mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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02-03-19 12:25 PM - Post#274910
In response to digamma
Definitely an important sweep, as wins against Yale will be hard to come by for the rest of the league, so that could end up being a crucial tiebreaker if Harvard needs it.
The suffocating defense was great to see, but might be skewed a bit by sub-par, three-point shooting from Yale and Brown. What has been great to see is Harvard putting together three-straight, two-point defensive performances - especially against two teams that do a nice job of asserting themselves near the rim (Brown - 60%; Yale - 68% shooting near the basket).
I'd expect the three-point shooting to correct in future weeks, which means Harvard won't continue to be able to blow teams out while scoring less than one point per possession over the course of a weekend. What was hidden in these two sleeper-hold games was that Harvard turned the ball over on 1-in-4 possessions on the weekend. What's more is that 1-in-10 possessions ended in steals and led to over 25% (26 points) of the opponent scoring for the weekend.
Many of the turnovers in the Brown game were the of the "flashes of brilliance gone awry" variety (nifty passes that the receiver wasn't ready for), which I'm okay with - but many were merely dribbling into bad spots or reckless drives that led to charges. (Notably, this is the area where Bryce needs to get his feel back most - he just can't beat players one-on-one yet like he used to and expected blocking calls went the no-call direction, ending with dangerous, live-ball turnovers).
Combine that with the awful FT shooting in the Brown game (including multiple missed front ends of one-and-ones), and Harvard missed a bunch of chances to extend the lead late in the first and when the game was still in doubt in the second. Those missed opportunities may be forgotten when the defense is pitching the basketball equivalent of a shutout, but in future weeks when good looks from three are falling more regularly, squandering those extra possessions from the line and with ugly turnovers could be the difference between putting away a winnable game and unnecessarily imperiling the outcome.
The biggest development of the weekend was bigs depth. Big Shot Bob looks really comfortable as a starter, and his ability to stretch the defense is a great weapon. Danilo started his sophomore year strong but had a miserable January - was great to see him back to himself, hitting threes and using his bounce around the rim to create second chances, en route to a 12 and 7 in just 19 minutes against Yale. Chris didn't have a very good weekend at all offensively, and it didn't seem to matter because of how well Danilo and Baker stepped up.
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