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The Cousy and Havlicek of Harvard

Prasse-Freeman, Merchant excel as point guard, sixth man

Ever since he first took the court at Lavietes Pavilion, the Crimson floor general makes some of the prettiest passes you’ll ever see. Through his first two years, he is on pace to smash the Ivy League all-time assist mark, no small feat.

Coming from a top-flight high school team that produced four players at Division I colleges, Prasse-Freeman had options.

One was Stanford. The Cardinal coaches had expressed interest in Prasse-Freeman his senior year, and he likely could have suited up for Stanford, a perennial Final Four contender. Prasse-Freeman eventually turned down the Cardinal, however—he wanted to play right away and Harvard offered that chance.

Three years later, Prasse-Freeman , who finished in the top 15 nationally in assists last season, is plenty happy with his choice. Playing at Harvard doesn’t bring quite as much fame and attention as high school hoops did back in Washington state, but Prasse-Freeman has taken to Cambridge nonetheless.

“It’s very different to [play at Harvard] after coming from a program that just had thousands and thousands of fans at every game and the community was involved,” Prasse-Freeman. “We get pretty good fan support here, but it’s different. It’s a nice challenge to be here.”

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He may not be playing in front of throngs, but Prasse-Freeman has emerging as one of the premier playmakers in the Ivy League. Having originally prided himself on his passing skills alone, Prasse-Freeman has developed into a legit scoring threat, especially from the outside. Last year he finished the season averaging just shy of 10 points per game.

Maybe the only phase of the gameholding Prasse-Freeman back from standing alone as the elite point guard in the Ivies is turnovers. For all his wowing passes, Prasse-Freeman remains prone to making mistakes. Last year, despite sensational assist numbers, his turnover ratios was one of the country’s worst. He’s working on that, though.

“He’s aware of it,” Sullivan said. “It’s something he’s talked to me about on his own...For a common player, that’s probably pretty good—1.7-to-1—but for him...that’s not the number we’re looking for.”

If Prasse-Freeman is aware of the problem, rest assured that it will not go unfixed. No one works harder than the Harvard guard. In the Crimson’s overtime loss to Yale last season, Prasse-Freeman missed a chance to win the game at the buzzer when his three-pointer rattled out. After shaking hands, he went into the locker room, changed out of his uniform, came back out onto the floor and shot jumpers for a good half hour. After the fans, the media and even some of his teammates had packed up and gone home, Prasse-Freeman stuck around to try to better himself.

This year, Prasse-Freeman intends to make those last-second shots.

“When you work so hard, it hurts when you don’t come through,” Prasse-Freeman said. “I just vowed never to miss one of those again.”

And as for Stanford? That’s ancient history these days.

“I have two real good friends who go there and [last year] they were like, ‘You should transfer. We don’t have any point guards now,’” Prasse-Freeman said. “But I wouldn’t transfer. Even if I knew I was going to play, I wouldn’t. I love it here and I love my friends here. I love the program. [Stanford] was a different route I didn’t take and I’m happy that I didn’t.”

So, too, are his teammates. Merchant, Prasse-Freeman and Winter, in particular, are very close.

“I’d say Elliott—and for the most all my teammates—are like brothers to me,” Merchant says. “You come up here, and some of us are from really far away—Elliott’s from Seattle, I’m from Ohio. These guys become your family.”

Which means, of course, that come the Ivy season, Harvard’s opponents will need to watch their step. The Crimson will have some family business to attend to.

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