Application accepted: Harvard cracks top 25
Bill Koch, National Columnist
Score one for the (really) smart guys in this week’s polls.
Harvard makes its debut at No. 24 in the Coaches Poll and at No. 25 according to the Associated Press, just rewards for an 8-0 start and five years of diligence by head coach Tommy Amaker. Thursday’s visit to No. 9 Connecticut will now be a matchup of ranked opponents, as the Crimson look to become the first Ivy League team to start a season with nine straight wins since Columbia in 1969-70.
This season’s success is the result of patient building by Amaker, who went just 8-22 during his debut season in 2007-08. Harvard already has a win to its credit over preseason top-25 member Florida State, a 46-41 rock fight that represents one of three victories that the Crimson claimed while capturing the Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas. Harvard also whacked Utah by 28 points and powered past Central Florida, 59-49, in the championship game on its way to becoming the first Ivy League team to land in the top-25 since Princeton in 1998.
Amaker has developed Harvard into a program that has posted back-to-back 20-win seasons, including a 23-7 mark last year. The Crimson tied the Tigers for the Ivy League regular season title, missing out on the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 1946 by losing a special one-game playoff. Harvard has its sights set on that elusive berth this season after receiving 16 of 17 first-place votes in the Ivy League’s preseason poll and returning reigning Player of the Year Keith Wright (below, courtesy Scott Cunningham), who averaged 14.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in 2010-11.
Its hammering of the Utes was a rare easy night for Harvard, which
has won each of its other seven games by 10 points or fewer. The
Crimson’s secret to winning ugly is a stingy defense that
ranks 10th in the nation (54.4 points per game) and a
veteran lineup that counts two seniors (Oliver McNally, Wright) and
three juniors (Brandyn Curry, Kyle Casey, Christian Webster) among
its top six men in minutes played.
Harvard looks set to continue its success this year and beyond, as Amaker has hit the recruiting trail hard. Much like in his two previous stops at Seton Hall and Michigan, Amaker has pushed Harvard to the point where its 2012 freshman class includes a trio of three-star recruits according to Rivals.com. The standout in that group is Mike Hall, a rangy 6-foot-10 forward from Atlanta who is ranked inside the Rivals top-150.
Amaker’s message to those recruits is a simple one. He can’t promise terrific facilities, sparkling year-round weather or athletes-only dorms that would be the envy of Fortune 500 executives. What Amaker sells is an education, a line on a résumé that will allow his players to trade four years of college for a life on scholarship.
And those thinking that Amaker might leave for greener pastures might want to read a little further into the personal section of his biography. He’s 7-8 against BCS schools since arriving at Harvard, plenty of opportunity to make a splash against bigger programs. The Crimson have beaten in-state ACC foe Boston College in three straight seasons, and Harvard figures to do it again when it meets the woeful Eagles (2-6) on Dec. 28. Amaker also isn’t likely to hear a name like Ed Martin or any other rogue booster that left him facing pending investigations by the FBI, IRS and the U.S. Department of Justice just to name a few when he took over the top spot for the Wolverines.
Last and certainly not least, Amaker’s better half, Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker, is a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and is also the director of McLean Hospital’s College Mental Health Program. In other words, she’s already playing in the Big East or the ACC – whatever conference you consider the best conference in the country – of her chosen field.
Her husband is on his way back into that conversation, and it doesn’t look like he’ll have to leave Cambridge to do it.
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