Harvard: 2014-15 Ivy League Basketball Champions

PHILADELPHIA -- Steve Moundou-Missi hit a 15-foot jumper with 7.2 seconds left, Wesley Saunders scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half and Harvard beat Yale 53-51 on Saturday in a one-game Ivy League playoff for its fourth straight NCAA tournament berth.

Saunders then kept possession for Harvard on Moundou-Missi's miss by hustling for an offensive rebound, before setting up Moundou-Missi's go-ahead basket.

Yale's Javier Duren missed a running layup at the buzzer as Harvard fans rushed the floor at the Palestra.

Justin Sears scored 13 points and Duren had 12 for Yale (22-10). The Bulldogs missed out on their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1962.

With Harvard (22-7) trailing by one, Saunders hit a driving layup and was fouled, completing a three-point play to give the Crimson a 51-49 lead with 1:27 left. Duren, who went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final 4 minutes, hit two free throws to tie it at 51 with 54.6 seconds.

Yale and Harvard shared the Ivy League title with 11-3 records to set up the playoff to determine the conference's automatic NCAA bid. The Ivy is the only Division I league without a conference tournament.

After Yale took a five-point lead -- matching its largest of the day -- with 14:50 remaining, Saunders scored nine straight points on a three-point play and consecutive 3-pointers to give the Crimson a 36-32 lead.

Saunders, the 2013-14 Ivy League Player of the Year, helped the Crimson extend their lead to 40-32 and then 46-37 with 6:10 left after two more quick jumpers.

But the Bulldogs fought all the way back to take a 49-48 lead with 1:40 remaining when Makai Mason collected a loose ball on the scramble for an offensive rebound and hit a jumper in the lane.

Yale beat Harvard last Friday to clinch at least a share of its first league crown since 2002. But with a chance to secure the outright championship and the automatic NCAA berth, the Bulldogs were upset by Dartmouth in the regular-season finale the following night.

Before the game, both teams were presented with Ivy League championship trophies to hearty cheers from their own fans and lusty boos from the other side.

TIP-INS

Yale: The Bulldogs were involved in another Ivy playoff at the Palestra after sharing the 2002 title with Penn and Princeton. But after beating Princeton in the first game of a three-game playoff, Yale was denied a trip to the NCAA tourney with a loss to Penn in Easton. ... Sears was just the second Yale player ever selected Ivy League Player of the Year and the first Paul Maley in 1987-88.

Harvard: Harvard is the first Ivy League team to reach four straight NCAA Tournaments since Princeton from 1989 to 1992. ... Mondou-Missi scored his 1,000th career point on an inside basket in the final minute of the first half. Harvard shot just 8 for 16 from the foul line.

UP NEXT

Yale: Possible NIT, CBI or CIT bid.

Harvard: NCAA tournament.

Harvard: 2013-14 Ivy League Men's Basketball Champions

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A few minutes before tipoff, the floor of play still empty but the stands quickly filling up, Tommy Amaker stole a glance through a side door. 

It was a familiar sight for the veteran coach. Cheerleaders warming up. The band playing. Fans settling into seats, clad in their team colors. 

After the loss to the Bulldogs on Feb. 8, the Crimson have ripped off seven straight wins and six straight by double digits. In four of those games, the Crimson held their opponent to 47 or fewer points. But this court was painted in blue, rather than the familiar crimson, and instead of an H at midcourt there was a cartoon bulldog. And if all went well in the next 120-odd minutes, Amaker's Crimson would make more history in a building and a rivalry already steeped in it. 

This was Friday night in the Ivy League in March. This was Harvard-Yale at John J. Lee Amphitheater with an NCAA berth on the line. 

For any team playing its oldest, bitterest rival in unkind country, some display of nerves is understandable. 

The Crimson displayed none. With a raucous, mostly blue-clad crowd bearing down on them, the visitors scored the game's first nine points and sprinted out to leads of 16-2, 20-7 and 36-23 in the first half. 

"We talked about how important it was gonna be to get off to a good start here on the road," Amaker said. "We knew how challenging it was gonna be." 

