Recent Stories with tag harvard

Two months ago when I previewed Seattle University's season, I tried to make the point that SU forward Charles Garcia was among the most athletic players in the country, let alone among D1 independents like Seattle U. In doing so, I made a throwaway joke that has inflamed passions on the Charles River, and even reached ESPN.

My comment was this: Garcia "will be the most talented player on the floor in many of SU's games this year (especially against Harvard)." Because Harvard sucks at basketball. Ha! Mmm, not my best work.

I admit that before I made that comment, I had not actually asked NBA scouts to assess the talent on Harvard's roster, or watched their game tapes, or even bothered to read anything whatsoever about the Harvard basketball program. Instead my joke relied on the fact that HARVARD HAS BEEN SO TERRIBLE AT BASKETBALL THE LAST TIME THEY PLAYED IN AN NCAA TOURNAMENT GAME IT WAS 1946 AND THEY LOST TO NYU. 

Jeremy Lin

Had I been a better blogger, I would've noted that Harvard has a player named Jeremy Lin who is a pretty talented basketball player--and at this moment a better one than Garcia, as he displayed in Saturday's blowout win at KeyArena over Seattle U.

Lin (according to the Harvard site, his "house affiliation" is Leverett, whatever the hell that means) displayed terrific body control around the basket, and was unstoppable in the open court. Garcia struggled to find rhythm on offense, and committed a silly foul on defense that staunched a Seattle U comeback.

Lin probably could be a decent pro somewhere, and he's getting extra notoriety due to the fact that he's Asian-American and even in post-racial ObamAmerica, a stellar Asian-American basketball player is pretty rare. Although if someone could point out the last decent Norwegian-American basketball player I would much appreciate feeling that despite having an 11-inch vertical I might someday get to the League.

I really would like to see Harvard make the tournament, if only to say that my alma mater--yes, I'm an NYU Violet--was their last tourney loss. But if so, will we have to hear whiny, entitled Harvarders (or whatever) complain about a lack of respect for their basketball team? If so, I suggest that the Crimson can stay home....

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