

12/29 @ Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA.
Harvard will be looking for its 4th straight victory in Chestnut Hill over the Eagles of the ACC. BC lost star guard Reggie Jackson to the NBA Draft. Kudos to Boston College for keeping Harvard on the Schedule.

12/31 vs. St. Joseph's, LAVIETES PAVILION
The days of Jameer Nelson may be gone in Philadelphia, but coach Phil Martelli still has the Hawks competing in the A-10. 

Continue on for the 2012 portion.

Ivy/Patriot Challenge? Good Idea or Bad Idea?

On their blog today, the Cornell Basketball Blog suggested that it would "seem to make sense" for the Ivy League and Patriot League come to a formal agreement to have a challenge series between the two conferences, a la the ACC/Big 10 challenge, SEC-Big East invitational, and the now-concluded Big XII/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. At first glance, this seems like a perfect idea. Both conferences have a similar academic profile (e.g.- it was only recently that the Patriot League allowed athletic scholarships in non-football sports) and are similar geographically. Further, one only needs to look at football schedules to see a natural affinity between the two conferences. To take Harvard as an example, the Crimson football team will play all three non-conference games against the Patriot League this upcoming season, as they have for many years past. But, is that affinity actually problematic for such a series to take place on the hardwood?

The Ivies and Patriots already meet up a bit in basketball. Last year, Ivy League teams averaged 2.5 games against the Patriot League, with a range of 1 (Harvard and Cornell) to 5 (Dartmouth). If the two conferences agreed to a challenge series, would that place a burden on teams like Dartmouth (which actually had home and homes last season with two teams in the Patriot League, pretty rare for non-conference play) in terms of filling out their non-conference schedule? Looking at last year's ACC schedule, for example, there was only one ACC/Big 10 match-up outside of the challenge- a tournament game between Boston College and Wisconsin. It seems like it would be problematic for some of the Ivies if games against Patriot League opponents was held to one game since, as noted, the Patriot League makes a lot of sense as a non-conference opponent. Likewise, the challenge loses some of its appeal if teams can schedule non-conference games outside of the series. Perhaps one solution would be to follow Dartmouth's lead and make the series a home and home- this way, the Ivy League as a whole only "loses" 4 non-conference games.

(It should be noted that the original proposal that sparked this discussion was a Horizon/MAC challenge and the author at the Chicago Basketball Blog proposed his challenge because the two teams in those conferences meet up so much and in his proposal the Horizon League would "lose" 8 non-conference games, so maybe this isn't a problem.)

More analysis after the jump:

Live Streaming Coverage of Harvard versus Princeton 3/12

Versus the Princeton Tigers

Where: Payne Whitney Gymnasium, New Haven, Connecticut

When: Saturday, March 13, 4:00 PM (Pregame at 3:45)

Coverage: Streaming live via whrb.org low bandwidth and iphone streams.

Due to a conflict with WHRB's regularly scheduled Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, WHRB will be providing internet-only streaming coverage of Saturday's Men's Basketball Playoff game between the Harvard Crimson and the Princeton Tigers. The game, which is scheduled for a 4:00 start, will determine the recipient of the Ivy League's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship tournament, since both the Tigers and the Crimson are sporting a 12-2 Ivy League record. The last time these two teams met, on Saturday, March 5th, Harvard bested the Tigers 79-67 to secure the first Ivy League championship in school history. The Crimson controlled the tempo for much of the game, and were led by sophomore Kyle Casey, who put up 25 in his best effort of the season. Back in early February, the Tigers defeated the Crimson 65-61 at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, New Jersey.

Dartmouth's Cormier on Harvard grad Jeremy Lin

Editor's note- for whatever reason, it appears that the links to Twitter we used below only work if you are logged into a Twitter account. As I've never faced this problem before, I don't know how to fix it. Sorry. -BR

UPDATED on 1/31 at 11:31AM- Added a response from Dartmouth athletics to the end of the post.
UPDATED on 1/31 at 3:22PM- Added a response from WVBR (Cornell radio) 
UPDATED on 1/31 at 5:02PM- Added a response from the Golden State Warriors
 
If you follow our twitter feed, you may have seen an interesting conversation pop up yesterday. The Cornell Basketball Blog reported through their feed that Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier said in an interview with WVBR (Cornell student radio) that Jeremy Lin was signed by the Golden State Warriors "just to sell tickets."
(Ed.- The Cornell Basketball Blog has asked us to further specify the fact that they were recalling the quote from memory and like us, did not have the actual quote in hand when they made this post.)
Now, accepted at face value, this seemed to us to be quite an inflammatory statement from Coach Cormier- why bring up (and more specifically knock) Lin's signing? Not only would it be a knock on a league rival (that Dartmouth was done facing for the season) because it was saying their one NBA player in recent memory did not deserve to be there but also a knock on the Warriors with their former scout criticizing the signing of a player he did not feel was NBA ready. Cormier came back to Dartmouth as their head coach- it would be interesting for him to burn bridges of that magnitude since he was the Warriors scout looking at Lin. Why would Cormier use WVBR to lash out at his former employer for that decision?