Justin Sears led all scorers with 28, but Harvard had three players in double digits and led by as many as 18 in the second half on its way to postseason play for the third straight season. With the 70-58 win, the Crimson claimed the Ivy League title outright and earned the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. 

"For us to win the outright title, and I guess we've been told we're the first team that's officially in the NCAA tournament," Amaker said, "it means a great deal. And for the right reasons. For us to represent a great conference, for us to represent our institution and the way these guys have played and put their heart and souls on the line all season. 

"I think we've shown that we've been the best team in our league. And that's saying something because we know how tough this league is night in and night out." 

Harvard has indeed been the Ivy League's best all season long. Coming into Friday's game, the only blemish on the Crimson's Ancient Eight résumé was a home loss to these same Bulldogs. 

So while Harvard-Yale typically doesn't require extra fuel for the competitive fire, the Crimson said that loss added some. 

"We were very disappointed in what led to that weekend for us," Amaker said. "And we talked about it, our preparation and our work in practice. I thought we made a concerted effort to regroup and respond. And we've been on a mission since then to prepare the right way. 

"We talk about a lot of people want to win, but how many people are gonna really prepare to win. I think we have embraced that, and ran with it." 


"We had been talking about 'We have gotta seize the moment, because it's right there,'" Brandyn Curry said. "It was in our control and the only thing we had to do was just keep being us. Just don't be impostors or anything like that. Just play our game, and that starts with defense." 

Both teams had forgettable nights in some facets, with Harvard going 14-for-32 (43.8 percent) on free throws and Yale going 0-for-14 on 3-pointers. 

But from the floor, things were much more memorable for the Crimson. The visitors shot 56.8 percent for the night, while holding the hosts to just 36.0 percent. 

"My message to the team before the game was 'Don't let the moment be too big, do your job and play within the lines,'" Yale coach James Jones said. "We did a poor job of that." 

For Curry, the Ivy title and NCAA berth meant a little something extra this season. The senior co-captain sat out the 2012-13 season after being one of more than 100 Harvard students implicated in an academic cheating scandal. So he wasn't around for the historic upset of New Mexico in the Big Dance. 

When asked what the win Friday night meant to him, Curry got a little choked up. 

"It -- " he started, then stopped. "It means a lot. After going through everything last year, if you could ask us if this is how you wanted to win it, you couldn't ask for much better. 

"Especially since three years ago we lost to Princeton here [in the Ivy League tiebreaker game] on the Doug Davis buzzer-beater with 2.8 seconds. So that was the toughest loss. That was the last time we were here playing for a championship. And we lost. So it definitely means a lot to come back and win here.
"

Up The Street

SALT LAKE CITY -- Just a few hours before Harvard won the first NCAA tournament game in program history, many on the team weren't saying a word to each other -- because they were napping at the Radisson just 300 yards from where they'd make history by night's end.

Crimson freshman guard Siyani Chambers even dozed as the team rode over to the arena. He couldn't so much as recall the music playing on his iPod.

"Sometimes you can overthink things heading into a game," Chambers said. "The nap helps you stay clear."

Chambers was the one who dribbled out the time on Harvard's shocking 68-62 win over No. 3 New Mexico, his face lighting up with realization of the history happening, his expression bigger and bigger as the clock clicked away. Up went the ball, instantly the pep band played and the Crimson earned themselves a beautiful TV moment.

"I was overwhelmed by that moment," Chambers said.

Prior to that rupture of celebration, the No. 14-seeded Crimson made history at EnergySolutions Arena Thursday night by toppling New Mexico and playing with such poise and straightforward focus, you'd never guess this was the team's first go-round to the Round of 32. Though the initial reaction in the immediacy and privacy of the team's locker room looked boisterous, by the time the media got in there, a different vibe settled.

It just didn't seem like history had been made. There were smiles and good feelings, but this was not a bounce-off-the-walls scene. There wasn't we-expected-to-do-this dogma being broadcast. It was just businesslike. Satisfaction, now on to the next one. This is Harvard. Pressure to succeed extends beyond what's done in a uniform.

That reflects Tommy Amaker's style, and to a man, both in casual conversation and for-the-record quotes, all redirected the credit for this one to him. The coach said this win was as meaningful to him as any other in his coaching career.

