As for the rookies spending more time running down the court than they do riding the pine, that also has its ups and downs. It’s encouraging that Amaker trusts his young players—and he should, since he recruited them. They’re a talented group who represent Harvard and Amaker’s commitment to revitalizing a program that has remained stagnant for decades.

But they’re still freshmen, and yesterday their inexperience showed. Webster, playing in front of his hometown crowd, seemed nervous, putting too much into his shots and clanging them off the rim. Casey made a few nice plays, but got into foul trouble and—not that he can really be blamed for this—was woefully overmatched in the few instances he was stuck guarding Monroe. Giger committed three turnovers in 11 minutes of play.

Still, Georgetown is a top-25 team and was a 13.5-point favorite coming into the game, so what does this have to do with the Ivy League schedule, which will pit Harvard against less talented competition? Not much in a direct sense, but it does provide some insight into what the Crimson is up against as it tries to unseat defending Ancient Eight champ Cornell.

The Big Red also played a skilled Big East squad this weekend in St. John’s, and Cornell took down the Red Storm, 71-66. St. John’s is no Georgetown, but after watching that game at Madison Square Garden, it was apparent that the Big Red won despite lacking its opponent’s athleticism and raw talent. Cornell’s advantage came from its discipline and poise, instilled in the team by its veteran leadership, spearheaded by the impressive senior trio of Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale, and Jeff Foote. Even when St. John’s pulled ahead, the Big Red kept its composure and found good looks at the basket.

Against Georgetown, unless the offense was running through Lin and the Hoyas weren’t neutralizing him with persistent double teams, Harvard seemed lost. The Crimson failed to generate quality offensive opportunities time and time again, and when it realized it couldn’t ride its star the entire game, Harvard simply fell apart.

The Crimson is in a better position to challenge for an Ivy title than ever before this year, but unless the squad learns how to function when Lin is prevented from taking it to the hole at will and stays focused in the face of adversity, Harvard will simply be an exciting team that has little shot at making the NCAA Tournament.

There’s still time for that to change, and one bad game against Georgetown doesn’t mean that the Crimson doesn’t have what it takes to make a tourney run. But yesterday’s contest showed that right now Harvard is nowhere near where it wants to be as team, and the Crimson’s quest for an Ivy championship will make noise but can’t be taken seriously unless Lin’s teammates can ease the burden on him and the freshmen mature quickly and start making better decisions.

Maybe yesterday’s loss will serve as a wakeup call and set the wheels to success in motion. Or maybe Harvard will have to wait for next year.

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.