Merchant’s slam only counted for two points, but Penn was never the same. It was a typical contribution from Merchant, who consistently provides a big lift for his teammates off the bench.

“Brady’s definitely a sparkplug for us,” Prasse-Freeman said. “Put him in anywhere at any time and he’ll give you a lift. He changes the complexion of the game with his athleticism.”

Merchant began his career as a starter at shooting guard. Harvey was not with the team then, and Gellert was out with a separated shoulder. Times have changed since that rookie season, but Merchant has no regrets about the way his responsibilities have shifted.

“ I love the role,” he says. “Each game brings something different. I come in and I’ve got to be ready to guard a one-man, a two-man, a three-man. Sometimes even a four.”

“I think the role of the sixth isn’t just filling in for the guy who’s taking a breather,” he adds. “The role of the sixth man is to come in and either change the momentum of the game or continue the momentum that the guys have built.”

Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan compares Merchant to another Ohio native who thrived in the sixth-man role.

“Brady is the John Havlicek of our program,” Sullivan says, referring to the Boston Celtic great. “All great programs have players who are willing to sacrifice personal ambition for the good of the order, and he personifies that.”

Before coming to Harvard, Merchant quarterbacked his Lebanon High School football team to a state championship his senior year. He had plenty of offers to play Division I football, but basketball has always been his—and his father’s—first love.

Brady’s father was his hoops coach in high school.

“I grew up in the gym,” Merchant says. “My dad was my coach in high school—he was my coach my entire life. He’d bring me to the gym when he had practices and I’d shoot on the side. Basketball is what I grew up with—it’s what I love.”

In football, Merchant’s bread-and-butter was the option. On the basketball court at Harvard, he provides much of the same—options. Gifted with the court sense of a Prasse-Freeman, the jump shot of a Harvey and the defensive instincts of a Gellert, Merchant can spell any one of them at any time.

“We’ve got a high-quality point guard with Elliott, a high-quality shooter with Pat and an extraordinary competitor in Andrew. Brady is a little bit of each one of them,”Sullivan said.

Most scouting reports on the Crimson this year have pegged depth as one of Harvard’s problems. After Merchant, the thinking goes, Harvard has little on the bench. The Crimson might reply, though, that in Merchant, Harvard has everything it could possibly want.

The Cousy of Cambridge

If Merchant is Harvard’s Havlicek, then consider Prasse-Freeman Bob Cousy.