"We also had to be a little fortunate this evening," he said. "It means to the world to us, a significant moment for us to be in this position."

The way Harvard won remains most impressive. This was not a plucky upset by an Ivy League team that used trickery or quirk in order to bring down a big boy. Harvard had the lead more often than not during the game. It had some distance in its margin for much of the night. And it fended off foul trouble with three of the seven men total who saw playing time against a taller, more physical, well-rounded Lobos team.

Former Harvard players made the trip, bought the tickets and sat about 20 rows up in section 17. It was a convention of awkward high fives after the last buzzer. When the game was over, a member of the school band wielded its massive flag and waved it high as the players made their way into the locker room after a joyous few seconds on the floor to celebrate something that was more than 100 years in the making. Harvard is the oldest school in this country, and its fourth trip to the NCAA tournament ever -- reaching it in a second straight year after a 66-year drought -- has given the NCAA tournament one of its headline storylines for the next three weekends.

"This was for all the players and all the students who've gone to Harvard," sophomore Steve Mondou-Missi said. "We know nobody had this."

"It's unbelievable," Christian Webster said. "We were talking in the back. We're still in disbelief, can't believe it happened."

More record-book fodder from this game: Webster crossed 1,000 points for his career during this game and Laurent Rivard set the Harvard record for most 3s in a season.

Mondou-Missi added that the team, or at least he, started to believe winning the game was a realization by the end of the first half. Harvard went into the break with a 31-27 lead. Despite an eight-minute field-goal drought in the second half, the team never lost control of the game. Harvard utilized a careful method of possession basketball, waiting and waiting and waiting for the right shot. Often, it was Rivard (17 points) who sank the needed 3. The team hit eight 3s on 44 percent shooting. Wesley Saunders led the team with 18.

"This is so much joy after a season that was such a grind," Chambers said.

There is weight to those words. Harvard's been through a lot, and truth be told, if the team hadn't even reached the NCAA tournament few could have found blame. In the preseason Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry were removed from the team for a year for being caught in an academic scandal. Harvard wasn't even picked to win the Ivy. Then came the token 14 seed against a New Mexico team that had legitimate claim to a No. 2 seed.

All of it went out the door Thursday night, except for the means of motivation by way of a number next to Harvard's name on every bracket.

"We had the mentality of a 14 seed," Kenyatta Smith said.

Yet the team didn't play for broke. It benefitted from subpar play by New Mexico's Tony Snell and Kendall Williams, who combined for 18 points. It was eye-opening to see a proven team like New Mexico play so small. Harvard's the one with the size disadvantage, but it kept going and finding answers. It was ready well before it even realized, too.

It was about shortly before bedtime on Wednesday night when the players first got to see video of the Lobos that assistant Yanni Hufnagel had been poring over for 72 hours. Hufnagel -- who recruited Blake Griffin at Oklahoma and received Twitter love from the Clippers star Thursday night -- was working off virtually no sleep since Selection Sunday. The staff didn't want to bog the team down with thinking of New Mexico's schemes. They wanted the players to be mostly focused on running their own stuff. Unbenknowst to the players, the coaches slyly mixed in some New Mexico "action," as it were, during practice.

But the team didn't even see tape on New Mexico until 9 p.m. Wednesday night.

And it won't see a second of film on Arizona until late Friday night.

At this point, Harvard's just a really cool story, and a truly unpredictable one. It wasn't a terrific opening Thursday, but it ended with an outcome that will be an all-timer. It wasn't dramatic, just bemusing in its casual endgame. I know I'll never forget being here for this one. I want to share this anecdote to wrap things up. As I was walking out of the arena and heading back to my car Thursday night/Friday morning, I heard them again, that snarky Harvard band.

At this hour? Midnight? Yes.

Oh, I get it.

The team was getting off the bus. Two rows of woodwinds, brass, cheerleaders and students had formed outside the hotel's main entrance. Inside, Harvard fans waited to greet the team.

How could any of them choose sleep now.

