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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Deeetroit City

    Amaker's Crimson ready to dominate

    I didn't realize how disabled their best player was last year, or how loaded they are for this year. Good story from Goodman (now with CBS):

    http://www.cbssports.com/#!/collegeb...ruggles-behind

    Harvard missed out on an NCAA tournament bid after an emotional 63-62 loss to the Tigers in a one-game playoff. ... in which the Crimson led with 2.8 seconds left on the clock. ...

    Harvard returns everyone. I mean everyone, from [best player] Casey and leading scorer Keith Wright all the way down to Dee Giger, who averaged 2.6 minutes per game. ...

    Casey and his teammates have deemed this year "Kill Season."

    "The word is dominate," Casey said. ...

    "Honestly, I think we can win every game on our schedule," Casey said.

    The loss to Princeton remains in the forefront of Casey and his teammates' minds, so much so that when the players are lifting weights, players will just yell out "2.8."

    "We were that close," Casey said. "Literally 2.8 seconds away."

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    Quote Originally Posted by BD80 View Post
    I didn't realize how disabled their best player was last year, or how loaded they are for this year. Good story from Goodman (now with CBS):

    http://www.cbssports.com/#!/collegeb...ruggles-behind
    As a Princeton fan, Harvard's situation is plain terrifying. No Ivy League school should be recruiting like they have, recently. Cornell made it all the way to the Sweet 16 in 2010 and Princeton and UPenn have had some really good teams over the last 25 years or so, but Harvard's collection of talent has the raw athleticism to be one of the best in recent Ivy memory . . . and this admission is coming from a Tiger which is basically like one of us saying the same thing about the Tar Heels.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Princeton, NJ
    Quote Originally Posted by COYS View Post
    As a Princeton fan, Harvard's situation is plain terrifying. No Ivy League school should be recruiting like they have, recently. Cornell made it all the way to the Sweet 16 in 2010 and Princeton and UPenn have had some really good teams over the last 25 years or so, but Harvard's collection of talent has the raw athleticism to be one of the best in recent Ivy memory . . . and this admission is coming from a Tiger which is basically like one of us saying the same thing about the Tar Heels.
    Makes you throw up in your mouth ... no team in the country deserves obscurity more than Harvard. Look forward to your rightful return to year in and year out mediocrity when Tommy gets the hell out of Dodge (soon ... please? ... pretty please??).

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, DC area
    Quote Originally Posted by Orange&BlackSheep View Post
    Makes you throw up in your mouth ... no team in the country deserves obscurity more than Harvard. Look forward to your rightful return to year in and year out mediocrity when Tommy gets the hell out of Dodge (soon ... please? ... pretty please??).
    If that plea... wish... prayer... yen... curse... whatever works, can you use it on unc? Please?

    -jk

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Our family wishes Tommy success at whatever school is smart and worthy enough to have Mr. Amaker at the helm of their basketball program.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Princeton, NJ
    Quote Originally Posted by Devilsfan View Post
    Our family wishes Tommy success at whatever school is smart and worthy enough to have Mr. Amaker at the helm of their basketball program.
    After he leaves Harvard ...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    I posted the following a couple months ago regarding Tommy's absurdly good recruiting at Harvard--

    Their recruiting class is off the charts for an Ivy league team.

    The gem of the class is Wesley Saunders, a 4-star recruit from out of California. Rivals and Scout both rate him as the 80th best prospect in the nation. He had scholarship offers from USC and Colorado among others. We are talking about a kid who would be a big deal recruit for most BCS-conference schools and he is going to the Ivy?!?! Are you kidding?!?! He is a bit raw but is just going to physically dominate most of the other players in that league.

    Tommy's 2011 class also includes a 3-star shooting guard who had offers from BC, Stanford, Gonzaga, and Utah... a 3-star center who had offers from Northwestern and Vandy... and 3 other players who are all very good recruits for an Ivy. Most Ivy league schools are lucky to get a couple two-star recruits every few years. Penn and Princeton, the top other programs in the Ivy, have combined to sign exactly one 3-star recruit in the past 5 years. This year, Tommy has three 3-star players and a 4-star. Sick.
    --Jason "it is hard to see the rest of the Ivy keeping up" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Columbus, Ohio
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    Jason "it is hard to see the rest of the Ivy keeping up" Evans
    It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the Ivy League reacts to Harvard's move to ramp up a non-Olympic sport.

    As Harvard goes, so go the Ivies; I suspect it won't be long before Princeton and the other schools follow the Crimson tide and try to take basketball up a notch or two.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Lewisville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Corey View Post
    It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the Ivy League reacts to Harvard's move to ramp up a non-Olympic sport.

    As Harvard goes, so go the Ivies; I suspect it won't be long before Princeton and the other schools follow the Crimson tide and try to take basketball up a notch or two.
    Is there something implied here about how Amaker and Harvard are going about things?

    The other schools will begin to recruit talented prospects with lesser academic credentials than were previously required?

