This weekend, an NFL team will draft Harvard senior Kyle Juszczyk. The Crimson standout has had official visits with a dozen teams, all of which are presumably interested in drafting the FCS All-American somewhere between the third and sixth rounds. One team that hasn’t shown interest in Juszczyk is the Philadelphia Eagles, which makes sense given that they already have his NFL doppelganger. This offseason, the Eagles signed former Houston Texan James Casey, who shares a number of similarities with Juszczyk.
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The Harvard men’s tennis team (17-4, 5-0 Ivy) is undefeated in Ivy League play this season, and just clinched a share of its second straight Ivy League title after Sunday’s victory over Yale. The Back Page looks at some of the important numbers for the Crimson this season and a few more looking forward.
2...The number of years in a row Harvard has won at least a share of the Ivy League title. Last season, the Crimson went 6-1 in Ancient Eight play, losing only to Columbia en route to the conference title.
5…The number of years since the Harvard last completed an unblemished conference slate, since the 2007-08 season. The Crimson has a chance to wrap up a perfect 7-0 record with wins against Brown and Dartmouth this week.
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As Jeremy Lin ‘10 and the Houston Rockets (eighth seed in the Western Conference) make their way through the NBA playoffs, The Back Page will provide game-by-game updates on Lin’s play.
Although Lin’s New York Knicks made the playoffs last year, Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder represented his first taste of the postseason. Lin sat out last year’s series nursing an injury, but this year took the court for a young Rockets squad that dropped from the seventh to the eighth seed on the final game of the season, drawing the conference-leading Thunder instead of the a San Antonio team which finished 2-5 in its last seven games.
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With the NFL Draft happening later this week (the first round will be held on Thursday night), The Back Page is bringing you full coverage of Harvard’s lone notable prospect, former tight end and current fullback senior Kyle Juszczyk. To start the coverage off, staff writer David Freed previews what analysts have been saying about Harvard’s leading receiver from 2012.
After being projected as a late seventh rounder earlier in January, forecasts for Juszczyk have continued to improve over time. The fullback was invited to the Senior Bowl but not to the combine, but impressed at his Pro Day with a 4.71 time in the 40-yard dash and a vertical jump of 37 inches. According to nfldraftscout.com, 15 teams came to Juszczyk’s pro day and Gil Brandt of NFL.com wrote at the time “this showing will earn Juszczyk a draft selection somewhere in the fifth or sixth rounds.” Since, NFLDraftScout revised Brandt’s estimates to put the former tight end in the third or fourth round.
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In his first bracket for 2013-14, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has placed the Harvard men's basketball team as a 12 seed in the Southern region of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The Crimson was a 14 seed in 2012, when it defeated the New Mexico Lobos in its first game before falling to the Arizona Wildcats in the round of 32. It was a 12 seed in the 2011 tournament, when it lost to fifth-seeded Vanderbilt in the round of 64.
Harvard is set to play Tennessee in the bracket. While the Volunteers missed out on the NCAA tournament in 2012, the team scored noteworthy victories over Final Four squad Wichita State and the Florida Gators, who made the Elite Eight. The squad went 9-3 in its last twelve games of the regular season and finished with a higher Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) than the Crimson did.
Next year, Harvard will return Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry as well as introduce class of 2017 freshman Zena Edsomowan. They have already been touted as a preseason top-25 team by ESPN's Jay Bilas.