(So that we're clear, this is getting an expansive post dedicated to it because firstly, I'm unaware how much our Twitter followers got of the whole story, so I think it's important that it gets made clear and secondly because, if Cormier's quote matches the CBB's interpretation than this is a big story in regards to Harvard, Dartmouth, Cormier, Lin and even Golden State.) 

The thing was, we didn't accept it at face value. Journalism 101 says consider your source and all we had was the Cornell Basketball Blog's interpretation and no actual quote. Now the Cornell Basketball Blog covers the Ivy League very well- I can admit freely that they are a better source of recruiting news for say, Harvard, than we are, as an example. Still, it is the Cornell Basketball Blog and not the Ivy Basketball Blog, so while it presents news, it does not purport itself to be a news source- it is, at its heart, a place for Cornell basketball fans to discuss Cornell basketball. Further, they certainly have shown, at times, a bias against the Cantabs. (For example, their game recap of Harvard vs. Cornell tried to say that a secondary recruiting violation was the reason for Harvard's win, not the fact that Cornell is currently a 4-14 (0-4 Ivy) team that lost six talented players from an NCAA Sweet Sixteen run. Again, that's fine, even though it seems like some sour grapes, but it just helps contextualize that this interpretation came from a fan blog, not a news source.) Here are some further editorializing quotes from the CBB's twitter feed regarding the Cormier/Lin story.
"The Ivy League coaches never voted Jeremy Lin as MVP of the Ivy League... and he goes to the NBA? All about marketing... now it is a fact."
Not a knock on Lin, he IS a terrific player, but he is not at a level above Cornell's BIG 3 from a year ago-- Foote, Wittman and Dale.
These quotes, plus the lack of the actual Paul Cormier quote, made us wonder: was the CBB projecting an interpretation of something Paul Cormier said to try to make sense of the (to them) illogical fact of the universe that Jeremy Lin received an NBA contract and is currently in the D-League while Foote plies his trade in Spain (Ed.- had Israel here before but while under contract to Maccabi Tel Aviv, he's on loan to a Tier Two Spanish team), Dale is in Germany and Wittman is getting a mutual release from a second tier Italian League? (I'd like to also note, the CBB told us Cormier mentioned Lin without prompting. As you'll see, Lin is not mentioned by name in the prompt. Cormier's time scouting for Golden State at the Harvard-Cornell game, however, is- CBB presented it as if Cormier brought up Lin completely out of the blue when, in context, it sort of makes sense to mention Lin.)

Admittedly, and to their credit, the CBB did walk back from the language of "just to sell tickets" to say it was an influence. Well, that's a very different statement. To think fan interest and ticket sales is not a factor in pro contracts is naive but it is a slight on a player to say he is "just" there to sell tickets, implying he does not have the talent to justify a contract in the league. More importantly, the difference in the language has NBA implications as well. How would you feel as a Golden State Warrior fan if you found out, from a former employee, that the front office signed a player in order to get you to buy tickets even though they did not think he was good enough? And how would you feel if, after falling for this plot, the GM demoted Lin to the D-League insuring you have to fly to Reno in order to see him? (It should be noted, I haven't seen anyone that covers Golden State buzzing around this quote. Seems to me a former scout saying his team signed a guy that they didn't see fitting in the NBA would be big news- unless that was never actually the implication.)

Further credit to the CBB, they were able to get the audio of the clip up on Youtube (WVBR did not respond to our request for the audio or a chance to speak with Barry Leonard, the broadcaster that conducted the interview.)  We present that to you now and ask what do you think? After the jump, we'll transcribe the interview and give our final thoughts.

Leblanc Leaving? Looking Likely

If you follow our Twitter account and have a working knowledge of the French language, then you know that for days, the buzz in Montreal has been all about what will happen this summer with Montreal Canadiens prospect and Harvard forward Louis Leblanc. Rumors began swirling around in Quebec that Leblanc was soon to depart for a pro contract in the AHL or would head north of the border to play in Major Juniors. None of the signs were looking good for the Crimson, but Leblanc had continued to state that while he was looking at other options, he was expecting to be in Cambridge in the fall. But, a major trade today in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, featuring the rights for the Crimson's leading scorer last year, means the Magic 8 ball has switched from "Ask Again Later" to "Outlook Not So Good" when asked if the talented center will be in a Crimson uniform next year. Below, we'll take you through the week of news and analyze today's trade, and give a look at what losing Leblanc means for the Cantabs.

