In his early years at Bellarmine Prep, Norman relied heavily on his pure ability to blow by defenders and create scoring opportunities for himself, rather than learning how to get around his opponents, fight off screens and work within the team system.

“Our league plays a very good, physical, high level of defense,” Schneider said. “He needed to learn to play with a more controlled structure.”

Such a transition took time for Norman, who didn’t really come into his own under Schneider’s system until his junior and senior years of high school. It was during those crucial years that he learned how to improve his help defense, play more physically and exploit a spread out offense that focused on drawing double or triple teams in order to create space and free up the middle for driving to the basket.

Ultimately, it wasn’t until his final year at Bellarmine Prep that Norman came into his own as a truly mature player.

During this senior year, he earned the West Catholic Athletic League Player of the Year award and captained his squad to the League championship.

His leadership style was distinctive, and one that would follow him all the way to Cambridge.

“He clearly led by example, and knew he had to lead by example,” Schneider said. “If he needed to, he would say something, but really [he] left the vocal leadership to a teammate.”

Follow the Leader

While Norman’s game had progressed considerably under Schneider’s tutelage, not all components of it were as complete as Norman or the Harvard coaches hoped.

“One of the things I regret most about high school was not picking up what my coach was telling me about my defense, and how I needed to pick it up to play at the next level,” Norman said. “It would have made me a much better player if I had picked up those things at a much earlier level.”

When he came to Harvard, Norman’s shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball plagued him. He didn’t see significant action until the end of his freshman year, when his defensive game had developed enough to warrant more minutes on the court.

But by the end of the year, Norman was averaging more points than any other Crimson freshman.

Perhaps more important than his development on the court was the experience he gained from two of Harvard’s best leaders in recent memory.

“I think one of the nice components of our system now is that we have had one captain for a while,” coach Frank Sullivan said. “He’s been very fortunate to have been on two teams with really superior captains in Andrew Gellert [’02] and Brady Merchant [’03].”

If there was ever a man from whom to learn defense, it was Gellert, whose on-court intensity and team play were legendary.