Breaking Out: A Guard’s Journey to the Starting Lineup

Last year, then-freshman guard Andrew Pusar scored six points all season.

Last Saturday, in an 83-75 home win against Lehigh, he scored the same amount of points—in two minutes.

The sophomore from Westfield, N.J., has started all five of Harvard’s games so far this season, and after setting career highs in four of the first five games, he might become a mainstay.

In the opener against Maine, Pusar recorded his first collegiate assist and had three for the game, notching only one turnover.

The next time out, at home versus Boston University, the former McDonald’s All-American nominee scored a career-high seven points and grabbed his first rebounds in a Crimson uniform, picking up two on each end of the floor to finish with four.

The scoring mark only lasted until the next home game, against Holy Cross, when Pusar dropped eight against the Crusaders, all lay-ups in the paint. He also picked up his first two steals of his career.

“The kind of stuff he did, getting offensive rebounds and lay-ups around the basket, that is really his game,” said captain guard Jim Goffredo.

The 31 minutes he played against Holy Cross was more than he played all last year, when he was on the floor for only 24 minutes.

He wouldn’t match the minutes played or steals against the Mountain Hawks, but he would set new marks in scoring and rebounding. Pusar went 5-of-6 from the field to finish with 10 points. The 6’2 guard grabbed five rebounds as well, with four of them on the offensive end. Three of those he put right back for lay-ups in a two-minute span midway through the second half to help Harvard widen its lead to 68-50 with 8:50 remaining.

“Certainly, Pusar’s put-backs were really important, just to generate some momentum in the second half offensively,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said after the win.

The sophomore has been busy on both ends of the floor. On the defensive end, he has often guarded one of the opponent’s top scorers, such as Maine guard Kevin Reed and Holy Cross guard Keith Simmons.

Coming into the season, with the graduation of Michael Beal ’06, the Crimson seemed to have a hole at the third guard spot. Pusar is one of three players, along with junior James Lambert and freshman Jeremy Lin, who have seen minutes at Beal’s former spot.

All three have performed admirably so far this season. Lin is second on the team in steals with seven and is averaging nearly three rebounds a game, while Lambert had a career day against the Mountain Hawks. The 6’3 junior had played 28 minutes in his first two seasons combined, tallying just two points and one rebound.

Last Saturday, he grabbed five rebounds to go along with five points and had his first career blocked shot.

The three wingmen give Sullivan good depth in the backcourt as he tries to settle on a rotation.

“I am not sure when we are going to establish what our rotation is going to be and what the roles are,” Sullivan said. “Some of it is getting sorted out.”

On the season, Pusar, who has shown the ability to drive to the basket, is shooting 60 percent from the floor and averaging 5.0 points per game. His nine assists rank third on the team.

Before the season, when asked what he was looking for in his third guard, Sullivan said, “We need a [third guard] who can make the extra pass, who can get to the basket, and, more importantly, guard people.”

Pusar has done all three of those so far.

—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.