BOSTON – There are no moral victories to be had when you’re favored to win your league and thought of as a team that could have the resume of an NCAA Tournament at-large team. So go ahead and look for a bright side in Harvard’s 84-79 loss at Northeastern on Friday night, and while you might find a few, they’re cold comfort from a competitive standpoint.
They lost the game no matter who played and when, or how they played at certain times, although all of those offer lessons for the team. One lesson will stand out more: a need to start better.
“I thought their first half performance, getting us in the hole right out of the blocks, was a huge difference in the game,” said head coach Tommy Amaker.
Jordan Roland and the Huskies blitzed the Crimson with a quick 13-2 run, and they would lead by as many as 17 on three occasions in the first half. So when Harvard came alive in the second half with a run of nine unanswered to start a 16-2 run, it was really too little, too late. They didn’t exactly run out of gas, as they would get within three on two occasions late, but they never had an answer for Roland, who had 42 points on 13-19 shooting, including 6-9 from deep, and always seemed to come up with a basket at a crucial juncture.
Harvard played without stars Seth Towns and Bryce Aiken, but the Crimson have more than enough to win the Ivy League and games like this, and that becomes evident quickly. It’s an experienced group that still saw four seniors in the starting lineup on Friday night, including rim protector Chris Lewis and Robert Baker, who has a great deal of length and athleticism not often seen in the Ivy League. They brought Noah Kirkwood, a versatile sophomore who could start for a lot of teams, off the bench, as well as highly-touted freshman Chris Ledlum.
Kirkwood and Danilo Djuricic each gave them a big lift off the bench on Friday night, especially when the Crimson needed it in the first half. Kirkwood led them with 18 points and three assists, while Djuricic added nine points in 12 minutes but seemed like he was out there longer since he was in a lot of plays. Their efforts couldn’t save them, though.
“We should have overall, really solid depth,” Amaker said. “We’ve got to get off to a good start, and that didn’t happen this evening.”
Their play didn’t make up for the starting unit, which was okay but hardly what they are capable of. The box score is a bit deceiving in that respect. Lewis nearly had a double-double with 17 points on 7-9 shooting and nine rebounds, but didn’t feel like a big presence. Baker was the same with nine and eight, but felt invisible for stretches. The perimeter of Christian Juzang, Justin Bassey and Rio Haskett didn’t have their finest hour, especially dealing with Roland in the early going.
Aiken should return before long as he is bothered by a calf injury, but he’s been hurt before as he’s played just 32 games the past two seasons thanks to a knee injury that cost him almost a calendar year of action. Towns, meanwhile, has not played since injuring his knee in the Ivy League championship game in the 2017-18 season, and it’s not known when he might return. Both would be Ivy League Player of the Year candidates if healthy; Towns won the award two years ago, becoming the third sophomore to win it.
In the interim, Juzang, the older brother of Kentucky freshman Johnny, has steadily developed into a solid floor leader. Once Aiken returns, he might come off the bench, or they could use him and Aiken as two ball-handlers. With that, and Kirkwood able to play a few positions, Amaker will have some lineup options, especially on the perimeter.
The most important thing for this team to do appears to be getting off to a good start. The Crimson also started slowly in Sunday’s win over Maine, needing a dominant second half to win comfortably. Like any deep team, the Crimson will be better off trying to overwhelm teams with their depth rather than relying on their depth to save them.
The Crimson have to do this soon whether they get Aiken and/or Towns back or not. Their schedule doesn’t get any easier, as they take on Buffalo in Toronto, then head to the Orlando Invitational on Thanksgiving weekend, where they take on Texas A&M, either Maryland or Temple and could get Davidson, Marquette or USC in the third game. They come home to take on UMass, then don’t play at home again until Big West favorite UC Irvine comes to town after the calendar turns over to 2020.
And as if that’s not enough, after they open Ivy League play with Dartmouth at home, they play the next five on the road.
The Crimson have more than enough talent and experience to win through all of that. This isn’t something they don’t have a prayer of handling. Getting their stars back will help, but getting off to a good start will help even more.