Harvard: 2012-13 Ivy League Champions

BACK TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

Men's basketball is headed back to the NCAA Tournament after a victory of Cornell, coupled with Princeton's loss to Brown

By CATHERINE E. COPPINGER, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

0 minutes ago

Though the Harvard men’s basketball game was long over, a sizable crowd lingered at Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday night, huddled around various computer screens, eagerly awaiting updates on made and missed free throws taken 60 miles away. The Crimson had just closed out a victory over Cornell, 65-56, and with that, captured a share of the Ivy crown.
But a bigger story was in the works in Providence, R.I. Princeton—the lone team that held complete control over its Ancient Eight championship chances at the start of the weekend—was trailing a Brown team with a sub-.500 conference record and just a few minutes left to play.
Despite getting within five with as few as 40 seconds remaining after two free throws from guard TJ Bray, the Tigers were unable to close the gap any further, eventually falling to the Bears, 80-67.
And with that, less than an hour after securing at least a share of its third straight Ivy title, the Crimson became the second squad in the country to punch a ticket to the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
“I just feel like the basketball gods have been on our sides the entire way,” co-captain Christian Webster said. “To know that we had two home games down the stretch and Princeton had three road games, as Coach said, we would have killed to get in this position, so we are so grateful.”
After an audible yell from the hallway, Harvard coach Tommy Amaker reentered the conference room on the second floor, beaming as he addressed his co-captains and then the press for the second time that evening.
“We’re thrilled about the fact that we are Ivy League champions outright,” Amaker said. “This obviously is a tough league, as anyone who has been a part of it will tell you. As challenging as this 14-game tournament really is, we talk about how challenging it is to win on the road.”
Amaker’s squad will play on college basketball’s biggest stage for the second time in as many years and the third time in program history. Last season, Harvard fell to Vanderbilt, 79-70, in the second round of tournament play at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. Two years ago, the Crimson narrowly missed out on NCAA Tournament play, as then-junior Doug Davis beat the buzzer with a jumper to push Princeton past the Crimson in a one-game playoff for the automatic bid.
After co-captains Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry withdrew from school before the start of the 2012-13 campaign, the preseason media poll tabbed Princeton as the favorite to claim this year’s Ivy title. But Harvard, despite dropping two games last weekend, was able to successfully defend its second championship in school history.
“We always talk about standards, and that is what we live by, not focusing on what other people say about us,” Webster said. “That’s something that we have done all season.... We lost those great guys and those great players but we came here for a reason and that’s to win Ivy League championships.”
Heading into the final weekend of Ancient Eight play, the Crimson sat half a game behind Princeton after suffering two consecutive road losses at the hands of the Tigers and Penn, respectively, to fall out of first place in the conference standings.
“We lost to a [Penn] team [and] we feel we could have won that game if we had played better," Rivard said. "We worked hard all [this] week like we worked hard all season and we had to take care of our business.”
With two games left to play, Harvard needed to sweep Cornell and Columbia this weekend and hope that the Tigers lost at least one game of their remaining three. Two Harvard wins paired with a single Princeton loss would have set the stage for a playoff to determine which team would claim the Ivy League’s automatic bid to the Big Dance.
But Yale and Brown did one better, as Princeton lost both of its games this weekend, handing the Crimson the outright title and opportunity to dance. After closing out the regular season with two wins at home, the Crimson awaits news of its next opponent on Selection Sunday.
“It’s an incredible testament to these two young men who were able to make this happen for our program,” Amaker said of Rivard and Webster. “We are thrilled to be playing in the NCAA Tournament.”
—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @catcopp.

Hello, Harvard...

Tommy Amaker’s Dance step: Burn the floor

By Steve Buckley  |   Thursday, March 8, 2012  |  

Photo by Matthew West

Tommy Amaker was wearing a crisp, fashionable houndstooth coat with a tight, black and white checkered pattern, and the fit was a tailor’s dream.

Amaker always dresses well, as most college basketball coaches do, but yesterday was an especially big day at Harvard University’s Lavietes Pavilion. The Crimson are headed for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1946, making for what senior captain Oliver McNally called “a crazy day” as television stations, radio stations, newspapers and web sites sent representatives to cover this big story about how Harvard — yes, Harvard — is going to The Dance.

Perhaps you caught a glimpse of Amaker on television, looking dapper as he talked about how “special things are happening on a special campus,” and how proud he is that “Harvard, Cambridge, Greater Boston, and even all New England, if you will,” are getting caught up in the success of the Crimson basketball team.

