As the Harvard men’s basketball team (6-8) prepares to kick off Ivy League play Saturday, the two most important names are the players not currently practicing. Starting freshman point guard freshman Tommy McCarthy and senior sixth man Patrick Steeves—the team’s top two distributors—remain game-time decisions for Saturday’s Ancient Eight opener against Dartmouth (4-8).

The potential absences of the duo have ripple effects down the lineup. Junior Corbin Miller, who leads the bench in minutes and points per game, will make his first start of the season if McCarthy cannot play. Beyond Miller, a nontraditional point guard who is more shooter (45.3 percent shooting from three) than playmaker (1.1 assists per game), the team will rely on sophomore Andre Chatfield to step up.

Harvard coach Tommy Amaker acknowledged Tuesday that the offense may have to change to accommodate Chatfield, who has primarily played on the wing so far this season.

“If Dre is there, we have to tweak and massage a few things to make him more comfortable,” Amaker said. “But with Corbin, he’s played the point for us and he’s comfortable [in our sets]. The issue is wearing him down, wearing him out, but we will deal with that when we get there.”

Both Miller and Amaker stressed that the team can ill afford a long adjustment period. In the Ivy League, the only league in the country to decide its champion by regular season record, dropping a single game can decide the playoff race.

“I think they are well aware of how important every game in our conference is,” Amaker said. “Certainly home games and games that are early are important because if you can get out of the blocks and separate earlier rather than later, you have a greater chance of finishing strong down the stretch.”

During its five-year championship run, the Crimson has taken advantage of the early opportunities. Harvard is 9-1 against Dartmouth, the team it plays twice before it takes on any other Ivy League squad, over the span. Three times it has won at least its first five games of the season, never going worse than 5-1 on the first six-game leg.

Amaker’s teams have been so successful, however, because of their ability to take care of business against lesser opponents. Over the five-year span, Harvard has a 37-3 record against teams that eventually finished in the bottom half of the standings, including an unblemished 20-0 home mark.

Much of that comes from Amaker’s single-minded focus on the next opponent and reluctance to look ahead. As the coach pointed out Tuesday, the team on the other side of the floor took out Harvard the Crimson in at Lavietes a year ago.

“Dartmouth is a game and a team and a program that is similar to what we just faced,” Amaker said. “We have always had our troubles, as everyone seems like they have in our league, with one team or another and maybe most of them. They have come here and knocked us off in the past.”

In the absence of two of its strongest playmakers, the team will look to its leading scorer, junior power forward/center Zena Edosomwan, to carry the load inside. Edosomwan, who has more than tripled his rebounding and scoring averages from last year, has scored in double figures in all but four games this year.

“I’m happy with [my play] so far,” Edosomwan said. “I want to continue making strides. I’m not content being a good player—I want to be great and that’s the next step for me.”

Amaker ceded that his team does not hide from the fact that it relies so much on the junior inside.

“There’s no mystery about it,” the coach said. “We are trying to get it to him as much as possible and we want to play through him, play around him, and play it from there, whether that’s the first minute of the game or the last minute of the game.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com.