Harvard Set To Make Run For Ivy Title

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To make a run at the Ivy League title, the Harvard men?s basketball team will have to survive the jungle.

Almost halfway into the conference season, the Crimson has yet to take on its biggest threat?the Tigers. When Harvard welcomes Princeton to Lavietes on Saturday night, the title will be on the line.

Two weeks ago, it seemed likely that Princeton would go undefeated against its six other Ancient Eight opponents. After being ranked first in the preseason poll, the Tigers came charging into conference play. Led by senior forward Ian Hummer?second in the league behind Wes Saunders with 15.7 points per game?they picked up decisive home victories over Penn, Cornell, Columbia, and Brown, and the Tigers looked to be the strongest team in the league.

But an upset loss at the hands of Yale last weekend changed everything.

Now Harvard and Princeton each own one Ivy League loss, and provided that neither team drops another game against its other opponents, the two matchups between the Crimson and the Tigers will determine everything.

Harvard?s only loss came at the hands of Columbia, and while the lack of defense was troubling, it does not meanthat the Crimson is a weaker team. The Lions? leading scorer in the victory was sophomore guard Steve Frankoski, who put up 27 points?20 in the first half?while shooting 71 percent from the beyond the arc.

The performance was impressive, but also a fluke. Fankoski averages a respectable 9.8 points per game and has tallied fewer than 6 points per game during conference play. Playing on the road, Harvard fell at the hands of a momentarily hot shooter.

Princeton, on the other hand, was defeated by a team that did nothing extraordinary. The Bulldogs shot over 50 percent from the field in a balanced offensive effort in which their highest scorer, guard Javier Duren, only posted 13 points.

The loss at Jadwin?which snapped the Tigers 21-game home win streak?put on display fundamental weaknesses in Princeton?s game. While the Tigers have held their opponents to 39-percent three point shooting, the Bulldogs shot over 58 percent from long range last weekend.

Going up against a dominant perimeter team like Harvard?currently leading the league at 41 percent?Princeton will be hard pressed to hold off the likes of Christian Webster, Siyani Chambers, and Laurent Rivard from deep.

Although Harvard began the season essentially relying on Saunders and Chambers to put up big points in every game to spell a lack of consistency from the rest of its starters, the team has come a long way since the start of the year.

Sophomore forward Steve Moundou-Missi?who lost his starting spot after a slow first five games?has developed into one of the Crimson?s strongest defensive players. He leads the team in rebounds and blocks with more than one per game.

With Mondou-Missi developing as a key defensive stopper, Harvard will be able to make things hard for Hummer. While the team was previously forced to rely on top-scorer Saunders to go up against its opponent?s big man?Allen Crabbe of Cal, for example?the sophomore now has more freedom to focus on putting points on the board.

The Crimson may look like a team that lives or dies by its three-point percentage, but the mere threat of its top shooters is enough to create open space in the paint.

Even when Harvard?s shots aren?t falling from the behind the arc?as was the case in its overtime game against Dartmouth in which Rivard went 1-7 from deep?its opponents are forced to employ aggressive perimeter defense.

Against the Big Green, Harvard took advantage of that opportunity, as sophomore forward Jonah Travis scored 14 points down low, while Chambers and Saunders relied on the dribble to combine for 22 points without hitting a single three.

Then there?s the power of Lavietes?where the Crimson will play two games this weekend and close out the season against Columbia and Cornell in March. Harvard has played half of its games on the road so far, and will split the remainder of the season between playing at home and playing away.

Princeton has a tougher road ahead with only two more home games and seven to play in hostile territory.

With eight games still to play, the Crimson is poised to use this weekend?s matchups against Penn and Princeton as a springboard for its title run?and to show that the Tigers really aren?t as scary as they seem.

 

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Penn hits the road for first Ivy road trip of season

With team struggling, Penn looks to Miles Cartwright?s offense to make noise in Ivy League



As Miles Cartwright goes, so goes the Penn men?s basketball team.

In the Quakers? five victories this season, the junior guard has posted an average of 19.6 points per game, while logging just 12.3 points per contest in Penn?s 17 losses.

When the Red and Blue (5-17, 2-3 Ivy) confront Harvard (13-7, 5-1) Friday in Cambridge, Mass., the Quakers will look for Cartwright to score early and often.

The Los Angeles native certainly found a groove against Brown in Penn?s last game, exploding for a career-high 28 points and shooting 5-for-6 from three-point range.

His offensive feats against the Bears were in stark contrast to a lackluster performance the night before versus Yale, in which Cartwright went 1-for-7 from the field and finished with just six points.

The difference between the two games for the junior co-captain comes down to starting out ? and staying ? in attack mode.

?I can either start off aggressive early in the game and lose intensity throughout or I can not be assertive at the start and then get better as the game goes on,? Cartwright said. ?So I just got to be aggressive and stay aggressive throughout the game.?

Against Harvard, the Quakers will need all of the firepower Cartwright can give them.

Six games into their conference schedule, the Crimson are the front-runners to capture the Ivy League title. In fact, Harvard has represented the cream of the Ancient Eight crop for some time now, owning the best record in conference play over the past four years at 39-9.