    State-of-the-art facilities seem to be important in college recruiting these days, but Harvard is way behind in this area, if I recall.
    In what ways would the other schools seek to follow the Crimson?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Corey View Post

    As Harvard goes, so go the Ivies;
    I'm sure Orange and Black Sheep will back me up on this, but that is just . . . so . . . wrong =).

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    Is there something implied here about how Amaker and Harvard are going about things?

    The other schools will begin to recruit talented prospects with lesser academic credentials than were previously required?

    State-of-the-art facilities seem to be important in college recruiting these days, but Harvard is way behind in this area, if I recall.
    In what ways would the other schools seek to follow the Crimson?
    Hire a coach from Duke?

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Corey View Post
    As Harvard goes, so go the Ivies; I suspect it won't be long before Princeton and the other schools follow the Crimson tide and try to take basketball up a notch or two.
    Honestly, I think one of the key advantages of Harvard's recruiting pitch is simply their financial aid packages are the best in the nation. As a basketball player that is solid academically, the appeal of Harvard for a cheap cost (or even free) is a very appealing aspect, especially since the vast majority of these kids won't be going pro in all likelihood, so might as well get the best education possible. Or even if one does decide to go pro, still might as well get the best education possible while being able to be an integral part of a solid team.

    I would venture that the majority of players on Harvard's team are attending the school for a very small cost. No school has Harvard's endowment and can keep up really - Princeton and Yale come close, but their financial aid doesn't extend to the upper middle class as much as Harvard's does (as defined by $120k to $180k/year salary by Harvard). These policies are fairly new - so that combined with Tommy's great coaching and recruiting, the administration's support, and perhaps a facilities upgrade have led to a perfect storm for the Crimson basketball program.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO

    Talking What's Wrong with Harvard Winning Something?

    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    Is there something implied here about how Amaker and Harvard are going about things?

    The other schools will begin to recruit talented prospects with lesser academic credentials than were previously required?

    State-of-the-art facilities seem to be important in college recruiting these days, but Harvard is way behind in this area, if I recall.
    In what ways would the other schools seek to follow the Crimson?
    Princeton can speak for itself, but when Harvard reduced the standards for athletes, it accepted the Ivy League standard, not a higher standard it had imposed on itself.

    I can understand some rivalry jabs at Harvard, but give me a break. Harvard has won exactly ONE Ivy League championship since the league was formed almost 60 years ago -- this year as co-champs with Princeton, and then it lost the playoff for the NCAA bid. And the Crimson haven't exactly run the table at other sports IIRC.

    I am happy to see Harvard, under Tommy Amaker, do well. And I have lots of ties to UPenn, including my daughter who was a cheerleader there in the Matt Maloney/Jerome Allen years, Mrs. Sagegrouse, a son-in-law and my mother-in-law.

    So I can live with Harvard winning a title or two. If it gets tiresome, maybe Amaker will take a fabulous offer at a major program.

    sagegrouse

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    Quote Originally Posted by Bluedog View Post
    Honestly, I think one of the key advantages of Harvard's recruiting pitch is simply their financial aid packages are the best in the nation. As a basketball player that is solid academically, the appeal of Harvard for a cheap cost (or even free) is a very appealing aspect, especially since the vast majority of these kids won't be going pro in all likelihood, so might as well get the best education possible. Or even if one does decide to go pro, still might as well get the best education possible while being able to be an integral part of a solid team.

    I would venture that the majority of players on Harvard's team are attending the school for a very small cost. No school has Harvard's endowment and can keep up really - Princeton and Yale come close, but their financial aid doesn't extend to the upper middle class as much as Harvard's does (as defined by $120k to $180k/year salary by Harvard). These policies are fairly new - so that combined with Tommy's great coaching and recruiting, the administration's support, and perhaps a facilities upgrade have led to a perfect storm for the Crimson basketball program.
    Man, I can't let too much uncritical praise of Harvard go, can I? =). Princeton actually started the no-loan financial aid package policy. That was one of the many things I found appealing about Princeton when i was looking at colleges. Harvard and Yale followed in Princeton's footsteps, here. Recently, Harvard elected to reduce the cost of admission for parents of students in much higher financial brackets. While I personally don't buy into Princeton's reasons for not doing the same, the reason stated by the admissions department at the time was that they still wanted quality education to hold a significant value and therefore feel that if you can pay for part of it, you should. As for the endowment, Harvard's endowment is a lot larger (although they were hit harder than Princeton during the financial crisis). However, Harvard has far more students in grad school and professional school. The Medical School alone has a gigantic budget. Princeton has no professional schools and far fewer grad students than undergrads making Princeton's endowment per student MUCH larger than Harvard's (scroll to the second section of the wiki link). (In fact, Yale has a higher endowment per student than Harvard). The bottom line is that there is nothing that Harvard is doing that Princeton or Yale can't do other than have Amaker at the helm. It really is Amaker that is making Harvard's basketball program a force for the first time in its entire history.

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