MBB: Ivy League and the Coaching Carousel

A week ago, when news of the national search for the Boston College head coaching position first broke, there was a strong possibility that the Ivy League would be involved in the proceedings. Now that Boston College has named a new head coach, Cornell's Steve Donahue, that has certainly come to pass. Now the three-time defending champion Big Red begin their own search for a new head basketball coach. Boston College, with Donahue now signed, also continues to shake up the Ivy League, as Donahue is assembling a staff from across the Ancient Eight. Donahue brings with him from Cornell an assistant coach, Nat Graham, and an assistant coach from Pennsylvania, John Gallagher. The biggest move Donahue made, from an Ivy standpoint, was the hiring of Columbia head coach Joe Jones, to be an assistant at Boston College. This means there are now three head coaching vacancies in the Ivy League, Cornell, Columbia, and Dartmouth. Add in Penn, and the Ivy League next year will have four teams with a head coach that was not the head coach of the program at the beginning of the 09-10 season. It'll be interesting to see if the shuffle continues in the league, as we may see some current Ivy assistants moving to become head coaches at some of these vacancies.

We'll be keeping tabs on these three searches, mostly on Twitter, but we'll also take a look here on the blog as these coaching vacancies are filled.

Breaking News: Amaker Staying at Harvard

Despite speculation that Tommy Amaker was on the shortlist for the vacant Boston College head coaching position, it looks like there was no reason for Harvard fans to worry. We here at WHRB had previously reported that Amaker was drawing interest from Boston College, and that sources close to the team had indicated he would accept the position if offered, but today's information seemingly puts that to rest.

Harvard basketball's Information Director, Kurt Svoboda, has been a busy man on Twitter, stating that Harvard and Coach Amaker are working on a multi-year extension of his contract. Svoboda quotes Amaker as saying "There have been some flattering reports of opportunities at other fine institutions but my heart is at Harvard."

(GoCrimson.com, the University's Athletics website, has more here)

Assistant coach Yanni Hufnagel tweets, "As I've said all week - we have unfinished business at Harvard. There's lots of magic on the horizon!! Coach Amaker working on extension..."

The Boston Herald's "On Campus Blog" adds:
"Though his name has been linked to several vacancies this offseason, Harvard coach Tommy Amaker is remaining in Cambridge. Amaker is set to sign a long-term extension, according to a Harvard source.
Terms of the deal are unknown, but the extension was described as 'lengthy.'"

The message confirms a Boston Globe article yesterday that stated the only candidates for the BC job were currently Steve Donahue of Cornell, Ed Cooley of Fairfield, Chris Mooney of Richmond and Billy Coen of Northeastern. WRBB, Northeastern student radio, reported earlier this week that Coen was also working on a contract extension with his school.


THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY. CHECK BACK HERE OR ON TWITTER.COM/WHRBSPORTS FOR MORE INFORMATION AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.

Minor Update: Harvard and the Coaching Carousel

It's now Day 2 of the Boston College coaching search, and there's been some slight update from yesterday.

What we do now know:
-SI's Pablo Torre, a Harvard alum, said via Twitter that he has "very reliable" information that Boston College has not contacted Harvard's Athletic Director about Coach Amaker as of this morning, though that did not rule out it's happening in the future. Torre added that he had "less reliable" information that Boston College was also looking at Duke assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski.
-Jeff Goodman writes on Twitter that Foxsports.com confirms that Cornell's Steve Donahue was interviewed today about the job. Goodman adds that sources close to the situation say that Boston College will interview Richmond's Chris Mooney tomorrow. The Greenwich Time, meanwhile, reported that Fairfield's Ed Cooley was also interviewed for the job today.
-Speculation continues thatNortheastern's Billy Coen is in the mix as well for the job, though WRBB, Northeastern Student Radio, reports that Northeastern is currently working on a contract extension for Coen, with Northeastern's AD calling him their coach for the foreseeable future.
-The Boston Globe reports that this looks to be only the beginning of the process. Gene DeFilippo was quoted as saying, "I think this is a very important hire, and if it takes us a while to find the right person, so be it,’’ he said. “We’ll take as much time as we need." The Globe also cites sources saying that Boston College will wait a few days to see if the unexpected opening brings any candidates from major conferences. DeFilippo is expected to spend the next few days paring down his list.
-DeFilippo also told WEEI this morning that he has spoken to three coaches so far, and that he still has two ADs left to contact.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY. PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE OR ON TWITTER.COM/WHRBSPORTS FOR MORE INFORMATION AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE

Harvard and the Coaching Carousel

A major shakeup has occurred in the New England college hoops scene as Boston College fired head coach Al Skinner today. The Boston Globe reports that Harvard coach Tommy Amaker is being considered to replace Skinner, although it has not yet known whether Boston College Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo has asked Harvard Athletic Director Bob Scalise for permission to speak to Amaker. An earlier Boston Globe report called Amaker the early front runner, though the updated version no longer includes that language.

