Smith Fits In As Final Piece For Men's Basketball

I still remember the day it became clear that Keith Wright ’12 had made the leap.

It was Oct. 30, 2010, and it was at Harvard coach Tommy Amaker’s annual preseason coaching clinic—the first chance for fans to get a glimpse of the upcoming season’s squad.

Almost immediately, it was evident that Wright, then about to enter his junior year, was a different player than he had been the previous season. He had added a short jumper to his arsenal that was reliable and accurate in that first practice, and I knew then that the center was due for a breakout season.

The Crimson’s greatest flaw the prior year had been its lack of a true interior threat, forcing Jeremy Lin ’10 to try to do everything on his own despite facing constant double teams. Defensively, when it came to guarding opposing big men like Cornell’s Jeff Foote, Harvard was left with few options, and without anyone to take pressure off Lin inside, the team finished third in the Ivy League.

But when Wright raised his game his junior season, everything changed. He was a transformed player, and that transformed the team as a whole. In 2010-11, the Crimson had the ability to play inside-out, something Amaker loves to do, and behind Wright—who won Ivy League Player of the Year—Harvard was finally able to take that next step and win its first-ever league championship.

The 2012-13 Crimson, up until last Friday night, faced a similar problem as its 2009-10 predecessor.

The offense had three of the four pieces it needed: a go-to scorer (sophomore Wesley Saunders), dangerous long-distance shooters (co-captains Laurent Rivard and a revitalized Christian Webster), and a distributor to orchestrate everything (freshman Siyani Chambers).

But it was missing the final piece of the puzzle—the interior presence. Sophomore Jonah Travis provided solid production, but not the kind you can run your offense through, and his 6’6” stature greatly limited the team’s ability to slow opposing big men at the other end.

Facing the two biggest teams in the conference this weekend, Amaker thus decided to give Kenyatta Smith his first real opportunity for redemption since the turnover-prone sophomore lost his starting job after five games.

Given a second chance, something clicked for Smith this weekend, and just like Wright two years ago, it was immediately evident that he was a different player. With the emergence of an interior presence, Harvard could play inside-out once again, and everything else fell into place around him offensively.

Just like that, gone were the days of struggling against inferior Ivy opponents. Last weekend, there was no need for a dramatic comeback, as against Dartmouth, or to stave off a collapse, as against Yale, Brown, and Cornell. Nor was this the same team that a week earlier had gotten blown out by Columbia, which has only won one of seven games against the rest of the league.

No, not only did the Crimson sweep this past weekend, but it also dominated, and that was largely the result of Smith’s emergence.

The center shot a superb 13-of-14 from the field over the two nights, but his defensive numbers are even more astounding. According to calculations by the Ivy Basketball Blog, Smith would be leading the country in block rate and rebound percentage if he had played enough minutes to qualify. Over Harvard’s past 17 games, opponents are shooting under 40 percent when Smith is on the court; only Jeff Withey’s Kansas does better in that category.

Can Smith maintain those numbers when his minutes increase? Highly unlikely. But last weekend, they were a huge reason why the Crimson won both games while holding its rivals below 60 points—something it did 19 times last season but had previously not done against a Division I opponent this year.

Sure, it’s only been two games, but as they did for Wright three years ago, things appear to have clicked at both ends for Smith, who has finally tapped into the vast potential that earned him multiple offers from high-major programs.

Nobody’s expecting the center to be Player of the Year—I’m sure he’s more than happy with Player of the Week—but if Smith can stay out of foul trouble (still a big question mark) and continue to provide Harvard with the two-way interior threat it has lacked since Wright’s graduation, the team will have that final piece to the puzzle.

As for the rest of the league, things are a bit of a mess. Since it’s Oscars week, for the third straight year let’s compare each team to a best picture nominee:

Brown is Beasts of the Southern Wild. Neither film nor team has any chance of winning anything, but the Bears do have a pair of beasts in the league’s two leading rebounders: freshman Cedric Kuakumensah and sophomore Rafael Maia, who actually is from the south (Brazil). With two more years of that pair playing next to each other, the future is bright for Brown, just as it is for young Quvenzhané Wallis.

Columbia is Les Misérables. A bunch of solid individual performances, but in both stories, things end up terribly for everyone. To be honest, Javert was probably happier about her fate than Brian Barbour is about his right now. I still have no idea how the Lions could be this bad.

Cornell is Silver Linings Playbook—the darkhorse contender. Shonn Miller is Jennifer Lawrence, the young star who continues to improve. But unfortunately for the Big Red, Errick Peck is Bradley Cooper—he’s good, but even at his absolute best he’s just not good enough to win anything for you.

Dartmouth is Amour. Nobody has seen either (the Big Green are dead last in the Ancient Eight with an average of 800 fans per game). But like France, Dartmouth is used to being a bottom-dweller, so both have to be thrilled they have a decent chance to not be one again this year.

Penn is Life of Pi. Miles Cartwright probably feels like Pi right now, stranded all alone without any help while things fall apart around him. Just as with Pi’s monkey and zebra friends, Miles lost Fran Dougherty and Steve Rennard for the rest of the story due to serious injuries.

Princeton is Argo. Headlined by one true star but average role players, both film and team are one of two realistic contenders for the title. One more loss to Harvard would doom the Tigers, but considering the Crimson hasn’t won at Princeton since before its players were born, Tony Mendez’s confidence about going into Iran and getting the Americans out was probably much higher than Harvard’s is about going into Jadwin and getting a win.

Yale is Django Unchained. It’s fine, but just as Django is pretty much the same as every other Tarantino film, so too are the Bulldogs headed towards yet another third-to-fifth place finish (that would make 11 in 12 years). Both team and film are also still reeling a bit from losing a huge star, be it Greg Mangano or Will Smith (who turned down Tarantino’s lead role), and both take place in pretty terrible settings, whether its New Haven or the antebellum South.

That leaves Harvard and two films: Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty. Appropriately, the Crimson is a combination of both. It’s the latter because at very different levels, both the film and the movie have faced questions about the methods used to achieve their ultimate goal. Questions have emerged as to whether waterboarding, as depicted in the film, goes against the principles of the country, or whether recruiting elite basketball talent, as Harvard has done, goes against the principles of the school.

It’s also Lincoln, with Amaker playing the titular role of trying to keep a divided house together. The coach was not met with an easy task, trying to win after Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry seceded from the school. Could he bring everyone together towards a common goal, or would the strength of the opposition be too strong? So far, like Daniel Day-Lewis, Amaker is turning in his best-ever performance.

In both films, the U.S. achieved its goal, whether it was preserving the union or capturing the world’s most wanted terrorist.

Thanks to a breakout performance from supporting actor Kenyatta Smith, the Crimson appears on its way to achieving its own goal—a third straight Ivy title—as well.

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.