The 2009–10 Harvard Crimson men's basketball team represented
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in the
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
athletic conference during the
2009-10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
at the
Lavietes Pavilion
The Ray Lavietes Basketball Pavilion at the Briggs Athletic Center is a 1,636-seat multi-purpose arena in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. Owned by Harvard University, it is the second-oldest college basketball arena still in use ( Fordham Uni ...
, which has a capacity of 2,195. The team was led by third-year
head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...
Tommy Amaker
Harold Tommy Amaker Jr. (; born June 6, 1965) is an American college basketball coach and the head coach of the Harvard University men's basketball team. He has also coached for the University of Michigan and Seton Hall University. He played po ...
and starred highly touted prospect
Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Shu-How Lin (born August 23, 1988) is a Taiwanese-American professional basketball player who last played for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the Ne ...
.
Building on the success of the prior season when the 2008–09 team beat then
ranked
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
(#17
AP Poll
The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...
/#24
Coaches' Poll
The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...
) for the program's first win over a ranked team in the school's history, The 2009–10 team broke many all-time program records including the following:
[
*most wins (21)
*most non-conference wins (11)
*most home wins (11)
*most road/neutral wins (10)
The team received a vote in the AP Poll four times: (November 23, January 11, January 18 and 25).] Amaker was a nominee for the inaugural Ben Jobe Award
The Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding minority men's college basketball head coach in NCAA Division I competition. The award was established in 2010 and is named for head coach Ben Jobe, wh ...
as the top minority Division I college basketball coach. Amaker was recognized by Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
as the 2010 Ivy League Coach of the Year.
As a result of its 21–7 overall record and a 10–4 Ivy League conference record, the team was invited to play in the 16-team single-elimination 2010 CollegeInsider.com Tournament
The 2010 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was a postseason single-elimination tournament of 16 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams.
Fifteen of the selected teams were from a pool that are not invited t ...
.
Over the course of the season, the team was highly publicized, with Lin being featured in ''Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'' and ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, while the team's early match against defending conference champion Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
was written up in ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
''.
Preseason
The Ivy League held its pre-season media day on October 28, 2009, in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
. The league's media unanimously voted Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
the preseason #1 for the second straight season. Harvard was ranked fourth.
Honors
Over the course of the season, the Ivy League office recognized several members of the team regularly for excellent play:
During the season, Lin was recognized as one of eleven finalists for the Bob Cousy Award
The Bob Cousy Award presented by The College of the Holy Cross (or Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award) is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate point guard. ...
. He was one of 31 midseason watchlist candidates for the Wooden Award
The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award, and recognizing the ...
. At the conclusion of the 2009–10 Ivy League men's basketball season, Lin was selected as a repeat first team All-Ivy selection after becoming the first player in Ivy League history to record 1,450 points (1,471), 450 rebounds
'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...
(487), 400 assists (401) and 200 steals (224). He was also selected to the United States Basketball Writers Association
The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball.
Scholarships
The USBWA annually awa ...
All-District team.[ ]
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009-10 Harvard Crimson Men's Basketball Team
Harvard Crimson men's basketball seasons
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...
Harvard Crimson men's basketball
The Harvard Crimson men's basketball program represents intercollegiate men's basketball at Harvard University. The team currently competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and plays home ga ...
Harvard Crimson men's basketball
The Harvard Crimson men's basketball program represents intercollegiate men's basketball at Harvard University. The team currently competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and plays home ga ...
Harvard Crimson men's basketball
The Harvard Crimson men's basketball program represents intercollegiate men's basketball at Harvard University. The team currently competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and plays home ga ...
Harvard Crimson men's basketball
The Harvard Crimson men's basketball program represents intercollegiate men's basketball at Harvard University. The team currently competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and plays home ga ...