Monti Achieves Tournament Dream

Harvard senior point guard Jenn Monti has seen it all in her four years in Cambridge. Monti came to Harvard with the school still riding high from the biggest victory in Crimson women’s basketball history. She’s led the team through a rebuilding year, a disappointing yet moderately successful 1999-2000 season and last year’s disastrous campaign. Now, though, the Crimson is finally back on top, and Monti likes her current vantage point better than any she’s tried before.

As a freshman, Monti joined the women’s basketball team immediately following the defining moment in the program’s history: an upset of top-seeded Stanford in the 1998 NCAA Tournament, which remains the only victory ever by a No. 16 seed—men’s or women’s—in the “Big Dance.”

Unable to compensate for the graduation of current Charlotte Sting forward Allison Feaster ’98, the 1998-1999 team struggled through a rebuilding season. Still, Monti and classmate Lindsay Ryba became the first Crimson players ever named to the Ivy League All-Rookie Team, fueling visions of an Ivy title the following year.

It was not to be, however, as Harvard was left with an empty feeling after its second place finish in the Ivies. Monti proved to be a bright spot for the team, setting the school single-game assist record with 14 at home against Yale. That helped her finish the year 15th in the nation in helpers, averaging 6.1 per game, en route to a Second-Team All-Ivy selection.

Then came the disaster that was last season. Something was wrong with the team chemistry from the outset, and feelings of helplessness, disgust and blame defined the locker-room atmosphere. Everything culminated in a meltdown against Central Connecticut, after which the team, watching the tape, felt it was wasting its time and energy.

With winter break, though, the recovery process began. The players went home and began to reevaluate their goals and commitment to the sport. When they returned, they rededicated themselves to the upcoming Ivy League campaign.

“We knew the Ivy season was the light at the end of the tunnel,” Monti said.

The Crimson placed a distant second behind undefeated Penn, but the players could sense they were on the verge of something special.

“We had such a bad feeling about how it all turned out,” Monti said. “But we knew that almost everyone would be coming back hungry.”

And indeed they did. After taking a break from basketball over the summer to rejuvenate herself, Monti has regained her love of basketball. Under her leadership, Harvard has blossomed, winning the Ivies and matching the conference’s best-ever seeding in the NCAA Tournament at No. 13.

Now, with the Crimson poised for its match-up Saturday with fourth-seeded UNC, Monti is finally enjoying herself again.

“I think this year has been a reinvention of all the things I’d forgotten from last year,” she said.

Monti got her start on her road to Lavietes Pavilion when her father, a basketball fanatic, encouraged her to take up the sport. She did but was hesitant to admit her left-handedness and risk being labeled as “different,” so she learned to play with her right hand. By the time she reached high school, she had become serious about the school, she had become serious about the sport, attending camps throughout the summer to hone her skills. Once she got to Ellington (Conn.) High School, she established herself as a dominant scorer, netting 2,200 points over a stellar career.

Excited by Harvard’s urban environment and academic freedom, Monti decided the next phase of her career would take place in Cambridge.

A point guard on the collegiate level, Monti’s scoring diminished as her role became more cerebral. She established herself as the floor general, taking responsibility for directing the team.

“She does a lot of intangible things that it’s hard to find people to do in college basketball,” co-captain Katie Gates said.

That she has, on her way to owning every Harvard assist record. In addition to the single-game mark, Monti’s 177 this season broke the previous high of 152, set by Heidi Kosh ’91 and tied by Jess Gelman ’97 and then Monti during her sophomore season. Finally, with nine assists on Jan. 28 at Colgate, Monti broke Gelman’s career record of 485, which Monti has now increased to 577.

Monti, though, views such accomplishments not as her own, but as the team’s.

“It’s the only record out there that you can really say, ‘I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,’” she said.

If that’s the case, Monti’s statistics reflect well on the entire team. After all, she led the team in assists in all but one game and she leads the Ivy League with 6.6 per contest. She’s also been able to score when called upon, averaging 10 points per game over the Ivy season.

“She’s figured out that her role is going to be the assist queen,” Gates said. “But when she needs to score, she can.”

Indeed, with the Crimson lacking a credible three-point threat this season, Monti developed her perimeter game and finished the season 13th in the Ivies in 3-point percentage and 15th in 3-pointers made.

More than her ball handling, passing and foul shooting, however, Monti brings intangibles to the team.

“We have other point guards that can play at that skill level,” co-captain Laura Barnard said. “But it’s the calm and the confidence she has and her attitude that pervades throughout the other players on the floor.”

“She has high expectations for the younger players and for the way things should be,” Barnard added. “She’s not afraid to use positive criticism and she’s an excellent communicator. She commands respect because she gives respect.”

Gates, too, raves about Monti’s impact.

“Jenn brings the ultimate leadership and intelligence about not just basketball, but our team,” Gates said. “Jenn can look at the court and see who we’re playing and what their strengths are and what players on our team are in and what their strengths are and then call a play and have it work effectively and she can do it all in two seconds.”

While Monti gets the job done quietly, she can also loosen the team up on the court.

“Before every game I tell her, ‘Come out and just be that arrogant pain in the rear you know you are,’” Gates said. “She brings this fun arrogance to the court that helps our team a lot.”

The few times the Crimson has struggled this year, it has relied even more heavily upon Monti.

“When things get rough for us, we always look to Jenn to see what we should do next,” sophomore forward Hana Peljto said. “A lot of times when we all really don’t know what we’re doing out there, she keeps us calm. She’s just a great point guard that knows her X’s and O’s. Sometimes we take her for granted, and we find that out when she’s not in the game.”

The Crimson hasn’t had too many tastes of life without Monti, though. Monti’s 35.4 minutes per game lead the team, and all her hard work finally seems to be paying off. Her rekindled enthusiasm is evident in hearing her describe Sunday’s selection show.

“I was holding Hana’s hand and we were squeezing, just so excited,” Monti said. “We were little kids again. It was okay to have a passion.”

Monti knows, though, that they’re far from little kids on the basketball court.

“I trust these 13 other women more than I trust anybody in the world right now,” she said.

Is this year’s edition of the Crimson better than the 1998-1999 team?

“I would be pretty confident putting us up there against anything the Ivy [League] has ever thrown out,” Monti said.

Now, it’s just a matter of carrying that confidence over to Saturday. The team has been practicing against some of the football players to prepare for UNC’s size and athleticism. The 5’6 Monti, as usual, will be one of the shortest players on the court and will have her work cut out for her trying to keep up with UNC’s quicker guards. But Barnard isn’t worried.

“They might be a little taller than she is and a little more athletic, but she’s got the brains and the guts to handle it,” she said.

Whenever Harvard’s season does come to an end, Monti expects to leave basketball behind her. A biochemical sciences concentrator, she hopes to become involved with vaccine development in poor countries. But athletics will remain a part of her life—she plans to begin competing in triathlons and learn to play tennis.

Before she gets that chance, though, Monti has at least one more game to play, and it just happens to be on basketball’s biggest stage. But she’s not worried about the pressure. In fact, she can’t wait.

“There’s nothing better than having the ball in your hands at the end of the game,” she said.

Actually, the Crimson would be happy to have it in Monti’s capable hands all game, with her making snap decisions, breaking UNC’s press and orchestrating Harvard’s offense.

Monti will be doing one more thing, too—loving every minute of it.