While losing Chambers puts Harvard in a difficult situation, all three of the point guards competing for the starting role feel that they are ready and have improved as players due to the competition this fall.
“I got to learn a lot of things from them—just about our system, standards, work ethic—because they’re guys who have been here for a few years,” McCarthy said. “They’ve really helped bring me along as a freshman, showing me the ropes. Competing against them, they’re both great players, so it’s definitely made me step my game up and made me a lot better player.”
Miller, the most experienced of the trio, figures to be McCarthy’s backup but will see most of his minutes at shooting guard. While McCarthy is a pass-first point guard who does have the ability to attack the rim, Miller is more of a spot-up shooter. Seventy-seven percent of the junior’s points last season came off of three pointers.
Miller and freshman Corey Johnson, the team’s two best outside shooters, figure to be the floor spacers in Amaker’s inside-out offense, which will be centered around junior forward Zena Edosomwan.
“I’m not entirely sure what [my role] will be,” Miller said. “In past years, I’ve played a little bit at the point. Obviously, my strengths are shooting the ball and have been and that’s been my role in the past.”
That leaves Fraschilla. The Dallas native is the the team’s only true point guard who has played in a college game. While the junior figures to receive more meaningful minutes than he has in the past two seasons, Fraschilla has embraced the role of mentor to McCarthy and knows that how he practices will make everyone around him better.
“[The three of us] have really been pushing each other in practice, and you can’t underestimate the value of what it’s like going against each other everyday,” Fraschilla said. “We’re not taking it easy on each other. We’re going to have some games this year that are going to be absolute dogfights, so we have to be 110 percent on each other everyday.”
While whoever starts on Saturday in an exhibition against McGill and in next Friday’s regular season opener against MIT will not match Chambers’s experience and talent, Amaker insists that McCarthy, Miller, and Fraschilla just need to be themselves.
“Our philosophy hasn’t changed a heck of a lot,” Amaker said. “We’re not going to change our principles or our philosophy, but we may have to tinker and adjust some things or change a tactic or two...and that’s ok, we’ve done it in the past. We’ve tinkered and changed but we didn’t change the foundation or the philosophy of our system, which we believe heavily in and our players believe in as well.”
—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephengleason@thecrimson.com.