A year after failing to land any of its players on the top two All-Ivy squads, the Harvard men’s basketball team had two of its members selected to the 2005 edition.

Junior forward Matt Stehle, an honorable mention All-Ivy choice last season, made the first team, and junior center Brian Cusworth was named to the second team.

“It really says a lot about the players around us,” Stehle said. “They put us in good situations all year long.”

Since both players are juniors and will be returning to the floor for the 2005-06 season, the Crimson becomes the only squad that will return two All-Ivy first and second team members next year. The two were among the best big men in the Ivies this season, something that will be important to the team’s stability next season, as the backcourt loses all three of its starters to graduation.

“Matt and I knew that we had the best frontcourt in the league going into the season,” Cusworth said. “And [these selections] kind of legitimize that to the public.”

Stehle led Harvard in scoring with 13.7 points per game this season—good enough for third in the Ivies. He led the league in rebounding with 8.9 boards per contest, and finished second on the Crimson and ninth in the Ancient Eight in assists with 2.59 per game.

Stehle shined on the defensive end as well, recording 1.63 steals per contest—sixth best in the league—and 23 blocked shots.

Cusworth, who missed the entire 2003-2004 season with an injured right foot, returned to the Harvard lineup and solidified a very strong frontcourt. He finished second on the team in points per game with 13.4 and second on the team—and second in the league behind Stehle—in rebounding with 8.4 per contest.

“It feels good that all the hard work I’ve put in has been noticed,” Cusworth said. “But after a season in which we came so close to second-place and a run at the title, the goal is to get this team to where we think it should be.”

The most dominant aspect of Cusworth’s game was blocked shots. The 7’0 center rejected a league-best 45 attempts this season—12 better than hisnearest competitor in four fewer games. Cusworth already has 67 blocks for his career, which ranks third-best in Harvard history and leaves him just 15 shy of Bill Ewing ’99 for second.

“[His selection] was definitely well deserved,” Stehle said. “He could easily have been on the first team.”

The only other squad to place two players on the first and second teams was Penn, which saw senior guard Tim Begley and sophomore guard Ibby Jaaber earn the distinction. Begley, a unanimous first-team selection who was named Ivy Player of the Year, finished fifth in the league in scoring, first in assists, eighth in rebounding, and first in three-pointers made.

Jaaber capped off a breakout sophomore season by earning second-team honors. His defense gave opponents fits, as the speedy guard recorded a league-best 2.96 takeaways per game—a full steal per contest better than Princeton’s Will Venable and Brown’s Luke Ruscoe, who tied for second. He also finished as the sixth most prolific scorer during Ivy play, scoring 12.4 points per game during the Quakers’ 14-game title run.

Rounding out the first team were the Bears’ Jason Forte, Yale’s Edwin Draughan, and Cornell’s Lenny Collins. Forte, who was the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, and Draughan were unanimous first-team selections, and they finished the year first and second in scoring, respectively.

“It was incredible to have my name up there along with those four players,” Stehle said.

Collins was the only member of the first team not to have earned an All-Ivy distinction in 2004. He isn’t a complete stranger to the list, however, as he took home the Rookie of the Year award in 2003.

Along with Cusworth and Jaaber, the second team included three seniors—Columbia’s Matt Preston, Princeton’s Will Venable, and Dartmouth’s David Gardner. Venable was named a first-team selection last season, for his role in the Tigers’ 13-1 Ivy campaign. Preston made the All-Ivy second team in 2004, while Gardner earned the distinction for the first time.

Brown guard Damon Huffman took home this year’s Rookie of the Year honors, the first time a Bears player has won the award in 15 years.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.