Predicted before the season to receive sparse minutes off the bench behind former co-captain Brandyn Curry, the reigning Minnesota Mr. Basketball quickly found himself in a starting role following Curry’s decision to take a year off as a result of the Gov. 1310 investigation.
From that moment forward, it has been Chambers’ team, and whether it was holding his own on the road on ESPN in his second career start, scoring 21 points to lead Harvard to its fifth-straight win over B.C., hitting a game-winning jumper against B.U., or rallying his squad to a win over the Big Green, the floor general has displayed the poise and leadership of a senior for nearly every one of the 36.6 minutes per game he has spent on the court (most in the country among freshmen, and sixth-most overall).
It is those types of performances that have helped keep Harvard (9-5, 1-0 Ivy) atop the Ancient Eight following the departures of Curry and classmate Kyle Casey and the graduation of Keith Wright ’12 and Oliver McNally ’12.
Though it would by no means have eliminated the Crimson from championship contention, a loss to Dartmouth (3-11, 0-1) on Saturday would have been devastatingly destructive, for in a league with no postseason play and no head-to-head tiebreakers, every defeat—whether to the league’s best or the league’s worst—counts exactly the same.
A loss to the latter would have left the Crimson with little margin for error the rest of the way, and its quest for a third-straight title would have suddenly become immensely more difficult.
So though he had never before been part of the 14-game playoff, Chambers knew he could not let that occur.
“What an effort,” his coach said afterwards.
That effort came in a contest before which Chambers admitted he was both “nervous and excited.”
“First Ivy League road game—everyone was talking about how tough it was going to be,” the rookie said.
But just as has been the case all season long, once Siyani Chambers stepped on to the court, things did not appear to be very tough at all.
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.