Harvard coach Tommy Amaker returns to Michigan for the first time since he was fired as the Wolverines’ coach in 2007. He led Michigan to three NITs, winning the tournament in 2004, but never reached the NCAA tournament in his tenure. The Wolverines are 50-55 since Amaker left.

“We got Tommy! We got Tommy!”

So cheered the sell-out crowd three years ago at Lavietes Pavilion, as it witnessed the Crimson’s 62-51 upset victory over Michigan. It was only Tommy Amaker’s eighth game as Harvard men’s basketball coach after being dismissed from the same post with the Wolverines just nine months earlier.

Forty-four more tallies in the win column later, the Crimson (5-1) remains very happy to have Amaker, whose squad will attempt to earn him a second win against Michigan (4-2) tomorrow afternoon at Crisler Arena, in Harvard’s first televised game of the season.

“From the way he talks...he’s going to treat it a lot like any other road game, except there could be more people that he knows around,” said Michael Rothstein, who covers Wolverine basketball for AnnArbor.com.

Amaker has repeatedly downplayed the inevitable emotions accompanying his return.

“Honestly, because we’ve already played Michigan once since I’ve been here at Harvard, we’ve had the chance to work through a number of those kinds of feelings [of facing a team he once coached],” the former Duke star said yesterday. “It seems like it’s been a lifetime ago.”

After leading last year’s Harvard team to the best season in school history, Amaker now appears to be leading a program turnaround similar to the one he instituted in Ann Arbor, where he accumulated a record of 109-83 during a six-year tenure.

Amaker’s Wolverines went to three NITs and won the tournament in 2004, but they failed to reach the NCAA tournament—a key factor in his firing.

“I’m not really sure what the reception will be,” Rothstein said. “I think there’s a group of people that realize what Tommy had accomplished here...and I think there are people who are just going to always want to win...but I don’t think Tommy will be booed. I don’t think Michigan fans will do that.”

Now Amaker is trying to accomplish in Cambridge what no Crimson coach has ever done before: capture an Ivy League title.

Meanwhile, current Michigan coach John Beilein has had an up-and-down time as Amaker’s successor, and this season has been no exception.

The Wolverines enter tomorrow’s contest coming off their best performance of the season—a 69-61 win at Clemson Tuesday night, the team’s first victory in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge since 2005.

The success was a bit of an upset for Michigan, which rebounded from two straight road losses against Syracuse and UTEP in the Legends Classic two weeks ago.

“It looked like they were very confident and shot the ball well,” Amaker said. “It’ll certainly be a handful for us.”

Sophomore point guard Darius Morris had a near triple-double against the Tigers, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds to go along with eight assists.