Ivy League Sports

By Kurt Svoboda, Harvard University

Harvard Basketball is thinking big in the 2005-06 season — in more ways than one.

Armed with what is generally regarded as the top frontcourt tandem in the Ivy League — and arguably one of the best in all of Eastern college basketball — the Crimson enters the year with high expectations.

Led by 6-foot-8 senior power forward Matt Stehle and seven-foot junior center Brian Cusworth, who comprise the top two returning scorers and rebounders in the Ivy League, Harvard and 14th-year head coach Frank Sullivan enter the 2005-06 campaign with a combination of size, skill and experience that might be unmatched in the Ivy League. Nine letterwinners return from last year’s squad, which tripled its win total from the previous season.

Stehle leads a group of three seniors, with forwards Michael Beal and Zach Martin being the others. While Stehle — a leading candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year — receives much of the attention, Beal and Martin add considerable talent and leadership around the basket, further strengthening Harvard’s claim to the best collection of frontcourt players in the Ancient Eight.

“This year will certainly be different from what people might expect from a Harvard basketball team,” said Sullivan of a program largely known for its guard play. “The interesting thing for me will be seeing Matt and Brian really play together for the first time. Obviously they played together last season, but they really spent the year learning how to work off each other. Now that they have that year behind them, it’s going to be exciting to see what they’re able to do.”

Harvard graduated both of its starting guards from a year ago, and there’s a better-than-average chance that a freshman will run the point for the Crimson this season. That being the case, Harvard’s finish in the Ivy League standings will likely hinge on how quickly the new players adjust to their new roles.

“Really, the key for us this season is going to be our ability to cut down on our turnovers,” said Sullivan. “You just can’t turn the ball over to the degree that we did last year and expect to be a championship-level team. If we’re able to improve our assist-turnover ratio and get some consistent scoring from the perimeter, we’re going to have a chance to have a pretty good year.”

The bulk of the scoring from the outside is expected to come from junior Jim Goffredo, the Crimson’s top shooting guard off the bench for the last two seasons. Goffredo averaged a solid 6.1 points while playing about 15 minutes per game last season and proved capable of giving Harvard an offensive spark while contributing solid perimeter defense.

The other returning players in the backcourt, junior Ko Yada and sophomore James Lambert, have seen spot duty through their careers but both have shown marked improvement and both should figure prominently into Sullivan’s rotation at the shooting guard spot.

Yada came in as a point guard, but his skills translate better to the off-guard spot, where his outside shot will be more of a factor. Lambert, meanwhile, is as pure a shooter as Harvard has and could step into the role that Goffredo had played for the last two seasons.

Sullivan has never had a problem handing the keys to Harvard’s offense to a freshman, having enjoyed considerable success with Elliott Prasse-Freeman ’03 and Tim Hill ’99, and three promising freshmen arrive on campus this fall with hopes of becoming the Crimson’s next success story at the point.

First-year players Drew Housman, Andrew Pusar and Erik Groszyk are all expected challenge for the starting spot through the preseason.

There seems to be little debate as to the place of Harvard’s frontcourt within the Ivy League. With the return of Stehle and Cusworth, Harvard boasts a 1-2 punch down low that should prove difficult to defend. The duo ranked among the league leaders in nearly every statistical category and combined to lead the team in scoring in 21 of 27 games and in rebounding in all but one contest.

Stehle, who broke onto the scene as a sophomore two years ago, took his place among the League’s elite players last season, ranking among the top 10 in nearly every major statistical category. He led the Ivies in rebounding (8.9 per game), was fifth in scoring (13.7), was third in field goal percentage at exactly 50 percent, and finished with nine double-doubles on the year.

Moreover, Stehle has a terrific inside-outside game, is among the league’s best offensive rebounders and has a tendency to come up with timely rebounds on the defensive end.

Cusworth also helped the Crimson control the paint by leading the league in blocked shots with just under two per game, just one year removed from a season-ending stress fracture suffered in his freshman campaign. He also finished right behind Stehle in rebounding among Ivy players with 8.4 boards per contest.

Further, Cusworth ranked sixth in the league with 13.4 ppg while connecting on over 48-percent of his shots, a mark that was good enough for fourth best in the Ivies.

Beal is a swing player who can play several positions and is expected to provide versatility and leadership to the program after playing in all 27 games and making two starts a year ago.

Martin, junior Brian Darcy and sophomore Brad Unger also return to the frontcourt, giving newcomers Alexis Pease, Kenyon Churchwell and Evan Harris the luxury of being brought along slowly.

The Crimson’s schedule is set up with a heavy load of home games at each end of the season schedule. Four of the team’s first six games are at home as are six of the final eight in Ivy play.

The Crimson hopes that will give them an edge down the stretch, as the team expects to battle league powers Penn and Princeton throughout the season. The Crimson play those two schools four times combined over the last eight games of the season in what promises to be a close finish in the Ancient Eight.