{"id":219655,"date":"2010-01-12T10:44:03","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T15:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=34608"},"modified":"2010-01-12T10:44:03","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T15:44:03","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-not-easy-being-big-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/219655","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not easy being Big Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kicking off Ivy League conference play, better known as the 14-game tournament, the Harvard Crimson men\u2019s basketball<\/a> team put together an emphatic 76-47 win over the Dartmouth Big Green on Saturday (Jan. 9).<\/p>\n

The Big Green, who saw head coach Jerry Dunn tender his resignation the day before in a rare midseason departure, fought with the Crimson early on, and actually held a 12-11 lead through the first seven minutes.<\/p>\n

But after Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker<\/a> called a 30-second timeout to settle his team down, the Crimson put together a 13-3 run in a five-and-a-half-minute span to go up by nine points. The Big Green never challenged again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out with good pressure defensively from the beginning. We just turned the ball over and went for steals and didn\u2019t get them,\u201d said sophomore guard Oliver McNally<\/a>, who had four assists and a steal in 15 minutes of play. \u201cOnce we took [a few] stupid mistakes out, we started to settle down and build our lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore forward Keith Wright<\/a>, who led all scorers with a career-high 22 points, went 11 for 16 from the floor. He also pulled down six rebounds and blocked three shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches really allow me to feel comfortable,\u201d said Wright. \u201cI worked a lot on my mid-range jumper this summer, and it\u2019s all paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard co-captain Jeremy Lin<\/a> \u201910, the Crimson\u2019s leading scorer, was held to just 11 points on the day, but he made up for his low scoring output by dishing out five assists and recording six steals. At one point in the second half, Lin had four steals in a minute and a half, one of them capped by a thunderous dunk that brought the 1,500 fans at Lavietes Pavilion to their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice opportunity to win a conference game when our best player [Lin] doesn\u2019t have an absolutely tremendous offensive day,\u201d said Amaker. \u201cI think that says a lot for our bench and our balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman guard Christian Webster<\/a>, who shot five for six from the field, added 12 points for the Crimson. As a team, Harvard shot a healthy 55 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of weapons that offensively allow us to be a dangerous team,\u201d said Amaker.<\/p>\n

Providing a defensive spark off the bench was freshman forward Kyle Casey<\/a>, who, after coming off career highs in scoring and rebounding with 27 and eight against Santa Clara, had an outstanding defensive effort, with four blocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t key in on one person with our team,\u201d said Amaker. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice feeling for us to have \u2014 that we have other options that can pick up the slack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win was Harvard\u2019s fifth in a row and gave the Crimson a record of 12-3 (1-0 Ivy League), as the team continues the best start in its 99-year history.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us are really banged up, but we have that motivation, that drive to get a banner up,\u201d said Wright. \u201cWe\u2019re working really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crimson now take a two-week break before embarking on a three-game road trip against Dartmouth (Jan. 23), Columbia (Jan. 29), and Cornell (Jan. 30).<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Graceful<\/p>\n
\n

Graceful motion<\/p>\n

Crimson guard Jeremy Lin ’10 pulls off an acrobatic layup.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"It's<\/p>\n
\n

It’s loose!<\/p>\n

Keith Wright ’12 lets out a howl as he watches a loose ball go out of bounds.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Not<\/p>\n
\n

Not enough Dee-fence<\/p>\n

Crimson guard Dee Giger ’13 drives past a Dartmouth defender. Giger tallied eight points off the bench in 19 minutes for Harvard.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Holding<\/p>\n
\n

Holding on tight<\/p>\n

Freshman forward Kyle Casey ’13 protects the ball from a Dartmouth defender.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"No-look<\/p>\n
\n

No-look pass<\/p>\n

Christian Webster ’13 gets off a pass by the seat of his pants. His defender didn’t get the memo.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Locked<\/p>\n
\n

Locked in<\/p>\n

Crimson head coach Tommy Amaker intently follows his team.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jeremy<\/p>\n
\n

Jeremy Lin … for the win!<\/p>\n

Karen Lin of Boston (no relation to Jeremy) jokes with Crimson guard Jeremy Lin ’10 during a postgame autograph session. Karen holds a sign with the point guard’s number (4), combined with the letters FTW, signifying both “for the win” and “for Taiwan,” the home of Jeremy’s parents.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Photo slideshow:<\/span> Harvard Men’s Basketball vs. Dartmouth<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kicking off Ivy League conference play, better known as the 14-game tournament, the Harvard Crimson men\u2019s basketball team put together an emphatic 76-47 win over the Dartmouth Big Green on Saturday (Jan. 9). The Big Green, who saw head coach Jerry Dunn tender his resignation the day before in a rare midseason departure, fought with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}