CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – From several standpoints, Harvard’s 82-66 win over Colorado is hardly an upset, although casual fans will look at conference affiliation and think it is. An Ivy League team knocking off a Big 12 team? Must be an upset.
But that’s just not the case here. The better team won, and they expected to win.
The home game is the first noteworthy item. Home teams usually win, especially when it’s a good team as Harvard is. The Crimson went 11-2 at home last season, including 6-0 in non-league games, and have established at least one thing about playing in Lavietes Pavilion.
“We expect to win every game here at home,” said junior Keith Wright. “This is our home court, so we want to protect it.”
The Crimson said they expected to win this game, even with star forward Kyle Casey clearly at less than 100 percent coming off a broken foot injury. Casey played 13 minutes, scoring one point and grabbing three rebounds before fouling out. But they didn’t need him in this one.
It helps that Colorado is not very good. The Buffaloes didn’t appear to run much of an offense, especially in the first half as there was mostly one-on-one play. To be fair, they are adjusting to a new head coach and have had an already-thin frontcourt hurt more by a torn ACL suffered by Shane Harris-Turks early in practice that will force him to redshirt this season. But that all added up to one more reason Harvard should have won this game, and did in fairly dominating fashion.
The Crimson are getting plenty of production from several players, perhaps none more so than Wright. The junior post player is scoring most of the time he puts the ball up, shooting nearly 74 percent from the field on the season after going 8-11 against the Buffaloes for 19 points. He added nine rebounds and six assists, and did it at a good time as a handful of NBA scouts were in the building.
“He’s just been a stellar performer for us this whole season thus far,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “He’s anchored the interior for us. When you have an interior post presence that is playing at the level where he is right now, being very productive and efficient, it allows our perimeter players to have the freedom to drive, to penetrate and dish, and sometimes those shots don’t have as much pressure on them because we have the ability to have a big guy inside that can cause people to collapse.”
One player who has certainly benefited is sophomore Christian Webster. The Ivy League Player of the Week last week is actually the team’s leading scorer, and he went for 20 more against Colorado. He has more of a green light this season and is taking full advantage of it, and Wright’s play inside is helping to open up the perimeter. Even when he struggled from the field against Bryant, he came through with the winning shot in the final minute, so it’s clear confidence is not an issue, which his teammates have noticed.
“His confidence is through the roof right now, and it should be,” said point guard Brandyn Curry. “Even when he’s missing shots, he shouldn’t turn down an open look. He’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen. We tell him all the time, if you have an open look, take it.”
For his part, Curry has teamed with Oliver McNally to form a solid backcourt combination. McNally went for 17 points against Colorado, making all three of his shots from deep. The two combined for 13 assists and five turnovers and set a tone as the Crimson had 22 assists on 25 made field goals.
The Crimson kept their foot on the gas pedal in the second half, shooting 60 percent from the field to make it a double-digit ballgame. They led by double digits for all but the first 15 seconds of the second half, as an early three by McNally put them up by 12. Although star guards Alec Burks and Cory Higgins combined for 41 points for the Buffaloes, it was a deceiving total as they didn’t dominate the game by a long shot.
The Crimson were the better team on Sunday by a good margin, so the victory shouldn’t be a surprise. The only thing that might be surprising is how convincing it was, especially with their best player not giving them much as he returns from an injury.