This year?s edition of the Crimson features a balanced ? and efficient ? offensive attack. All five of Harvard?s starters average more than eight points per game, and the team ranks 11th in the nation in terms of field goal percentage. Forward Jonah Travis leads the Ivy League in that category at 61.3 percent.

The Crimson are led by a pair of young guns in freshman point guard Siyani Chambers and sophomore forward Wesley Saunders, who have made Harvard the favorite for a conference title despite the absence of co-captains Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry due to the widely-publicized cheating scandal.

But Penn has some young rising stars of its own. Despite sitting out the Quakers? win against Brown with a low-grade MCL sprain, freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry is expected to return to action against the Crimson. Rookie guard Tony Hicks posted 15 points in last week?s victory and continues to dazzle with an ability to score rarely found in the Ivy League.

But while offensive effort attracts the spotlight, Cartwright knows the squad can?t depend on an exceptional shooting performance every night and that defense will be a key when shots don?t go down.

?If shots aren?t falling and we aren?t defending, then we aren?t going to have a chance to win,? Cartwright said. ?We just try to focus on having a consistent defensive effort.?

In addition to holding Brown to just 48 points in their victory, the Quakers demonstrated a newfound knack for rebounding, despite Nelson-Henry?s absence from the lineup. Cartwright grabbed seven rebounds, while Hicks and Dau Jok pulled down five and six boards, respectively.

?Without Darien and Fran, who are our two best rebounders on the team and two biggest guys, we know we have to help Henry [Brooks], Greg [Louis], Cam [Crocker] and Dau [Jok] in there because they already have a load to deal with in boxing out bigger guys,? Cartwright said. ?So if we can fly in and help them get those rebounds, it will help us in our break and get us into our early offensive flow.?

Though previously unbeaten in conference play, Harvard and Princeton both fell last weekend to Columbia and Yale, respectively ? both teams that Penn has played down to the wire or defeated this season. So the door has been left open for the Quakers to make some noise in the Ancient Eight.

?The league always presents some craziness every year. It?s starting off a little earlier than usual,? Cartwright said. ?We just have to stay on an even keel and just focus on us.?

 

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Penn basketball can beat Harvard's small ball with smart ball




We?ve known for a while now that Harvard?s basketball team is a very beatable bunch.

Maybe it was the Crimson?s struggles in two games against Dartmouth that tipped off Ivy hoops fans that the Crimson weren?t all they were cracked up to be. Maybe it was Harvard?s failure to close out Yale at home with authority.

Or for the few who don?t believe in style points, maybe it was the way Crimson coach Tommy Amaker?s squad wilted in the second half at Columbia Sunday afternoon.

But what we didn?t know until recently is that, even without Fran Dougherty and with Darien Nelson-Henry coming off of a low-grade MCL sprain, the Quakers should still have an advantage in the paint against the Crimson.

That?s because Harvard plays small ball. Amaker lacks a true center, so he?s consistently gone with a lineup of four perimeter players throughout the season. Nailing perimeter jumpers and pushing the pace of games in transition from the outset have been two of Harvard?s top priorities this year, and they?ve got just the horses to run such an offense.

Sophomore forward Wesley Saunders, freshman guard Siyani Chambers and junior guard Laurent Rivard all average at least 42 percent shooting from beyond the arc, and the Crimson rank 10th in the country in team field goal percentage. So it?s no surprise that Harvard easily ranks first among Ivies in three-point percentage. Forget Mouse Davis ? this is the real run-and-shoot offense.

And we?ve seen that it can be a double-edged sword. When Harvard?s hot, they?re really hot, but the Crimson?s 63-41 second-half lead against Brown completely evaporated when they started bricking their jumpers. Scoring 49 points in one half and 20 in the other means you must be gambling too much on perimeter shooting somewhere.

Harvard?s not an efficient team either, ranking third-to-last in the mediocre Ancient Eight in turnovers per contest.

And that?s why Penn needs to put its money where its momentum is: in the paint.

The Quakers have a blossoming low-post presence back in Nelson-Henry who could be a gamechanger both in scoring and rebounding. Penn snared a combined 24 offensive boards last weekend against Yale and Brown, the two best rebounding teams in the conference. Harvard, in contrast, ranks dead last among Ivies on the boards.

So when Harvard plays small ball Friday night, will Penn play smart ball?

Coach Jerome Allen needs to go big here. Give sophomore forward Henry Brooks extra minutes. Emphasize patience for Miles Cartwright in running the motion offense in order to slow down the game?s tempo and wear down Harvard?s six-man rotation. Let Harvard beat you from deep, because eventually, they?ll start beating themselves.

If Penn is to win at Lavietes Pavilion for the second straight year, it?ll have to work a little half-court magic. That?s still a big if, though, since the Crimson have done an excellent job of walking the fine line between beatable and beaten up to this point.

But the Quakers haven?t had an offensive identity other than ?give it to Zack? in a long time, so rolling their inside out from start to finish should make Quakers fans breathe a little easier against the Cardiac Crimson.