When asked to comment in an email about the impact, Stemberg wrote, “There will not be any. People make mistakes. They pay the price. Life will go on.”

Co-chair of Friends of Harvard Basketball Tom Mannix ’81 thinks it is still too early to understand what, if any, long-term ramifications the scandal will have on the program.

“Until I really know how the decision was made, both in terms of why Kyle [Casey] decided to withdraw and what [Harvard coach Tommy Amaker’s] role in that was, and how it’s going to be disseminated.... It’s impossible to know [the impact].”

Despite the withdrawal of Casey and the expected departure of Curry, Mannix remains optimistic about Harvard’s chances this season.

“I’m not going to belittle how big of a hole [Casey and Curry] will be.... However, there are a lot of really good players left, and Tommy [Amaker] is a leader and an inspiring leader,” Mannix said.

As for Cartwright, the Penn junior was hesitant to remove the Crimson from the conference’s mantle.

“They’re still the defending champs, so right now I guess you would say they’re on top,” Cartwright said. “I know from our standpoint, we’re still going to come out and compete because we feel like we had chance to win even before scandal, so we’re just going to come out and play hard.”

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu.