Amaker Gets Revenge Against Old Team

As the buzzer sounded at Lavietes Pavilion, the fans, who had been chanting “We got Tommy!” throughout the game, stormed the court to celebrate Harvard University’s 62-51 victory over the visiting University of Michigan. Harvard had not beaten a Big Ten team in nearly 60 years, and what gave the win even more significance for first-year coach Tommy Amaker was that it came against the team that fired him less than a year ago.

Amaker compiled a 108-84 record at Michigan, won a National Invitation Tournament championship in 2004 and led his Wolverines back to the NIT finals last season. However, a sub-.500 league record and failure to reach the NCAA Tournament led to his dismissal at the end of the 2006-2007 season. Amaker was replaced by former West Virginia coach John Beilein.

This time Amaker had the last word. Harvard jumped out to an early 18-8 lead and did not trail again until Michigan’s freshman guard Kelvin Grady sank a three-pointer to put the Wolverines up 42-40 with 10:13 left. The Crimson battled back and took a 51-47 lead, but a pair of Michigan buckets tied the score at 51. Harvard then scored 11 unanswered points to end the game.

Junior guard Andrew Pusar led the Crimson with 12 points total, while junior guard Evan Harris, who earned Ivy Player of the Week honors, registered nine points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.

The Crimson also recorded a 72-67 victory over University of New Hampshire earlier last week.

No Improvement for Yale, Penn
Two teams picked to finish in the top three of the Ivy League find themselves in an unusual position—the bottom. University of Pennsylvania and Yale University—originally picked to finish third and second in the Ivy League, respectively—are currently seventh and eighth, but for quite different reasons.

Yale, which returned all five of last year’s starters, has not won a game since its season-opening 82-71 victory over Sacred Heart University and is currently 1-5. The Bulldogs have played four of their six games on the road and have not won outside of New Haven. While a few of their defeats have been close, they have also been blown out twice by UCLA and College of the Holy Cross. The Bulldogs are last in scoring margin, averaging a meager 62 points per game.

The Ivy League’s defending champion Penn lost the nucleus of last year’s team, including two-time Ivy Player of the Year Ibrahim Jaaber, but was still picked to finish third. Currently the Quakers are second-to-last in the Ancient Eight, with only the Bulldogs sitting below them. They are 2-6 overall and lost twice this week to in-state opponents Villanova and Lafayette. Yale also ranks last in the league in scoring defense, free-throw percentage, and three-point field goal defense, and is second-to-last in scoring margin.

Both teams have challenging schedules and both have played nationally-ranked teams from power conferences—yet the numbers do not lie. Penn has allowed five of its eight opponents to score over 80 points, and its poor defensive display can certainly be linked to a younger, less-focused team.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs do not have a great explanation for their offensive woes, as the numbers are impacted by two sub-50 point displays against Holy Cross and UCLA.

Three-Point Success Means Wins
Taking a glance at the nonconference records of Ivy teams reveals something: three-point efficiency brings victories.

Cornell University, the only team over .500 in the Ivy League thus far, is outpacing everyone in this department. The Big Red is shooting 48 percent from beyond the arc, nearly 10 percent better than the next-best team, and also leads the conference in three-pointers per game with 9.8. Despite being tied for the lead in three-pointers made, Cornell has only the fourth-most attempts. Sophomore guard/forward Ryan Wittman, who has made 20 of 33 and is good for nearly 61 percent total, leads the team.

The two teams that follow Cornell by percentage, Harvard and Brown, are both shooting over 35 percent and are both at .500 in terms of wins and losses. Every team outside of the top three in the category is under .500.

Columbia, by far the worst three-point-shooting team at 27.9 percent, has attempted the second-most three-pointers in the conference and has a record of 2-6.
The Ivy League, always a guard-dominated league, seems to be as reliant on the three-pointer as ever.