Former Harvard Football Captain Hails Rhodes Scholar, Amateur Athleticism

Although WHRB is a bit late to the party, we still wanted to draw attention--however tardy--to this article on ESPN.com by former Harvard Football Captain and '09 Alumnus Carl Ehrlich. Titled "Eyes on a Prize: Heisman and Rhodes," Ehrlich's article (which was published on December 9th, shortly before the Heisman Trophy ceremony) explores the nature of amateur athletics. In so doing, Ehrlich highlights the humble career of current Harvard senior--and newly-selected Rhodes Scholarship recipient--Baltazar "Zar" Zavala, a third-string wide receiver who was one of two walk-ons in the Class of 2011 to stay with the Harvard football program for four years.

Men's Bball: Harvard Starts 1-0 in Ivy Play, Enters ESPN's "Bracketology"

The Harvard men's basketball team is now 1-0 in conference play following a 68-53 road win over Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. Junior Co-Captain Keith Wright led all scorers with 16 points, and sophomore Kyle Casey took a big step in returning from his injury by scoring 13. As Harvard and Dartmouth are the only teams that have begun Ivy play, that moves the Crimson into first place in the league. Harvard is now included in the mock NCAA field of 68 in the "Bracketology" published by ESPN's Joe Lunardi. Lunardi has the Crimson as the #13 seed in the Southwest bracket, facing off against #4 seed Wisconsin in Tampa, Florida. A link to the full projected field is here.

Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated's Andy Glockner projects that the Princeton Tigers will instead win the Ivy League and be seeded 13th in the East bracket. Here is a link to the SI projections.

Why the difference? There may be a genuine difference of opinion between the two writers, but Lunardi has said in the past he just puts the team at the top of the current Ivy standings into the projected field, which would now be Harvard. Whatever it may be, the Harvard-Princeton games on February 4th and March 5th loom large.

Jeremy Lin appears on "Warriors Weekly"

Harvard Basketball Class of 2010 Alum Jeremy Lin, who has spent time playing for the Golden State Warriors and is currently in the developmental league, was recently featured on the Warrior's aptly-titled weekly feature show, "Weekly Warriors". In the segment, Lin sits down with Warriors broadcaster Tim Roye before a game to discuss many of his experiences since graduating from Harvard, including the transition from college hoops to the NBA. The full interview, which aired on December 27th, can be found here.

Scouting Dartmouth

Editor's Note: This is a series that will be running with the start of the Ivy League basketball season. Members of the WHRB staff are writing up previews of each team, looking at the positives and negatives for all of the teams, and giving an overall impression if where the team was picked in the Ivy League basketball media day was correct. Our series starts with the Dartmouth Big Green.

Picked to finish last in the Ivy League this year by the preseason media poll, Dartmouth (4-10, 0-1) seems to be playing the part, opening conference play with a loss at Leede Arena to the Harvard Crimson on January 8th. The Big Green were not able to find any answers for Harvard’s strong frontcourt, with Keith Wright dominating the paint with 16 points and 12 boards and Kyle Casey notching 13 points and 9 rebounds. David Rufful stepped up with 16 points to lead the Big Green but it appears that Dartmouth will expectedly dwell near the bottom of the standings once again.

Key Facts:

Frontcourt: Jr. David Rufful and Sr. co-captain Clive Weeden provides an experienced interior presence for the Big Green, but they both lack the size to matchup against the more physical teams in the league. Weeden is 4th in the Ivy League in offensive rebounding and a specialist at seizing second chance opportunities. Rufful uses his small size (6-4, 210) to steal from the slower, heavier players in the paint (4th in the league in steals).

Backcourt: Led by starters Jabari Trotter, R.J. Griffin, and Kirk Crecco; after two nondescript seasons at Dartmouth, Crecco has exploded this season equaling his point total in his first two season just 7 games into the current one. In the five games before the Ivy League opener, he had averaged 10.6 points while shooting 46.2 percent from the floor and 83.3 percent at the foul line. Losing Sr. co-captain Ronnie Dixon to injury has hampered ball movement and perimeter shooting.

Coaching: Paul Cormier rejoined the team this season, having served as head coach from 1984-91 for the Big Green. His team from 19787-89 notched the two of three winningest seasons in program history, finishing second in the Ivy League twice.

Freshmen to Watch: Gediminas Bertasius – The forward from Lithuania took home the Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors on for his performance on Dec. 13-19, but his stellar defense in the paint has the league on notice.

Key Injury: Sr. co-captain Ronnie Dixon suffered a broken bone on his shooting hand on Dec. 21st and is expected to miss six weeks. He scored a career high 21 points in a victory against Army.

Interesting Statistic: The Big Green are threatening to finish with no one averaging in double figure scoring for two years in a row; Junior guard Jabari Trotter leads the way with 9.0 ppg, but he has struggled in the last 7 games, shooting just .238 from the field.

(Un)Fearless Forecast: 3-11 (8th)