Men's Basketball: Calm, composed squad outclasses Crimson at Lavietes Pavilion

As a Harvard graduate student, I’m often asked whether I’ll root for Princeton or Harvard as a contest between the Ivy League rivals nears. The questioners are never Princetonians. For them, the answer would be obvious.

At last Friday’s men’s basketball game between Princeton and Harvard, however, I wasn’t actively cheering for either side, since the only ticket I could get for the sold-out game was in press row, where it’s generally expected that your obvious partiality be suppressed.

Yes, an Ivy League game was sold out. This caught me completely off guard. However, once I arrived at Lavietes Pavilion, occupancy 2195, I decided it was really more of a travesty that it’s not sold out every week. To the credit of Harvard fans, the place was hopping with excitement over the Crimson finally fielding a quality team. That the only banners hanging in Lavietes Pavilion honor the women’s squad must be a constant reminder of the team’s historical ineptitude.

With media outlets as popular as Sports Illustrated crying emergence of Harvard hoops, Princeton came in undaunted and harassed the Crimson to a 29-20 lead at the half off 50-percent shooting from the field. Though in the end the Crimson was just a few inches away from overtime, as superstar guard Jeremy Lin’s NBA range three-point attempt barely missed, the Tigers’ defense of the arc in the final moments saved the game.

The Harvard undergraduates did their best rowdy-student-section impression, but they seemed to lack experience. As they taunted Dan Mavraides with “airball” for an earlier mistake, he calmly swished a three right in front of the taunting section, pointing at the now-silent crowd as he ran back on defense. With the Crimson down more than 10 points in the middle of the game, the students consistently chanted “I believe that we will win” while jumping up and down emphatically. You almost had to admire their spirit, if not their effectiveness.

In fact, the closest Harvard got to winning was when Princeton fans got into the act with 24.2 seconds remaining and Mavraides on the free throw line with a 54-49 lead. Finally feeling a bit cocky, they started up their own “I believe” chant, but if there’s one thing Princeton alums should know, it’s that it’s not over until it’s over. Mavraides, who otherwise had an excellent outing for the Tigers, promptly missed a free throw and fouled Crimson guard Christian Webster on a successful three-point attempt to bring Harvard within a single point with 12 seconds remaining.

To the Tigers’ credit, they neither acknowledged the Harvard hoopla nor appeared overly exultant over their near escape. Head coach Sydney Johnson ’97, a league veteran, knows how quickly things can change with a single unexpected loss, and he wisely declined to even speculate on the final league standings. Still, after my four years at Princeton included three seasons in which the team finished sixth or worse, it’s nice to have reason to hope.

Senior guard Marcus Schroeder’s freshman year was one of those disaster seasons. He had a number of games that year in which he played close to 40 minutes. As well as Schroeder played, it’s never a good sign of the team’s well-being to have a freshman play that much. This year’s team is much more balanced, and Johnson made good use of all that was available to him on Friday night, allowing junior forward Kareem Maddox to shine off the bench with three impressive blocks and 14 points. It’s clear that Schroeder is leading a totally different team from the one I watched struggle to a 2-12 Ivy record in former head coach Joe Scott ’87’s final season.

“We’re getting more confident in ourselves and coming together as a team,” Schroeder said of the team’s mentality. “There’s more work ahead — it’s not time to look back yet.”

I won’t be at the Cornell-Princeton game next weekend, but I hope Princeton will offer as enthusiastic a welcome as Harvard did last Friday. Just stay away from the “I believe” chant. It’s bad luck as far as I’m concerned.

Correction

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Kareem Maddox is a freshman. He is a junior.