HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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11-22-15 02:48 PM - Post#195748
After a slow start, Harvard up 29-18 with 15 minutes left. Zena has 13pts, 4rbs, and opposing centers have 9 fouls already with Clifford (3) and Diallo (4) on the bench.
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OneIvyOne
Junior
Posts: 201
Loc: West
Reg: 08-28-13
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11-22-15 03:31 PM - Post#195749
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Harvard loses by 13. Weak offense, worse freethrow shooting.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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11-22-15 03:46 PM - Post#195751
In response to OneIvyOne
Shot 7-13 and 9-23. Guess which is 3's and which is FT's.
Zena one rebound short of double-double: 20-9.
Gave up 53 second half points. Ouch.
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mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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11-22-15 10:41 PM - Post#195796
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
I actually came away optimistic.
This was a particularly brutal stretch to open the season, and Harvard looked competitive for vast stretches and never got embarrassed. More importantly, the big problems were very fixable.
The defense was great until everyone got tired and the rotations suffered.
Harvard will actually have to make some FTs and stop committing silly TOs, but I'm happier that those are the problems than Harvard having no outside shooting or stagnant flow or things that plagued the squad last year and didn't have any clear way to be fixed in season.
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whitakk
Masters Student
Posts: 523
Age: 32
Reg: 11-11-14
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11-22-15 11:59 PM - Post#195802
In response to mrjames
This was a very "glass half full" game. Optimists will be optimistic, pessimists will be pessimistic.
Zena outplayed a power-conference frontcourt, and the shooters give them the core of a really good offense. And the defense was great for 20 minutes.
But the lack of depth hurts, both for fatigue and foul trouble. Free throws will remain an issue if Zena and Egi are shooting most of them. Turnovers could be too, if McCarthy doesn't develop quickly.
http://www.nycbuckets.com/2015/11/three-thought s-b...
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CrimsonWest
Sophomore
Posts: 106
Reg: 10-17-11
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11-23-15 09:06 AM - Post#195810
In response to whitakk
Foul shooting is a major issue. Hopefully, it will improve. To me, what is more concerning is the point guard play, or lack of point guard play. While McCarthy is listed as a point guard, he is not playing like one. He has had 1 assist in the last 2 games. That is a 0.1 A/TO ratio in those games. Evan Cummins has as many assists as he does for the season! While the TOs are high, I chalk that up to the speed of the game and hopefully the game will slow down for him as the season progresses. IMHO, he needs to become more of a facilitator and not a shoot first guard. The announcers mentioned twice there needs to be more balance between his scoring and distributing. I agree.
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mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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11-23-15 10:37 AM - Post#195813
In response to whitakk
Yeah, I completely agree. I might put it in Bayesian terms, where if you felt like this team would struggle to be Top 200 coming into the year, you probably came away from this three-game stretch lowering your odds that the Crimson will be that bad (i.e. you're more optimistic than your "Bayesian prior" would have suggested). If you felt like the Harvard fans were sandbagging and that this team probably had enough talent to be best in the Ivies, you've come away from this three-game stretch lowering your odds that is the case (i.e. you're less optimistic than your "Bayesian prior" would have suggested).
Also working in Harvard's favor is that many of the things that aren't particularly good right now are things that are pretty unlucky. Oppts shooting 83% from FT - not likely to continue. Harvard shooting 56% from the line - not likely to continue (yes, Zena and Egi are bad, but they aren't taking all of them, and it's incredibly difficult to finish under, say, 65% for the season). The oppt steal rate should moderate as well. That, alone, should bump Harvard up about 50 or so spots in KenPom (it's very easy to make up rankings spots around the middle).
The one BIG issue I still see, though, is that Harvard's possession length is 25.1 seconds. Obviously, it's very early and small sample, but it's humorous that it's 4.5 seconds LONGER than last season (to be fair, when the steal rate is as anemic as it currently is, having almost no fast break opportunities will cause the poss length to balloon). If that doesn't change, the offense won't improve. Amaker must modify the motion offense to give the green light for Corey or Corbin to take the first good look that they get. You can't have an efficient offense when you're primarily taking shots with 5 or fewer seconds on the clock.
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jadwin
Sophomore
Posts: 191
Age: 74
Reg: 01-14-15
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11-23-15 02:33 PM - Post#195832
In response to mrjames
Good description as to where Harvard currently stands. It was very surprising that some national "experts" were predicting Harvard to finish 1 or 2 this year. These experts probably do not have muck knowledge regarding the Ivies. It struck me that Harvard was probably the 4th best team in the Ivies this year with maybe a swing to 3rd or 5th. I do not believe that they would have competed for the Ivy title this year even with Chambers and the Crimson may be much better off to have Chambers next year with the outstanding freshmen class plus the Big E.
BC is really not a very good team and Harvard's play was not the usual Amaker team other than good defense at times but the root cause appears to be talent for this year.
I hope with the strong Harvard class coming in that a number of Ivy League teams step up their recruiting and game as they will have no other choice if they want to be competitive. Next year should be a good battle between Harvard and Princeton if Chambers and Brase return healthy.
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dtannenwald
Freshman
Posts: 14
Age: 38
Reg: 11-24-15
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11-24-15 08:26 PM - Post#195893
In response to jadwin
Hi Everyone,
Here's a link to my piece for Harvard Magazine on the last couple games.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/11/harvard-mens- ba...
Thanks for reading!
-David
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OneIvyOne
Junior
Posts: 201
Loc: West
Reg: 08-28-13
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11-25-15 10:09 AM - Post#195922
In response to dtannenwald
Thank you for posting the link.
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