The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-31-05 02:08 PM - Post#3062
After an impressive win on Saturday at Cornell, which is tough at home (just ask the Lions), Harvard hung in all the way on Sunday at Columbia and very nearly pulled it out. Particularly impressive was their last-second play: They scored on what looked like a set play in the last 1.3 seconds of the first half (court-length pass to one guy, who batted it back to another for an open jumper; in my amazement I didn't notice who they were), and then at the end of the second half they came very, very close to tying it on a Stehle layup after in-bounding under their own basket with .9 left. This year's team is much improved over last year's, and while they will have a rougher time against the rest of the league, things are looking up for the Crimson. So let's hear some chatter, Harvard fans!
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SFlaQuaker
Postdoc
Posts: 2427
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Harvard gets its CU's worth
01-31-05 03:10 PM - Post#3063
In response to The Lion King
Nice play on words w/ the title.
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mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Harvard gets its CU's worth
01-31-05 03:32 PM - Post#3064
In response to The Lion King
Harvard got hosed by the officials. The Stehle foul on the scramble for the loose ball was ridiculous as was the no-call underneath on the attempted layup that immediately proceeded it. Stehle also got hip checked/undercut on the tip with no call. Pretty brutal way for that one to end. That being said, if the Crimson didn't come out with Saturday legs and had gotten some shots to fall from the beginning, that wouldn't have mattered.
Columbia did a great job knocking down threes (as has become a theme in its encounters with Harvard) and shutting down the Harvard post players. Taking the events that came to pass at the end of the game as given, the Lions' three-point shooting absolutely was the difference.
2-2 could easily be 4-0. In all other conferences, that merely puts you on the track to a lower seed in the postseason tourney. In the Ivies, that means your season is over. Maybe someday it won't.
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light blue heavy
maximus
Posts: 164
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Harvard gets its CU's worth
01-31-05 03:50 PM - Post#3065
In response to mrjames
In fairness- there was no way that it should have been harvard's ball: that baseball pass was out on Cusworth. I wrote about this on the columbia board: Stehle has a point on the shot, but it wasnt cut-and-dried, he did foul Mack, and thats a lot of complaining from a guy who got away with at least a half-dozen travels.
For the record: I was talking after the game with a member of columbia's women's team, and she was shocked that Sullivan didnt call a timeout after the steal by Cusworth with 26 seconds left. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but now i think it was a decent decision to let them play, as harvard was on a run.
On the other hand, as TLK said, Harvard had been knocking down the set plays really well. so I guess I agree with my baller friend. I never really thought all that highly of Sullivan anyways, and I think he plays Cusworth outside too much. That might not be him, though.
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Anonymous
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Re: Harvard gets its CU's worth
01-31-05 03:58 PM - Post#3066
In response to mrjames
Maybe someday 16-1 will mean your season is over 
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The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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refereeing
01-31-05 04:32 PM - Post#3067
In response to light blue heavy
I can't comment on the last-second calls, since I was at the other end of the court. In general, though, I thought the refs were playing fast and loose all game. They'd call every little bump and shove for a while (Columbia went into the double bonus midway through the first half), and then two guys would practically pull knives on each other fighting for a rebound and there would be no call. As in the Princeton-Temple game, we tend to focus on last-second calls, but these refs were all over the place for the whole game. I'm not saying they favored one side or the other, but they were hard to get a fix on.
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mrjames
Professor
Posts: 6062
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: refereeing
01-31-05 11:45 PM - Post#3068
In response to The Lion King
One thing's for sure, the reffing was consistent -- consistently bad. We tend to focus on the last second calls, because those appear to have the most impact on the outcome, but that shouldn't serve to obscure the fact that they were pretty awful throughout. Lots of blatant stuff that they just couldn't pick up on.
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ShankarD
newbie
Posts: 7
Reg: 12-04-04
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Re: Harvard gets its CU's worth
02-01-05 05:05 AM - Post#3069
In response to light blue heavy
Quote:
For the record: I was talking after the game with a member of columbia's women's team, and she was shocked that Sullivan didnt call a timeout after the steal by Cusworth with 26 seconds left. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but now i think it was a decent decision to let them play, as harvard was on a run.
On the other hand, as TLK said, Harvard had been knocking down the set plays really well. so I guess I agree with my baller friend. I never really thought all that highly of Sullivan anyways, and I think he plays Cusworth outside too much. That might not be him, though.
If you have a premium subscription, you can listen to the postgame audio. Regarding the second to last Harvard possession, Sullivan said he couldn't remember what they were trying to run, but he trusted his senior guards, Giovachinni and Rogus, in that situation. I was surprised Sullivan didn't take a timeout as it unfolded, and I remain surprised after his postgame comments.
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ShankarD
newbie
Posts: 7
Reg: 12-04-04
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Re: refereeing
02-01-05 05:07 AM - Post#3070
In response to The Lion King
Quote:
I can't comment on the last-second calls, since I was at the other end of the court. In general, though, I thought the refs were playing fast and loose all game. They'd call every little bump and shove for a while (Columbia went into the double bonus midway through the first half), and then two guys would practically pull knives on each other fighting for a rebound and there would be no call. As in the Princeton-Temple game, we tend to focus on last-second calls, but these refs were all over the place for the whole game. I'm not saying they favored one side or the other, but they were hard to get a fix on.
Agreed. I thought the officiating was decidedly mediocre. Between this game and the Yale-Princeton contest Saturday night, I saw a pretty lousy weekend of officiating.
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