CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – There is surely much being said about Boston College in the aftermath of Harvard’s third straight win over the Eagles. But let’s give credit to the winning team and acknowledge that they have something very good going right now. This is not a bad loss for the Eagles, much as it is a game they should win since it was at home.
With Ivy League play coming up, the Crimson are 10-3 with wins over Colorado and Boston College. Colorado looks like they will be around the bottom of the Big 12, but the Crimson dominated them. Boston College could finish in the top four in the ACC. The Crimson have done this with Kyle Casey, who received a number of preseason accolades, not playing well after a broken foot kept him out of preseason practice and early games.
The Crimson shortened the bench for this game, in part because the Eagles didn’t go big for a lot of the game. As such, Harvard played just seven players, but Andrew Van Nest played just four minutes. They got plenty out of the ones who played, as five scored in double figures, three of them underclassmen.
The best of them was freshman Laurent Rivard, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Rivard scored a career-high 23 points on a variety of jumpers and drives, continuing his excellent shooting. It’s easy to forget that he began his career going 0-11 against George Mason. Since that game, he is shooting over 45 percent from the field and nearly 40 percent from long range.
“I was a little disappointed, my confidence went down a little bit, but the coaches kept their confidence in me and that really helped me,” Rivard said of his first college game. “Their confidence in me built my confidence back up, and my teammates did as well.”
To a man, his teammates speak of his work ethic. Keith Wright, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, said the night after his debut, Rivard was in the gym shooting until 2 in the morning. They rave about the hours he puts in, and he’s seeing that start to pay off.
Rivard and Christian Webster combine to make this team deadly on the wing. Webster was white-hot early in the season, and while he hasn’t kept that pace up, he’s not exactly tailing off. He had 13 points on 3-5 shooting on Wednesday, but he got his baskets at crucial junctures and got to the foul line as well, something the Crimson as a team did very well as they were 23-24 from the line.
“He didn’t take a lot of shots, but he helped the team in so many different aspects,” Rivard said of Webster.
The Crimson’s perimeter unit has been excellent, and they all have clear identities. Brandyn Curry makes the team go from the point, while Oliver McNally is the emotional leader and constantly picks his spots well to score or find a teammate. Webster and Rivard are more shooters than scorers, but are showing they can score off the bounce as well.
Just after Christmas, Harvard had to rally against Monmouth to pull out a win at home. On Wednesday, Boston College played well early and had the Crimson playing from behind once again. Harvard then toughened up the defense, and by the second half the Eagles were playing out of character. Boston College has won largely by being efficient and poised offensively, showing great shot selection. But Harvard took them right out of that. The Crimson didn’t change the game plan, they just stayed the course and got tougher.
“I thought we were maybe on our heels a little bit, maybe a little shell-shocked that they jumped out on us,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “I thought we locked in a little better, and that really helped our confidence.”
Added McNally: “There was no change, but we needed to do what Coach tells us to, because he puts us in a good position to win the game.”
Harvard still has one more non-league game coming up with a trip to George Washington a week from Saturday. Their Ivy League slate opens with Saturday’s trip to Dartmouth, who they will see again two weeks later. They will play just three games between now and the first full Ivy weekend at the end of the month, which means they will have more practice time.
The Crimson are playing well without getting much from Casey, who fouled out with five points in 25 minutes on Wednesday. Amaker said conditioning is probably the big thing holding him back, especially because Casey is athletic and a live body. McNally thinks the practice time he will soon get is just what the doctor ordered.
“This is a great time, and I think he’s going to really take off over the next couple of weeks because of all the practice that we’ll have,” said the junior guard. “Some guys dread it – we don’t have many games, we have no class and we’re going to be in the gym for a while, but I think it’s going to be great for our team to sharpen up our offensive and defensive schemes. It’s especially so for Kyle, to get him back to where he was.”
As well as the Crimson are playing now, one can only imagine how good they can be if Casey is more like himself. They already have something good going, and their win over Boston College is just more evidence of that. It’s time the conversation shifted to how good Harvard is right now instead of making Boston College the center of it.
