After a Year-Long Hiatus, Siyani Chambers is Back

On Sept. 2nd, 2015, the trajectory of the 2015-2016 Harvard basketball season changed.

“Rising senior and returning captain Siyani Chambers will take a voluntary leave of absence from the college for the 2015-2016 academic year, after sustaining a torn ACL to his left knee while working out over the summer,” read a statement from the Harvard Athletic Department.

The Crimson was already concerned with replacing starters Wesley Saunders ’15 and Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Steve Moundou-Missi ’15. Now, all of a sudden, the team was losing its top returning scorer and former Ivy Rookie of the Year.

With the loss of Chambers and senior point guard Matt Fraschilla (who also suffered an ACL tear early in the season against Providence), freshman guard Tommy McCarthy was thrust into the starting role, with shooting guard Corbin Miller forced to fill in at the point behind the rookie McCarthy.

Although McCarthy eventually found his rhythm, Chambers’ absence was felt on and off the court.

Certainly the loss was exacerbated by a lack of depth at the position, but Chambers would have been difficult to replace in any circumstance. During his first three years with the Crimson, the Minnesota native earned three All-Ivy League nods, was a finalist on the 2014 Bob Cousy Award Watch List, and vaulted into sixth in Harvard history with 446 career assists.

The 6’0’’ guard has averaged 11.1 points per game since arriving in Cambridge, with his best season coming in 2012-2013: He notched 12.4 points per contest in that one. But aside from scoring, Chambers consistently has been the first- or second-best player in the league in assists per game.

Aside from being a major factor on the court, Chambers is a major locker room presence for the team. Initially voted a captain for his junior season, Chambers was reelected to the captainship alongside Miller for his senior season despite being away from the team in 2015-2016.

“Just being able to play with him and having him yell at you when he’s on the court is a lot better than having him yell at you when he’s off the court,” Miller said.

But Chambers had praise for the way the team responded to his absence last season. Although he was on campus for a portion of last year with a babysitting job, Chambers has to learn to play with a lot of new faces. While all of the other returning players have the already serious adjustment of learning the playing styles of seven new freshmen, Chambers has never played with the freshmen or sophomore class—which make up 13 of the 20 roster spots on this year’s young squad.

“I was playing with guys like Wesley and Steve and Kenyatta and even Corbin to an extent and Zena,” Chambers said. “We’ve built chemistry…. [I’m] just trying to get an open dialogue, because the more you know about your teammates the easier it is to instinctively act on the court.”

With the large roster, the point guard position is deeper than it has been in recent memory for Harvard. While the Crimson returns Chambers, Fraschilla, and McCarthy, many anticipate that freshman four-star recruit Bryce Aiken could be first off the bench to replace Chambers.

But with Amaker’s reluctance to give freshmen significant minutes and Chambers’ history of success, one can expect that Chambers will certainly get the majority of the minutes at the point.

“He is our undisputed leader,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “It was evident what we missed from him when he was not here due to that unfortunate knee injury. Now we have him back, and we feel the difference.”

Though Chambers has been recognized for his ability to be a playmaker on offense, his defensive performance will be key this Ivy League season as the top competitors in the Ancient Eight return strong backcourts that will put pressure on the Crimson. Ivy favorite Princeton returns sophomore Devin Cannady, who averaged just over 11 points per game and shot over 45 percent from behind the arc. Chambers’ toughest assignment, however, will be Yale’s Makai Mason who led the Bulldogs past Baylor in last season’s NCAA Tournament.

Performance against these teams will be especially important given the introduction of an Ivy League playoff tournament in which the top four finishers will compete for the league’s guaranteed spot in the NCAA Tournament. Harvard was selected to finish second in the Ancient Eight preseason media poll, with Princeton taking the top spot and Yale and Penn rounding out the top four.

With the new competition inspired by the Ivy League tournament and the youth of the Crimson team, Amaker has placed significant responsibility on Chambers and the rest of the seniors.

“If they take the reins of the season, of the season, of the program, I like the chances of us having a very successful season,” Amaker said.

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached theresa.hebert@thecrimson.com