Multiple sources close to the team have said that Amaker will leave Harvard for Boston College if he is offered the head job, although Amaker is currently just one of many coaches under consideration for the BC gig. Harvard sophomore forward Keith Wright tweeted this morning: "man...all these coaches PROMISE they arent going to leave....but if that money is right they are #GHOST."

Other names that Boston College is reported to be considering are Cornell's Steve Donahue, Fairfield's Ed Cooley (formerly an assistant under Skinner at URI and BC), Richmond's Chris Mooney, Northeastern's Bill Coen (also a former assistant under Skinner) and Rhode Island's Jim Baron.

Amaker's strong recruiting, his efforts to reach out to Harvard students and alumni, and two straight road wins over Boston College are three factors that make a strong case for getting the head position at BC. Skinner's recruiting had fallen off after the departures of assistants Ed Cooper and Bill Coen, and the Boston Herald's Steve Buckley pointed to Skinner's lack of interest in promoting the basketball program to the BC community and the greater Boston area as a major reason for his firing.

Amaker has already been tied to one job offer, at St. John's, a position that is now likely to be filled by Steve Lavin, so being on a short list does not mean accepting the job. Indeed, Amaker told the student newspaper on campus that he was planning on being back in Cambridge next year, admitting to trying to get Boston College on Harvard's schedule but being unsure of how it would work out, and Donahue has only said he'd leave Cornell for a slam dunk, which Boston College probably is not. While it's too early to speculate who will be the coach at Boston College next year, if it's either Amaker or Donahue, a Harvard-Boston College game would certainly become a lot more interesting than just being a crosstown rivalry.

WHRB's Tom Brennan contributed to this report.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY. CHECK BACK HERE OR ON TWITTER.COM/WHRBSPORTS FOR MORE INFO AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE

WHRB Sports Blog Exclusive: Our Interview with Basketball Prospectus's Kevin Pelton

Harvard basketball just cruised to an easy victory over a Dartmouth team that is, to put it mildly, in disarray. They are now 1-0 in the Ivy League in what is essentially a 14-game tournament for the conference's lone NCAA bid. They have two more Ivy games before they head out to Ithaca for their huge match-up against Cornell.

In the meantime, we present an interview we recently recorded with Basketball Prospectus's Kevin Pelton. A spin-off of Baseball Prospectus, the site brings a great mix of insightful commentary and statistical analysis to both the professional and collegiate games. Although Kevin usually covers the NBA for the site, he is based in the Seattle area and so had an opportunity to watch the recent Harvard-Seattle game, which led to this article.

He very graciously agreed to talk to us about his thoughts on the Crimson. You can download the interview here.

The Year in Harvard Athletics: Top Five Performances

As the first semester of the 2009-10 school year has come to an end, we're going to look back at the year in Harvard Athletics beginning with our list of the top five individual performances of the first semester, listed in chronological order. Following this list will be the top five Harvard games of the semester and the top five athletes in the first half of the year. After the jump, find our picks for the top five performances so far this year!

Reactions to Harvard's Loss against UConn

Not really being a basketball guy, I don't have a lot of meaningful things to say about yesterday's basketball game against UConn (besides the obvious that Jeremy Lin is a good basketball player and the Crimson played well against a talented opponent), but I am good with Google and spare time, so I turn it over to the professionals for their reactions, be it from columns or from Twitter, after the jump...

(photo by Steve Slade of Jeremy Lin's block courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications and GoCrimson.com)

Thoughts from Lavietes: Harvard Men Pound Rice

Wow!

The Harvard men put on an impressive showing last night in Lavietes Pavilion, pushing past the Rice Owls from C-USA, 85-64. The Crimson move to 6-1 on the season, its best start in 25 years. It was quite a performance: I had been expecting a little tougher competition from the Owls, whose only losses before last night came at the hands of national powerhouses Arizona and Texas (Rice was only trailing by 5 against the Longhorns in the second half before faltering.) Harvard clearly was the better team last night though: the score was close for about the first ten minutes, through which the Crimson had a one point lead, before the floor dropped out on Rice, and Harvard was able to take a 14 point lead into halftime. From then on, the game was never in doubt, as Harvard would extend it to a 25 point lead before cruising to the win, shooting a lights-out 60.8% from the field.

I called the game last night alongside Charlie Hobbs as part of our annual Sports Orgy on WHRB, and the contest was the second half of a double header that also featured the Harvard women knocking off Holy Cross.

After the jump, you'll find my thoughts on the Crimson's winning effort.