Amaker won’t dwell
Harvard injuries not an excuse
It’s fair to say Harvard should and will be a different team when two of its best players, Seth Towns and Bryce Aiken, return.
Until then, coach Tommy Amaker is keeping his focus on the present. And after a 10-point home loss to Northeastern on Friday, he knows his Crimson, the preseason favorites to win the Ivy League, have a lot of work to do.
“Honestly, no offense to anyone, I’m not thinking about that,” Amaker said of playing without Towns and Aiken. “I’m just thinking about who we have and making sure we get the most out of the guys that we have, and when guys become cleared and able to play medically, then we’ll work through that and figure that out.
“But until then, I’m not thinking anything about when they come back. We have these guys, and we should be better. (Friday) was a night that we should have played better to give ourselves a chance to deserve to win, and we certainly didn’t do that.”
Towns, last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year, and Aiken, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year two seasons ago who missed most of 2017-18 with an injury, both are injured and out indefinitely. It’s unclear when the juniors will return, but it’s not expected to be long-term.
In the meantime, Amaker is stressing the need for improvement, particularly on the defensive end, where his team has built its identity. The Crimson struggled at times in their season-opening win against MIT, and in their 81-71 loss to the Huskies, the defensive issues were apparent. They couldn’t stop Jordan Roland, who went off for 35 points.
“The takeaway for me is that our defense has to get tougher, and we have to understand how hard it is, about each possession in order to be a winning basketball team,” Amaker said. “Each possession we have to value, and how hard it’s going to be on the road, now that we’re looking at our next opponent, so we have our hands full.”
Harvard is hoping the loss to Northeastern can serve as a wake-up call, and with a slate of four consecutive road games that starts tonight at UMass, the Crimson will be tested.
“I think that sometimes it takes situations like this to kind of revamp the energy,” junior guard Christian Juzang said. “I think the energy has been good, but it can only get greater after something like this, where you now know the consequences of when you don’t lock down on the defensive end. We have to look at it as a positive.”
UMass braces
The Minutemen certainly will be ready when Harvard comes to Amherst tonight.
Coach Matt McCall is aware prognosticators have pegged Harvard as the top team in the state. After last year’s overtime loss to the Crimson, he motivated his players with a tweet that ranked Harvard first in Massachusetts.
So it would come as no surprise if he did something similar ahead of tonight’s rematch. “Our guys will be ready to go,” McCall said Friday. “Our guys know what’s at stake. You know, Harvard, everyone talks about how they’re the best team in the state, and rightfully so, for what they’ve been able to do. Coach Amaker’s done an unbelievable job.
“Let’s get some fans in Mullins here, let’s get this place rocking on Tuesday night, and let’s try to win a state championship.”
Reeves shines at PC
A.J. Reeves made his presence felt immediately in his first week with Providence.
The guard from Roxbury scored 29 points in his debut, a win against Siena, the most ever by a PC freshman in his first game. Yesterday, he was named the Big East rookie of the week.