CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Contrary to popular belief, Harvard’s season didn’t end with Friday night’s loss to Cornell. To be sure, the Crimson need help – a lot of it, in fact – if they are to win the Ivy League now. But Tommy Amaker knows his team still has plenty to play for, and made sure his players knew it. And on Saturday night, they bounced back like a team on a mission as they blew out Columbia 77-57.
With the win, Harvard tied the program’s second-best total for wins in a season with 18, previously set in 1996-97. With at least four games left, they have a good chance to top the school record of 19 set back in 1945-46. That starts with their final two home games against Brown and Yale this weekend.
“It’s a long way from things being over, and we can’t allow our guys to lick our wounds or hang our heads,” said Amaker. “We’re at home, we’re excited, and we get a chance to suit back up and have a good feeling in our stomachs about how we played. We also talked about seeing if we can make history.”
Friday night’s loss wasn’t going to be easy to bounce back from. The next game was less than 24 hours away, but besides that, there was the big buildup to the game and the importance of it. But the Crimson looked just fine against a Columbia team that is struggling. On that night, the Crimson’s play had as much to do with the outcome as anything, although Lions head coach Joe Jones was a bit subdued talking about where his team stands.
Amaker said the possibility of this team making history resonated with the players. It showed right away as the Crimson were in control before the first half was out, shooting 55.6 percent from the field en route to a 45-26 halftime lead. They were 8-13 from long range, and they kept up the lead in the second half.
It’s important to remember that this is still a young team. The Crimson start two seniors, a sophomore and two freshmen, but that’s not all. The primary healthy reserves (senior Pat Magnarelli is still out with an injury) are freshmen or sophomores. While their heart and soul is senior Jeremy Lin, there’s a lot of young talent on this team. The youth showed in Friday night’s loss, but perhaps some of it showed on Saturday as well in being resilient.
While the Crimson need a good deal of help to win the Ivy League, postseason play can still happen. If the Crimson win out, an NIT bid would not seem far-fetched considering they have some good wins. It’s not likely the Ivy League will get two teams in the NIT, so if the Crimson finish third and the second place team gets an NIT bid, that might not come. But it is certainly a possibility, and that would add to this team’s place in the program’s history book.
Besides that, a chance for this young team to play again would obviously help from the standpoint of more experience and getting the feel of postseason play. That can only make the players who will return even more hungry next season, because they would surely want more after experiencing it one time.
The Crimson haven’t given up on winning the Ivy League, although they don’t control their own destiny now. But they still have plenty to play for, and four games left with the hope at least one more to follow.
