THE REYES REVIEW: Harvard Plagued By Strings of Losses

Celebrations were in order this past weekend for the Harvard men’s basketball team’s victories over the hated Killer P’s of Penn and Princeton.

While it was certainly an uplifting weekend for the squad—losers of seven straight until the sweep—the Crimson is certainly not in the place it wanted to be in conference play with just four games left on the Ivy schedule.

We all remember the high the team was on after the Dec. 1 defeat of Big Ten powerhouse Michigan. We all wondered if this would be the year that Harvard competed for the Ivy title.

In head coach Tommy Amaker’s first preseason go around, the future (even the not-so-distant future) looked bright.

But—and it’s a big one—seven straight losses followed that triumphant night in December.

And those weren’t even the same seven straight losses that I mentioned before.

That’s right, two seven-game losing streaks have marred an otherwise thrilling season for the Crimson.

Thrilling, you say? How so?

Well, this team has made history—more than once.

With the Michigan win, Harvard knocked off a Big Ten opponent for the first time since the 1949-50 season. And it was all the more sweet being that Amaker beat his old squad.

With the sweep this weekend, this year’s Crimson became only the third squad to sweep Penn and Princeton in the same weekend since the two began travelling together in 1957-58. This was the first time since 1986-87 that it was done.

“I think it’s a tremendous accomplishment,” Amaker said after the Penn victory. “I think they’ll feel incredibly satisfied with that kind of achievement here this evening, this weekend. It allows them to put themselves in a position that many other players who were back here for our Alumni Reunion Weekend, they know how difficult that is.”

They sure do.

But if recent alums were in attendance—and they were, as I spotted last year’s seniors Jim Goffredo and Brian Darcy in the stands—they know a bit about the losing streaks, too.

While it’s nice to celebrate the big wins—and Harvard has had a few this season—let’s not forget about the dismal series of games that have hurt the Crimson not only this year, but for the past several seasons.

Last year, sitting at 3-2 in the Ivy League, Harvard rattled off five straight losses to take itself out of contention.

Two seasons ago, at an even better 4-1 Ivy mark, eight straight losses marred the Crimson chances at a title.

In 2003-04, five losses in a row followed a 1-1 start. In 2002-03, a promising 2-0 start was followed by losing eight of the next nine.

You see my point.

We love the victories—as we should. But, this is becoming an unsettling trend, one that we were hoping Amaker could solve.

Seven preseason losses leading into the Ivy League wasn’t just a bad stretch—it was foreshadowing of that second seven game stretch of misery that brought us back to reality.

We were all smiles after the conference opening thrashing of Dartmouth, but those smiles quickly faded after weeks of despair, when the Crimson went without a win from Jan. 8 until this past Friday night.

Sure, Harvard’s been on the unfortunate end of some tough draws.

At Penn, the Crimson held a lead with three minutes to play before losing 73-69.

The following night at Princeton, a close game down the stretch turned into a blowout as the Tigers outscored Harvard 10-1 in the game’s final minutes.

Then, the mind-blowing loss to Cornell two weeks ago was the icing on the cake.

Up five with 42 seconds to play, the Crimson turned the ball over twice and gave up three buckets to fall just short of its upset bid on the Ancient Eight leader.

The point?

Harvard has generally played well, but it has had some unfortunate sequences turn into a poor Ivy record.

But, these moments of brilliance—the Michigan game, and this past weekend, specifically—give Harvard hope for the future.

Not to be overly optimistic, but only captain Brad Unger will be leaving this year’s team. While that’s a blow, especially after the big man put up a combined 37 points this weekend, it’s nice to know that junior guard Drew Housman, junior forward Evan Harris, and sophomore guard Jeremy Lin will still be around—one year wiser and with the monkeys off their backs of having suffered through these poor stretches and getting some big victories.

And if Amaker’s recruiting skills prove effective, we could see some freshman contributing right off the bat next season.

Sure, there are four games left in the season, and the Crimson does have one more chance to spoil Cornell’s perfect season on Saturday night.

But this team is really playing for pride. They’re trying to show that Harvard will hustle, scrap, and fight.

At this time next year, they are hopeful—and making strides towards the possibility—that Harvard will be the team that everyone is gunning for.

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.