Reading the Ivy tea leaves – Harvard roundup

• I’m excited to see how the league performs across the board (i.e., nonconference, in conference, and post-season). Over the last few years, the Ivy League has made a lot of waves nationally. The best example of this is Harvard with a pair of NCAA tournament wins. But Yale beating UConn (and making a deep run in the 2014 CIT), Columbia battling Kentucky, and Brown beating Providence demonstrate that the league as a whole is getting really, really good. If multiple Ivy teams pick up signature non-conference wins and do post-season damage, I think it would help to build the Ivy brand, bolster the conference’s appeal to recruits, and (at some point down the road) create the possibility of an Ivy team getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. So I’m very excited to watch the league as a whole this year.
• On a related note, I’m excited to see how Harvard performs in conference play. Obviously, losing Siyani is huge, and it’s reasonable to expect that it will take some time to adjust. But by the time Harvard gets to conference play, the team will have had some time to sort through that. Paired with how strong and balanced the league is this year, it will be really interesting to see how the team fares in the back-to-backs in league play. I think February is going to be a really fun month.
• Finally, I’m excited to see what kind of production Amaker gets from this year’s freshman class. Obviously next year’s recruiting class has received a lot of attention (and rightfully so), whereas this year’s freshmen haven’t received that much ink. That could serve as motivation for them. It could also mean that we’re overlooking some serious talent. Is Corey Johnson the next Laurent Rivard? How big an impact will Weisner Perez have? I’m really curious to see how much the Class of 2019 contributes.

As for predictions, I think the league as a whole is going to be extremely, extremely competitive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with a three-team playoff. I’m reluctant to offer a prediction of where Harvard will place specifically (it seems too close to call), but I do think Harvard will exceed expectations (i.e., place higher than fourth, where the Crimson was ranked in the preseason poll). This is in part because they’re apt to be strong defensively. Coach Amaker emphasizes this, and he has some great defenders on the roster (particularly Agunwa). I also don’t think any five-time champion relinquishes that title easily. Finally, I think coach Amaker is really good at taking the pulse of his teams, and I think he’s likely to do that throughout the season, if there are some ups and downs.

Michael James (@Ivybball), Harvard ’06: Whew. A year to relax. After five-consecutive years of title chases with nothing ever coming easy, Harvard fans can just enjoy some basketball without the weight of great expectations so often thrust upon the program. For the Crimson faithful, this will be a year of learning more than anything else. Can Tommy Amaker figure out the right mix of personnel to run an efficient offense in the new world of the 30-second shot clock? Which of the myriad three-star recruits on the Harvard roster deserved such acclaim and which will likely spend the rest of their days parked on the end of the bench? Perhaps most importantly, which paltry few returning players next season will be successful in battling for playing time against Siyani Chambers and a seven-man recruiting class currently ranked 8th nationally at ESPN.com?. But for those Crimson partisans who enjoyed the gut-wrenching fear of watching Amaker navigate the Ivy slate as a favorite… regularly scheduled broadcasting will resume in 2016-17.

Individually, I am very excited to see how the young backcourt shapes up. The comparisons between Tommy McCarthy and Siyani Chambers, both thrust into starting roles as freshmen, are readily apparent, but McCarthy’s game initially reminds me more of another fantastic guard, Oliver McNally. I think the play of Corey Johnson and the development of Andre Chatfield will also be key to Harvard’s success or failure this season.

David Freed, Harvard Crimson sports administration reporter: The 2015-16 Harvard men’s basketball team is long on talent and short on experience. Even after graduating two All-Ivy starters and losing point guard Siyani Chambers to a torn ACL, the team has well-regarded recruits starting and coming off the bench at every position. The biggest hole remains at point guard—Chambers and graduated senior Wesley Saunders handled the ball on almost every Crimson possession last year. The presumptive replacements for Chambers, juniors Corbin Miller and Matt Fraschilla, have never been primary ball handlers for Amaker’s squad. In the front court, the team hopes that junior Zena Edosomwan can make the expected third-year jump to All-Ivy production. Sophomores Chris Egi and Andre Chatfield, sparsely used reserves a year ago, will be counted on heavily to add depth to a squad whose only seniors—Agunwa Okolie and Evan Cummins—combined for just 6.7 points a game last year.