While Merchant came in as usual and provided a lift in both games, it clearly wasn’t going to be enough. Penn and Princeton both have the deepest benches in the Ivies, and their styles of play can quickly fatigue starters. Against the Tigers, Sullivan stuck with his top seven, but on Saturday night all the healthy bodies came out on the floor and made an impact.
Jason Norman, a freshman guard who’s only scored 14 points this season but has his own cheering section, spelled junior point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman at the end of the first half. He played 11 minutes of solid defense, and even had a nifty spin move in the lane for a quick two points.
More significantly, Sullivan decided to go with a small lineup and sat centers Tim Coleman and Sigafoos in favor of junior starting forward Sam Winter and a backup freshman, Graham Beatty. “It was an interesting position to put Beatty in,” Sullivan said. “He really did an excellent job.”
That is an understatement. Beatty played 18 minutes, including all of overtime, and completely befuddled two of the top players in the league, Penn forwards Ugonna Onyekwe and Koko Archibong. Those two were limited to 11-of-29 shooting, and turned the ball over five times. Beatty also had a big steal in overtime when the Quakers were attempting to tie up the score.
(3) Penn and Princeton can be out-coached. Sullivan deserves a lot of credit for Saturday’s win. He always seems to have the Crimson prepared for Penn and Princeton at home.
Given that Harvard is such a tough team to beat in Lavietes when it is shooting well, Sullivan’s job is to maneuver the X’s and O’s to get Harvey, Prasse-Freeman and Winter in the right spots. Save for the first half against Princeton, the Crimson shot over 47 percent from the field over the weekend.
“When we get to league play, we all know each other,” Sullivan said.
Certainly the familiarity paid off this weekend. When the Tigers decided to go to a small lineup, and stick with their slow, boring, pass-heavy, backdoor offense, Sullivan did the same, going with four guards and a small forward for most of the second half. And while Sullivan did not deploy his bench at all—he calls playing Princeton a “learned experience”—he managed to use the clock and substitution well so that Harvard did outplay Princeton in the second half, despite coming up just short.
Sullivan then quickly switched gears for the up-tempo, high-scoring Quakers, who boast the best inside-outside game in the conference. He benched Prasse-Freeman and Coleman at the right times, and his gamble with Beatty paid off.
Harvey, Merchant and captain Drew Gellert were getting the ball in places where they could either drive or shoot comfortably.
Meanwhile, Penn’s strategy remained puzzling. Their much-maligned backup guard, David Klatsky, played 32 minutes and launched ill-advised threes. Onyekwe and Archibong looked tired near the end of the game and came up short on some big shots. Dunphy also kept important substitutes like center Adam Chubb and guard Duane King on the bench.
With those questions answered, and hopefully settled for the Crimson for the stretch run, it will be a fun Ivy season after all. One of these times, Harvard’s going to beat both Penn and Princeton in the same weekend.
The rematch with these two is scheduled for mid-February. I’ll be driving the bandwagon.