NOTEBOOK: Last Shot for Seniors to Leave Mark

For Harvard’s seniors, the 2005-06 season has been a disappointing end to a difficult career with the Crimson.

As freshmen, captain Matt Stehle, swingman Mike Beal and forward Zach Martin looked on as the team started 10-5 but collapsed down the stretch to finish 12-15. In their sophomore campaign, the trio suffered through a team-record 23-loss season. Last year, the program rebounded to the tune of a 7-7 record in league play, setting up high hopes for the 2005-06 season, which have been dashed by the team’s current seven-game losing streak.

This weekend, the final one of the season, is the last chance for those seniors to snap the streak and restore the program’s winning ways. With a pair of victories over Cornell and Columbia at home, Harvard would finish at 14-13, above .500 for the first time since going 14-12 back-to-back years in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

“That’s pretty big for us, to send those guys out right, especially with a winning record,” said junior shooting guard Jim Goffredo. “[The season’s] become what it is, you kind of have to adjust your goals as things go on. Definitely getting back above .500 is a huge deal.”

“To go out with a winning record and send the seniors out on a high note, that’s the number one thing on our mind,” added senior center Brian Cusworth, who still has one semester of eligibility remaining.

Winning Friday night would prevent the Crimson from tying its worst league losing streak since 1970, when Harvard dropped the final eight Ivy games of the season, and would break a streak of four straight years in which the team has lost its final two league games. Prior to that, the Crimson won the last two of the year for five consecutive seasons.

A strong final weekend would also allow Stehle, Beal and Martin to end their tenure with the Crimson on a high note, rather than with the continued frustration engendered by prolonged losing.

“I think it’s real important for the three of them, to go out [feeling] that the program is back to the winning seasons,” coach Frank Sullivan said. “We didn’t get the championship, we’ve had some heartbreaking situations go on in the Ivy League season, it’s not what we’d hoped it would be, but a winning season is something that I think would be important for them as they walk out.”

STEHLE CURTAIN CALL

Saturday’s tilt with Columbia will mark the last game in the career of Harvard’s captain, Matt Stehle. Barely recruited out of nearby Newton South high school, Stehle has gone on to become one of the best players in school history. Stehle, who has started every game since the beginning of his sophomore season, emerged in the 2003-04 season to lead the team in rebounds, then built himself into a first-team all-Ivy player last year before assuming the team captaincy this year.

The left-handed power forward was also recently named an ESPN Magazine Academic All-American, earning second-team honors to become the first Crimson player so recognized since guard Tim Hill ‘99.

“The biggest thing about Matt has been his character,” Sullivan said. “From the beginning to the end he’s displayed nothing but high-quality basketball values, and high-quality values towards the team.”

After averaging 15 points and a league-leading 9.1 rebounds a game this season, he currently has compiled 1,126 points and 679 rebounds in his career, and will finish 14th and sixth in school history in those respective categories. He has 105 career blocks, tied with teammate Brian Cusworth for second-most in Harvard history, in addition to career totals of 175 assists and 140 steals.

“We don’t get that many players that can touch that many columns on a stat sheet on a night-in, night-out basis,” Sullivan said. “He’s a special player in that respect.”

THE HUNTED

Part of Harvard’s fall from the top of the standings can be explained by the fact that, for the first time in several years, other teams have been gunning for the Crimson. After receiving a preseason ranking of number two in the Ivies, and beating quality opponents such as Holy Cross and Albany to begin the year 12-6 and 4-1 in the league, Harvard found itself in an unusual position—having Ivy opponents aiming at upsetting the Crimson, rather than the other way around.

“What [the team] experienced for the first time was the feeling that people were really trying to beat us this year,” Sullivan said. “We generally saw some teams genuinely get excited about beating us. Within the context of our league, we all of a sudden became a quality win, and we took a good shot from a lot of teams.”

Now, Harvard is back in the role of the hunter.

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.