Harvard to Make Coaching Change after Sixteen Years
by Jay Pearlman
In a conference and at an institution where little changes over time, on Monday of this week Harvard Athletic Director Bob Scalise announced his decision not to renew the contract of Head Basketball Coach Frank Sullivan. In addition to ending Sullivan’s sixteen-year tenure as head coach, Scalise’s decision will most likely also end the tenures of long-time assistants Bill Holden and Lamar Reddicks.
For people close to the Harvard program, the announcement wasn’t a complete surprise. Still, the decision hits hard, particularly to those of us who admire Sullivan professionally and personally. Having seen every single Harvard game these last two years, it’s something I can speak to.
As Ivy League Commissioner Jeff Orleans (who is also an attorney) once advised me in connection with another matter, there are times when a reporter is too close to a situation to be objective, and this is surely one of those times for me. Frank allowed an ex-assistant coach and New York lawyer to produce his games on radio and serve as analyst, and recommended my company to Bill Coen of Northeastern in the same capacities. But while my non-objectivity is now on the record, certain things can be reported.
First, this is the first firing (“non-renewal”) of a Harvard basketball coach since I became close to the program around 1975; Satch Sanders left for the Celtics, Frank McLaughlin for Fordham, and Peter Roby for Reebok en route to his current position at the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern. And in fairness, while Frank Sullivan’s 178 Harvard wins make him the winningest coach in program history, admittedly his 245 losses also make him among the losingest.
Second, while the non-renewal happened this Monday, the decision was surely based on events of February 2006, over a year ago. More precisely, the decision was based on high expectations unfulfilled. It was predicted in many circles that the 2005-06 Harvard basketball team possessed talent second only to Penn in the conference. Senior forward Matt Stehle was projected as a Player of the Year candidate, and seven-foot center Brian Cusworth was considered ready; the two were deemed to constitute the league’s most formidable front court. And while I cautioned on radio on more than one occasion that success in low-major leagues is even more guard-dependent than at higher levels, I must admit that I, too, smiled at their prospects with Stehle and Cusworth scoring and rebounding.
The non-conference season in the fall of 2005 went well, but imperfectly. There was Cusworth’s annual injury, though he would return for the conference schedule. There was a non-competitive loss at Lehigh, a team not picked at the very top of the Patriot League. Cusworth’s absence could not be overcome in a loss across town at BU, also not the best in its conference. And while wins in Chestnut Hill against BC and over SMU in Dallas were never expected, those losses were very one-sided, evidence of a physical and particularly mental fragility that had been masked by earlier wins against lesser teams. Harvard returned from that one-sided loss in Dallas, in which it suffered a 26-0 run against, with a non-league record of 8-5.
With two wins against Dartmouth in January to start the league, those dreaded post-Christmas exams, a tough but exciting loss at Yale, and wins at Brown and Columbia, the Crimson had a 4-1 Ivy League start and a 12-6 overall record, which restored earlier expectations. And while one loss should not a season make, then came the most damaging loss I’ve ever seen a team have.
Leading all the way at Cornell, when Lenny Collins’ desperation last-second shot hit the side of the board, it appeared Harvard had held on for a second straight win on America’s worst road-trip. But the errant shot fell right into the hands of Cornell’s Andrew Naeve, whose put-back with under a second forced overtime. After three starters had fouled out (and deeper into the night on America’s worst two-day trip), Harvard fell in overtime.
That was followed by an expected (but non-competitive) home loss to Ibrahim Jaaber and Penn, and then for the second straight Saturday, victory was turned into defeat in the last second of play, this time on a corner jump shot by Princeton’s Noah Savage.
From there the team’s fragility took center stage, and it took 3 more weeks and 5 more losses to recover. In the process, a team predicted to finish second and harboring hopes of challenging Penn was 5-9 and tied for 6th in the league.
Unfairly, this year was an afterthought. One of the most improved players in the conference for the eighteen games he played, Cusworth could finally dominate inside and be the primary cause of a Harvard win. And at least in the non-conference season, sophomore point guard Drew Housman showed signs of improvement. But Stehle was gone, the remaining forwards unproductive, and opposition coaches figured out how to guard spot-up shooter Jim Goffredo. Even with Cusworth, this team wasn’t predicted to be strong, and true to form, in the eighteen games with Cusworth, the team finished 9-9, 2-2 in conference. With Cusworth gone, this writer feared no more games would be won; miraculously Frank Sullivan’s undermanned team won 3 of the remaining 10 games.
Quoted in the March 6 Boston Globe, Yale coach James Jones told John Powers that “He loses Cusworth and they still win three Ivy games. To be honest with you, I didn’t think they’d win any. But Frank reinvented the wheel and maximized the talent he had.”
Obviously, some things have changed in the sixteen years Sullivan coached Harvard. Tuition, room and board more than doubled to an annual $45,000 (remember, no Ivy scholarships), and the academic requirements for admission became even stiffer. Like lots of fellow alums, I’m not certain I’d get in today. Consistent with those truths, the quality of play dropped noticeably, not just at Harvard but throughout the Ivy League. Witness this season’s Princeton team, perhaps the least athletic in America, with Brown not far behind. And watch Penn closely as this crop of seniors graduates to see if the team playing in college basketball’s most storied arena falls back to resemble a Division III team in the coming years.
And, quite obviously, it’s easier to fire a coaching staff than make other, broader changes. Bill Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s Dean of Admissions, is world-renowned in his field, honest, brilliant, fair, and a friend. He admitted to this writer on the radio that something called Academic Indices doesn’t really level the playing field among Ivy League schools. By this writer’s observation, while basketball was Harvard’s third-most important sport when I was in school (behind football and hockey), it is now at best fourth, and perhaps further down the list (women’s hockey is now ahead, and perhaps women’s basketball, and various squash and crew teams). Harvard has one less paid assistant coach than most other schools, and respectfully, it has also been this reporter’s observation that most of the things surrounding the Harvard’s men’s basketball program are done in so unassuming, non-competitive, egalitarian a manner as to show that program not very important at all. So just firing the coaches is hardly the answer.
We’re rapidly reaching the limit of what I can report even after acknowledging my lack of objectivity. Like everywhere else, the main issue at Harvard is recruiting. To facilitate recruiting (for the next coach), at the very least Harvard must show more flexibility on admissions (academically), not require that basketball applicants jump through “hoops” other institutions smooth over, and allow basketball applications to be submitted through April or May rather than January 1. And while fellow alum, member of numerous university committees, and program booster Tom Stemberg reported to me that the brutal post-Christmas exam schedule will be corrected “next year or the year following,” I have yet to hear definitively from either Scalise or the Dean of the College if or when Harvard exams will be moved up to mid-December.
Finally, notwithstanding last season’s unfulfilled expectations, I can tell you that Harvard is losing a good coach, and a very good man, a man each of us would be proud to send our sons to play for, knowing that the most positive examples were being set. I for one hope this good man stays in basketball, stays in the college game, and – selfishly – stays in Boston. On behalf of my fellow alums and those who love Harvard’s basketball program, thank you Coach Sullivan.