What the cameras didn’t show is that Amaker, from the waist down, was dressed for work: Black sweats and a pair of dusty Nike sneakers. Soon the snap, crackle and pop of the media would be gone, and that’s when the impressive sports jacket would disappear and Amaker and his team would begin their first practice session since clinching a spot in the tournament.

Yes, the people at Harvard are thrilled with what’s happening with their men’s basketball team. Said Charlie Hobbs, a Harvard junior who works for campus radio station WHRB-FM: “Even with everything that goes on at Harvard, this is the most excited I’ve seen everybody in my three years here. People who aren’t really sports fans are excited about it.”

Well . . . of course. But this is no longer a campus story. It’s just what Amaker said it was, with fans outside the walls of Harvard Yard embracing the team. OK, well, maybe they’re not talking nonstop Harvard hoops at Malachy’s Saloon in Quincy and the Tavern on the Hill in Somerville, but you wait: If the Crimson make some noise in the first round, these guys are going to own, as Amaker put it, “Cambridge, Greater Boston, and even all New England, if you will.”

That’s where the sweats and the dusty sneakers play into this story. The challenge facing Amaker and his players is not to fall into that we’re-just-glad-to-be-here trap. They get it: It’s been a long, long time since Harvard has been in the tournament. So long ago, in fact, that Hizzoner James Michael Curley was mayor of Boston when Harvard was duking it out with NYU (winning 67-61) and Ohio State (losing 46-38) in March of ’46. So long ago that the Celtics [team stats]were nearly seven months away from playing their first game. So long ago that Johnny Pesky hadn’t even (allegedly) held the ball.

McNally, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound guard who has been busy this week writing a paper on “classical and defensive realism” for his American foreign policy class, said the team goal this season was not just to make the tournament, but “to get there and make a run. We don’t want to get this far and just lay an egg.”

As if to make his point, McNally talked about what happened last year, how the Crimson tied Princeton for the Ivy League title, with the two teams meeting at neutral-site Yale for a playoff game to determine which school would get to taste March Madness. Princeton won a 63-62 thriller on a buzzer-beater by Douglas Davis, who managed to escape pressure being applied by McNally.

“I guess the mature thing to say, looking back on it, is that it was a great experience,” he said. “But I’m a little stubborn about those things. I can’t see it that way. It left a scar.”

So, no, Harvard isn’t just happy to be there. That’s why yesterday was not about fancy blazers, but about sweats and the dusty sneakers.

Yes, they said all the right things yesterday. They smiled for the cameras. They did one-on-one’s with the TV people. Then we left, and the Crimson got down to the task of owning Boston.

Quick hits, November 22

Why is it that people are infuriated when I am yawning? One of the people in my class told me, as I was yawning to stretch during break said, "You have to shut up already." I said, "I'm just yawning, what's your fucking problem?" I was ready to counter any first punch coming my way. He chickened out, and I told him after class, "You need to calm the fuck down. Seriously. Making a mountain out a molehill will not warrant any sympathy from me."

And then this Hispanic undergrad comed over, as I was looking at the USA Women's U-20 team beat Argentina 3-0, and I got into a little confrontation with him. I waited for the bloody idiot to throw the first punch. I referred the guy to security to have him settle the situation. I am not afraid of my life being taken away-as a student, I want to make my skin as thick as possible, but at the same time, threatening students by force is not going to help you, even if you are taking a test. This guy should have just said, "If you don't quiet down, I'll have to refer you to the Dean." I have a counter-offer: I refer you to security, and have him report this threat of violence to the Dean. That will make it easier for both of us. Take it or leave it.

===

A mixed bag of wins and losses awaited the teams I followed today. Aside from the U-20 women heading to the playoff stages in Chile while the men prepare for a date with their old friends from Mexico, the Lakewood High School Lancer varsity football team broke a four-year hoodoo of not winning a postseason game with a 35-34 win over the Servite Friars last night in double overtime. Whoever snags Dion Bailey has all the makings of a star on their roster. When it comes down to it, batting balls like that will really make you look good. This defensive back has seven picks this year, and should be All-Moore League first team on defense. He earned his stripes last night.

