The Crimson also received key contributions from co-captains Laurent Rivard, the junior who broke the program’s single-season three-point record, and Christian Webster, who provided valuable leadership as the team’s lone senior. Webster contributed some magical moments as well, most memorably when he hit three consecutive three-pointers to spark Harvard—down 10 with 93 seconds to go—to a dramatic overtime win over Dartmouth on Jan. 26.

But it was the late-season emergence of Smith, the talented sophomore center, which changed the entire dynamic of the squad. After getting benched following a slew of early-season turnovers, the former top recruit won his starting job back before a Feb. 15 home contest versus Penn. Against the Quakers, Smith delivered a stellar performance, registering a near-triple double with 20 points, a program-record 10 blocks, and nine rebounds. From there, the center never looked back, providing the team with the two-way interior presence it had lacked to that point.

Yet despite all the individual successes, a February loss at Columbia and a road sweep at the hands of Princeton and Penn in the season’s penultimate weekend meant the team still needed help to win its third-straight Ivy League title as it prepared for its final two games against Columbia and Cornell at Lavietes Pavilion.

The Crimson took care of business at home, storming back to beat the Lions, 56-51, and then knocking off the Big Red, 65-54, the following night.

Thanks to a Princeton loss to Yale the previous evening, the latter victory gave Harvard a share of the league championship, and within moments, when the Tigers were defeated again—this time by Brown—the Crimson had won the title outright and was headed to March Madness for the second consecutive year.

In Salt Lake City, behind 18 points from Saunders and 17 from Rivard, Harvard pulled the upset nobody saw coming. Though the Crimson had blown late second-half leads against the University of Massachusetts, Saint Mary’s, and Memphis during the regular season, the squad refused to back down against the Lobos, as it withstood a New Mexico run to take a one-point lead with six and a half minutes to play, answered right back, and closed down the stretch to earn the win.

Though Harvard was overmatched in its third-round contest, falling to sixth-seeded Arizona by a score of 74-51, its season as a whole, against all odds, was once again marked by the accomplishment of another major program first.

“It was a significant moment and achievement,” Amaker said. “[It’s] something that I’m incredibly proud of our kids for accomplishing.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.