CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Usually, the second time something happens in almost any context, it’s a little different than the first time. In the case of Harvard knocking off Boston College for the second straight year, that holds up. And as such, you shouldn’t dismiss Tommy Amaker’s comments when asked about this one relative to last season.
“It’s almost like last year was last year and doesn’t have any effect on this year,” said the third-year Harvard head coach. “Certainly, we were able to win last year and we felt great about it, but I’m not sure it has any bearing on this game and tonight.”
Amaker wasn’t just making coach-speak. Last year at the time, the Crimson looked like a team with young players at its core, as they had the ups and downs one would expect. They looked a little bit like a feast or famine team, at one point losing three straight in December. Then, with Jeremy Lin playing on an ankle he turned in practice just a few days earlier, the Crimson convincingly beat a BC team fresh off a big win at North Carolina a few days earlier.
This time around, there was some expectation that they could do it again. But the team is different. The Crimson are younger, but more talented, and they are healthier this time around, evidenced in part by senior Pat Magnarelli giving them six points and six rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench after not playing at all last season due to a knee injury. Harvard is also playing well despite dropping a close one a few days earlier at Connecticut, as the Crimson came in with an identical record to Boston College (6-2) and actually had a better RPI than the Eagles.
“I think last year was a little different than this year for us,” echoed senior guard Jeremy Lin. “I don’t think we were as good as we are this year, so this year we’re playing with a lot more confidence and we have a lot more chemistry. I think the freshmen last year are a year older and they’re playing much more confidently.”
Lin was again the catalyst for the win, as he so often is. He wasn’t as scintillating as he was last year, when he simply put on a show against the Eagles and was clearly the best player on the floor, but his impact on the game was every bit as undeniable as he scored 25 points on 7-10 shooting and also went 10-12 from the line, and handed out four assists. For good measure, 16 of those points came after the intermission. Several media members thought the assist number was a little low as well.
“I sound like a broken record, but I like sounding like a broken record when it comes to talking about him,” said Amaker. “He’s one of the better players in the country, and he’s proven it. It’s not like I’m just saying that to be saying it. He’s a tremendous player, he’s our playmaker.”
Lin certainly wasn’t a one-man show. The Eagles couldn’t contain Keith Wright inside, as the sophomore continues to grow up. He showed plenty of flashes last year, while having to miss time with mono and then taking time to catch up when he got back. Wright had a career-high 21 points on 9-14 shooting, the fourth straight game in which he has scored in double figures. In that time, he is shooting over 64 percent from the field.
While no one had a big rebounding game in terms of numbers, the Crimson out-rebounded the Eagles 31-30. That’s not a stat to be taken lightly, considering just days earlier the Eagles manhandled Miami on the glass by a 46-21 margin with 23 offensive rebounds. While the Eagles still had 12 offensive boards, including six from Corey Raji (who had the quietest double-double he’s ever had with 11 points and 11 rebounds), they couldn’t control the glass like they did on Sunday as they had 24 more misses they didn’t grab.
Amaker has talked often about the team’s defense in the second half, noting that it isn’t in front of their bench. With a young team, that can be a concern as there is more of a challenge on the team to communicate and read the offense without the coaches’ help. It seems they are coming along just fine in that regard, as on Wednesday they held the Eagles below 30 percent from the field in the second half. But that’s not an isolated case, as it actually makes three straight games where the Crimson have held the opponent below 35 percent from the field in the second half.
A big part of the second half defensive effort was when they extended the pressure they put on the Eagles. They tried to speed the Eagles up, and succeeded, while also making it tougher when the Eagles were able to get into a halfcourt set.
“When we came in after the first half, we weren’t satisfied with our effort,” said Lin. “We didn’t think we were playing hard enough, so in the second half we tried to make sure we talked a lot more on defense and were more active.”
The big catalyst defensively was freshman Brandyn Curry. His numbers on the night – six points on 2-6 shooting, one assist and two turnovers – aren’t going to leap out at anyone. But he was as valuable as anyone in this win, as he applied a lot of the ball pressure on Biko Paris and Reggie Jackson, who combined for nine assists and eight turnovers while going a combined 6-23 from the field. Entering the game, the duo had a nearly 2:1 assist/turnover ratio.
“We were kind of falling into a halfcourt game, where things were slowed down, but Brandyn just picked up full-court and really took them our of their comfort zone,” said Lin. “I think that’s what changed the whole game.”
Last year, Harvard’s win over Boston College looked more like a bad loss for the Eagles than a good win for Harvard. The Crimson went on to finish 6-8 in the Ivy League after an 8-6 mark in non-league play. This year, they have already won seven games, and it’s not unreasonable to think they could enter Ivy League play with a better record than that. In fact, they could be 10-4 or even 11-3 when they host Dartmouth to open league play, with games at Georgetown and Santa Clara and against George Washington at home being the toughest contests left.
Once league play comes, Harvard projects to be the best team to challenge two-time defending champion Cornell for the league title. The race for second projected to be wide open before the season, and right now the only team besides Cornell and Harvard with a .500 record or better is Columbia at 4-4.
The Crimson have a better team this year, so this should go down more as a good win for them than a bad loss for Boston College. It marks the first time in more than 50 years that they have won consecutive games against Boston College. And as is often the case in life, the second time was a little different from the first.