The Harvard Crimson finished 9-1 with a 10-0 win over the Yale Bulldogs at the Harvard Stadium earlier today. They share the trophy with the Brown Bears, who took the hapless Columbia Lions to the woodshed.

At least Tim Murphy knows who he has to outdo on the recruiting trail this offseason. If the Ivies wanted to be in the postseason, Harvard would be invited.

I was happy with Melbourne Victory, Aldershot Town and AFC Wimbledon getting back on the winning track with 2-1 (over Central Coast Mariners), 1-0 (over Chester), and 3-1 (over Worcester City - FA Trophy First Round Proper) victories, respectively. I was especially pleased that the Dons found a way to win on the road again. And Long Beach State's men's water polo team did something right for once: a 7-4 win over UC Irvine to wrap up the regular season. Where have those wins been, Gavin Arroya? Huh?

What I was dissatisfied with were the results from Cal Poly, FC United of Manchester and especially AFC Liverpool. The Mustangs' kicker Andrew Gardner couldn't make conversions out of a wet paper bag. He gave Wisconsin a 36-35 gift of a victory. Choker.  A 1-0 loss to Worksop Town could mean that the promotion run for FC United ends this season, while AFC Liverpool are reeling off three straight defeats (including Vodkat League One losses to Irlam and Padiham). Gracious.

Also, while Long Beach City College's men's water polo team could lift a finger to Grossmont (17-11 win for third place at Merced College), the women were unimpressive against rival Cerritos, 11-6. Average, if not below-average, outing for the Viking water polo sides, with the weight being on the women's letdown against the Falcons. Chelsea (0-0 draw with Newcastle) and Accrington (1-1 draw with Chesterfield) should have fared better, too.

On to seeing how the Rainmakers's crew did against Weber, as well as Hawaii taking on Idaho at the Aloha Stadium, then.

Illegitimum non carborundum

So, after finding out that the game against UC Davis was rescheduled (still a bit riled about that, but out here, who give's a rat's rear end about them anyway?), I am back at my laptop, blogging. I suppose I will have to put the added wakey-wakeyness from my Rockstar Punched to use one way or another. I am sitting in front of Love Generation, the name for my personal laptop (LoveGen for short, named after the Bob Sinclar song of fame), watching the 2007 Harvard University Commencement Morning Exercises.

Ahhh, the power of RealPlayer. What is so good about this is that when it's streamed, there is a record button where you can record the stream downloaded. That's something you don't see in previous editions. Now, if you're watching something in its entirety, you can record it, save it, and watch it over and over again if you want to. Sweet.

If there was ever a band that wanted to be a scatter band, I hope they pattern themselves after the Harvard University Band. I love their cadences, and the simple, ageless melodies they play. For a band decked in blazers when blaring out the classics at the Harvard Stadium during the fall...you're all right.

I don't believe my university can top all this. Out there in Cambridge, they have Morning and Afternoon Exercises, as well as a ceremony where the local campus guy who's got religion give some final words of advice. At that Class Day, Bill Clinton spoke to the candidates. At this Commencement, guys like Bill Russell and Bill Gates were in attendance, and the latter spoke. And the way the chorus sings the commencement hymn (and alma mater?), "Fair Harvard"...it sounds like the gates of heaven have opened, and all worthy shall proceed into the promised land. Sweet.

It's great stuff like this that encourages me to forget the fact that UC Davis's basketball team sure looked like an overmatched group of rec students against the Dream Team from Barcelona, and I didn't get to see them unravel. I suppose they should stay that way when we head up there. Hmph.

Now I'm thinking...Associate in Arts at Harvard!? I can't believe that there is a community college side to this university. IT DOES EXIST. To those nine who got the AA degree there, there are community colleges that have better value...I think they're just here for all the pomp and circumstance.

Let it be known that rescheduling the times of events, and athletic events at that, after they have been printed on the calendar at the time given is criminal, a waste of ink on the grounds of blatant inaccuracy (why print it if the time is going to be wrong anyway?), and defeats the purpose of having those events printed in the first place. It's a sobering thought, for example, that I actually wished for my team to LOSE the game than win it.