Run This Town

Highlighted by a trip to the Bahamas during Thanksgiving, Harvard will travel extensively this upcoming basketball season. And the Crimson could venture on even more road trips if it makes history with a bid to March Madness.

But the first bounce of the ball will occur in the squad’s own backyard against MIT tonight.

Now that baseball season is over and the prospects of a lengthy NBA season grow less likely by the day, the attention of the Boston sports world can turn to the area’s strong college basketball scene.

Four of the Crimson’s neighbors—Boston University, Boston College, Holy Cross, and the Division III Engineers—are on Harvard’s schedule this upcoming season.

Coach Tommy Amaker’s current senior class is 10-1 against these schools, including three straight wins against Boston College and Holy Cross and two straight wins against Boston University and MIT.

The Crimson’s recent success against teams from the Boston area is only overshadowed by its success at Lavietes Pavilion, where Harvard has compiled a 25-2 record over the past two seasons.

The Crimson appears poised to remain the aggressors in the area again this year.

Boston College is in a re-building phase after losing 10 players from last year’s roster.

Boston University has lost one of the key pieces to its puzzle, including Jake O’Brien, who was forced to have a second surgery on his left foot. A statistical leader for the Terriers, O’Brien averaged 13.8 points and 6.4 rebounds for the team as a sophomore.

At the bottom of the pack is Holy Cross, which has not had a winning record in the Patriot League for the past two seasons.

MIT, albeit successful, competes in Division III.

According to ESPN’s Andy Katz, “The total number of media members in attendance [for Harvard during a Boston-area media day in late October] far surpassed the five other Division I schools in the state of Massachusetts.”

Despite its dominating presence in the local basketball scene, the Crimson does not have the same natural ties to Boston as do some of its competitors.

Only three Harvard players, sophomore forward Tom Hamel, junior forward Kyle Casey, and senior forward Andrew Van Nest, are actually from Massachusetts.

“We might not be from Boston or the Massachusetts area,” co-captain guard Oliver McNally says, “but now we kind of take pride in that we’ve been the better team around here, and we’ve won a lot.”