“I think we’ve shown that we have been the best team in our league,” Amaker said after beating Yale.
For its 26 wins, the Crimson was rewarded with a 12 seed by the NCAA Selection Committee, matched up with the fifth-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats. Led by senior guard Sean Kilpatrick, the Bearcats played a bruising defensive style of basketball. In the regular season, Cincinnati had taken out defending champion Louisville and cracked the nation’s top 10 before a late season swoon.
Harvard entered the matchup as a popular underdog. From Seth Davis to President Obama, many pundits had the Crimson as their trendy second-round upset pick. If the year before had been about being underestimated, this year was about the weight of expectations.
However, Harvard delivered once again with a 61-57 victory over the Bearcats. Chambers had five of his 11 points in the final two minutes, while Harvard set a program record with 27 wins.
“They’ve got real players,” said Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin after the game. “If it wasn’t for two slip-ups…you’re talking about a team that would have been 30-0.”
The Crimson’s season would end in the next round, however, at the hands of Michigan State. The No. 4-seeded Spartans were a popular pick to win it all and showed it in the first half, jumping out to a 12-point lead behind a flurry of transition points from junior forward Branden Dawson.
In the second half, the Crimson went small—with four guards surrounding junior forward Steve Moundou-Missi inside—to kickstart a 19-3 run that gave Harvard its only lead of the game, 62-60, with seven minutes to go. However, Michigan State would nail threes on three of its next five possessions to take an eight-point lead. Harvard was never closer than four the rest of the way.
“I can’t say enough about our team and the effort [that] the guys...showed in the second half to make a run, to take the lead,” Amaker said after the game. “We have had an amazing season.… I’m proud of our program, proud of our team.”
—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com.