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By Martin Kessler
Harvard Crimson
February 1, 2010
Instead of a back-and-forth battle between two title contenders, the sold-out crowd at Cornell’s Newman Arena witnessed the most lopsided Ivy League game of the season.
Rather than challenging the Big Red (18-3, 4-0 Ivy) for league dominance, the Harvard men’s basketball team (14-4, 3-1 Ivy) was trounced 86-50 in the Crimson’s worst loss since 2007.
“We didn’t play up to our capabilities and in a game like this, against a team like Cornell in this environment, we obviously need to play much better,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said.
Whether it was the raucous crowd, the game’s high stakes, Cornell’s stifling defense, or a combination of those factors, the young Crimson team was knocked out of its offensive rhythm, turning the ball over 25 times and shooting 36.1% from the field.
“We did everything we wanted to do defensively to make them struggle,” Big Red coach Steve Donahue said. “I do think we have the ability with our depth, our size, our experience, of being able to cause things like that on defense.”
Harvard co-captain Jeremy Lin struggled to control the ball, turning it over eight times. Lin had more success scoring, finishing with a game-high 19 points. But with no other Crimson players reaching double figures, Harvard failed to keep pace with a dynamic Big Red offense that had five different players finish with at least 10 points.
Seven-foot center Jeff Foote led Cornell with 16 points, nine rebounds, and four assists, scoring most of his baskets on post moves in the paint—including two flushes—against the Crimson’s undersized big men.
“I just felt like I had a little bit of an advantage,” Foote said. “I was catching it deep and getting good position. Today I was able to slow myself down, really gather myself, and go into my moves that I’m effective with.”
Amaker threw a number of different defensive looks at Foote in an attempt to slow the big man down. Amaker sent four different forwards to cover Foote man-to-man throughout the game and also switched to zone defense on several possessions.
But it was to no avail, as the reigning defensive player of the year was able to have his way on offense, knocking down 7-of-11 shots from the field.
“As we went through the scouting report, I mentioned I thought he’s the key to their team,” Amaker said. “I think he does so much dirty work. He scores on the inside; He’s a great passer, a very unselfish big man. I’m very fond of his game.”
On the other side of the ball, the Big Red attempted to slow Harvard’s strongest offensive player, Lin, by limiting his touches or doubling off screens to force the All-Ivy player into sending the ball to his teammates—or out of bounds.
Lin’s teammates failed to make the defense pay when Cornell double-teamed, as they collectively shot just 26% from the field.
Despite the offensive and defensive struggles and lopsided outcome, the Crimson was not without opportunities to get itself back in the game.
Cornell got out to a hot start, hitting its first six shots to open the contest, and a Foote spin move followed by a lefty floater over Harvard sophomore Andrew Van Nest gave the Big Red a 19-10 lead just under six minutes into the game.
But Harvard countered with a 7-0 run sparked by a layup from sophomore Keith Wright. Moments later, freshman Dee Giger knocked down an open deep ball to get within two after Wright recovered an offensive rebound and sent it back out to the wingman on the perimeter.
Cornell’s Mark Coury blew a layup on the Big Red’s next possession and the Crimson came away with the ball—and the opportunity to tie the score or take the lead.
Lin found Van Nest beyond the arc, but the big man’s shot attempt—Harvard’s only attempt in the game to take the lead—clanged off the rim.
Foote finished with a dunk on the other end, starting a 16-0 run for the Big Red, which would take a 38-24 lead into the break.
Six points from Lin to start the second half got the deficit back down to 10, but the Crimson would never get closer than that, as Cornell cruised to the 36 point victory.
“I think they’re an outstanding basketball team,” Amaker said. “One of the better teams in the country from what I’ve been able to see.”
ITHACA, N.Y.—The opening possession of Saturday night’s match up between men’s basketball heavyweights Cornell and Harvard was a fairly simple play.
The Big Red’s All-Ivy big man Jeff Foote received the ball in the post, paused, and then found a wide-open Chris Wroblewski, who drained a three-pointer and sent the home crowd into a frenzy.
Though only eight seconds had passed—and Crimson freshman guard Christian Webster would respond with a three of his own—the Crimson’s inability to defend the seven-foot Foote and prevent Cornell’s sharpshooters from getting open looks at the basket would haunt the road team until the final buzzer.
By all accounts, Foote, the most dominant big man in the Ancient Eight, stuffed the box score while stuffing dunks all over the opposition’s frontcourt personnel.
Harvard starters Keith Wright and Doug Miller, clearly at a sizeable physical disadvantage, were unable to stop the Big Red center from backing down his defender and lofting hooks and layups with ease.
Playing in only their second career league game on the road, reserves Andrew Van Nest and Kyle Casey proved to be even less effective on the interior.
The loss of senior forward Pat Magnarelli to a high-ankle sprain sustained last week at Dartmouth certainly did not help the Crimson’s efforts.
“This was a game where we really had to utilize Jeff,” Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. “They scramble around so well on defense that if you continue to do that, it wears you down. We have the luxury of just slowing things down, dumping it inside, making them guard.”
Mostly facing a single defender, Foote still managed to find the open man out on the perimeter—a strength shared by his teammates, as Harvard’s defensive troubles extended beyond just dealing with the big man.
The Big Red distributed the ball with incredible efficiency, continually finding its shooters good opportunities with dribble-drive penetration and stellar perimeter passing on the way to 22 assists.
The talent that had led Cornell to two consecutive Ivy titles was on full display. The 2007-08 Ivy Player of the Year Louis Dale used his quickness to get into the lane, either finishing at the hoop or passing to teammates on the outside. The Crimson’s perimeter defenders often failed to rotate quickly enough, giving the high-powered Big Red offense a chance to flex its muscles.
GIVING IT AWAY
The Crimson turned the ball over 30 times in a loss to Army, and for much of the game, it seemed the squad was intent on reaching that milestone again.
Harvard amassed 14 turnovers in the first half alone, doing so in almost every way possible.
Whether it was drawing offensive fouls, stripping penetrators on dribble drives, or picking off simply lazy passes, Cornell applied a defensive pressure that the opposing squad could not handle.
“They were very aggressive, they took us out of anything we wanted to run and knocked the ball off of us,” Crimson coach Tommy Amaker said. “Obviously having 25 turnovers and only seven assists is not a very good formula for positive basketball.”
Many of the give-aways—which led to 29 points for the opposition—resulted from a team-wide inability to hold onto the ball. Passes repeatedly went off of hands, dribbles went awry, and the raucous Newman Arena crowd ate it up.
As a result, Harvard struggled mightily on the offensive end. One of the league’s top offenses never found a stable rhythm and only took 32 shots from the field, compared to Cornell’s 66.
Giving up no fast break points, the Big Red also stopped Harvard from pushing the ball up into the open floor, one of the team’s strengths.
And the Crimson’s half-court offense ran into plenty of problems of its own, as the lack of a legitimate post presence and clutch shooters crippled the visitng team.
“We have guys that can guard on the perimeter and you have a kid like Jeff waiting there, so it’s difficult to keep penetrating, which they do,” Donahue explained.
On a night when the long-distance shots weren’t falling—the squad shot 33 percent from three—and Foote was bullying his way around inside, only Lin was able to successfully get into the lane and finish at the basket.
Harvard totaled 14 points in the paint to Cornell’s 32.
