Harvard Basketball may want to adopt as a new team slogan --"Survival of the Fittest." After all, natural selection appears to be the Crimson's choice method and strategy for high school recruiting and current veteran player retention under Coach Tommy Amaker. Consider the following.After the upcoming 2009-2010 season, Harvard will have 12 returning veteran players on the 2010-2011 roster. None of those 12 returning veteran players will be seniors.
The Crimson also have already assured themselves a roster of no fewer than 14 players for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 with the two recent verbal recruiting commitments from 6'5" Matt Brown (Northfield Mount Hermon School, Northield, MA) and 6'2" Pe’Shon Howard (Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, VA).
Once again, of these 14 players already projected to play for Harvard during the 2010-2011 season, none of them will be seniors.
Shockingly, this exploding roster growth has not stopped or even slowed down the Crimson coaching staff from adding further new players to the developing traffic jam.
The Cornell Basketball Blog has identified no fewer than 11 additional high school seniors (members of the high school class of 2010) which have received reported "offers" from Coach Tommy Amaker and his staff to join the Harvard basketball program. The "offered" high school seniors include:
Denzel Brito (Lawrence Academy) Lawrence, MA 6-0
Aaron Brown (St. Benedict's) Newark, NJ 6-4
Chad Calcaterra (Cloquet) Cloquet, MN 6-11
Jeremy Jeffers (Greenfield School) Wilson, NC 6-5/180
Keala King (Dominguez HS) Compton, CA 6-5
Majok Majok (Northfield Mount Hermon School) Northfield, MA 6-8
Dominic Morris (Friends Central School) Wynnewood, PA 6-7
Rod Odom (
Dwight Powell (IMG Academy of Brandeton FL), Ontario, Canada 6-8
Brice Kofane (Miller School) Charlottesville, VA 6-8
Achraf Yacoubou (Long Island Luthern HS), Long Island, NY 6-3
Thus, even if just 2 of these above 10 players accept Harvard's offer, the Crimson have assured themselves a roster of sixteen non-seniors on the 2010-2011 roster. And we have yet to even talk about the high school class of 2011.
Not only is Harvard recruiting players in alarming numbers, but the staff is also making potentially false promises of playing time. For example, last October current Harvard incoming freshman point guard, Brandyn Curry told Rivals.com, "[Coach Amaker] said he is going to give me the keys to the bus and he wants me to drive it." Despite Curry's statement, just a year later the Crimson recruited and received verbal commitments from two more guards, Howard and Brown. Howard is projected as a point guard. The Crimson also have outstanding offers to other potential lead guards such as Brito, Brown, and King.
The above makes it is abundantly clear that there are bound to be quite a few unhappy Crimson players in the very near future. The broken promises from Amaker and lack of available playing time to distribute along the Harvard bench will likely translate to players dropping out of the program and transferring schools. Or alternatively, an overcrowded Harvard roster could result in players getting involuntarily cut from the program, a course of action Coach Amaker has already shown he is capable and willing to partake in.
While we certainly applaud all Ivy League schools in taking efforts to build the best basketball programs possible, there are right ways and wrong ways to build a program. Perhaps the pairing of a coach coming off a very public and embarrassing firing and a school which never won an Ivy League championship can drive a program to the most extreme of measures, to win at all costs. Never mind the consequences.
Not only is Harvard recruiting players in alarming numbers, but the staff is also making potentially false promises of playing time. For example, last October current Harvard incoming freshman point guard, Brandyn Curry told Rivals.com, "[Coach Amaker] said he is going to give me the keys to the bus and he wants me to drive it." Despite Curry's statement, just a year later the Crimson recruited and received verbal commitments from two more guards, Howard and Brown. Howard is projected as a point guard. The Crimson also have outstanding offers to other potential lead guards such as Brito, Brown, and King.
The above makes it is abundantly clear that there are bound to be quite a few unhappy Crimson players in the very near future. The broken promises from Amaker and lack of available playing time to distribute along the Harvard bench will likely translate to players dropping out of the program and transferring schools. Or alternatively, an overcrowded Harvard roster could result in players getting involuntarily cut from the program, a course of action Coach Amaker has already shown he is capable and willing to partake in.
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While we certainly applaud all Ivy League schools in taking efforts to build the best basketball programs possible, there are right ways and wrong ways to build a program. Perhaps the pairing of a coach coming off a very public and embarrassing firing and a school which never won an Ivy League championship can drive a program to the most extreme of measures, to win at all costs. Never mind the consequences.
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