Harvard has found its groove, and is making it into the NCAA March Madness this year after the longest time. Penn’s loss at the Tuesday night match was Harvard’s gain. The latter had previously beat Columbia by 77-70 (overtime) last Friday night and followed it up by beating Cornell 67-63 on the Saturday match sealing off a berth in the NCAA tournament after six decades. Last appearance of the college was back in 1946 in the tournament. Not only that, the Penn state loss put Harvard on top winning the Ivy League. It’s been a grueling long season for the teams, with close matches and intense completion, which at the end saw Harvard running away with the grand prize.
Harvard’s team picked up on their game last season with a record 23 school wins in the men’s basketball which they then surpassed this year with 3 more wins, which incidentally is now the 101st season. And in the league games, Harvard didn’t beat their own records but equaled it with last season’s 12-2 record. Crimson, Harvard’s team, has been putting in dedicated effort for quite some time now, which finally resulted in their winning the Ivy League. The present coach, Tommy Amaker had joined the club back in 2007 and has been responsible in shaping the team over the years. And last year, 2011, his efforts finally provided dividends with Harvard jointly winning the Ivy League title with Princeton. Harvard had an excellent stint this year with a 28 game winning streak back home. The dream run ended when Penn bagged a win with Zach Rosen scoring on two free throws in the final seconds of the game. This streak has been the second longest in the NCAA. Other than this effort, Harvard’s season is also remembered for their biggest win against Florida State back in November. The win is expected to put Crimson back on the NCAA tournament seeding process. At present, the Crimson is ranked at 36.
Back in 64, Crimson lost out of the game in the semis against Ohio State and consequently lost out of the tournament. They didn’t manage to win against NYU in the same tournament when fighting for the third place finish.
With the NCAA tournament kick starting, and the Harvard making its entry, let’s take a look at the side and its prospects in the March Madness. Players to watch out for in the games are Junior Kyle Casey and Keith Wright. Kyle had picked up 19 points in the Columbia game while Keith had bagged 16 points off the OT win. Keith has his eyes set on teaming up with his former teammate Jeremy Lin in the NBAs. With the team faring so well lately, it is expected that they will receive a better share of seeding than what other Ivy League teams have received in the recent years. Highest seeding received by an Ivy League team was Princeton, back in 1998 when they ended the season at eighth position.
