The 2010–11 Harvard Crimson men's basketball team represented

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

athletic conference during the

2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010, with the preliminary games of the 2010 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, and ended with the 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on Apri ...

. The team played its home games in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

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 Univ ...

, which has a capacity of 2,195. The team was led by fourth-year

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

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 ...

. By earning a share of the

2010–11 Ivy League men's basketball season The 2010–11 Ivy League men's basketball season marks the continuation of the annual tradition of competitive basketball among Ivy League members that began when the league was formed during the 1956–57 NCAA University Division men's basketbal ...

title, the team became the first men's basketball Ivy League champion in school history. This was the 100th season for Harvard basketball. After the annual 14-game double round robin schedule, Harvard and

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

tied as co-champion, resulting in a

one-game playoff A one-game playoff, sometimes known as a pennant playoff, tiebreaker game or knockout game, is a tiebreaker in certain sports—usually but not always professional—to determine which of two teams, tied in the final standings, will qualify for a ...

to determine the league's automatic bid to the

2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2010-11 ...

. After losing, the team earned an at-large bid to the 2011 National Invitation Tournament, where they lost in the first round. It was the school's first appearance in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

. The seniorless team was

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

ed by Keith Wright and Oliver McNally. Wright, a junior, was a unanimous All-Ivy first team selection and named Ivy League Men's Basketball Player of the Year. Sophomores Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry were named All-Ivy second team and sophomore Christian Webster was an honorable mention. The team established a new school record for single-season wins, a record for conference game wins and by going undefeated at home set a record for home wins.

Preseason

The team was coming off a 2009–10 season during which it set a school record for wins (21), non-conference wins (11), home wins (11), and road/neutral wins (10). However, the team lost its star Jeremy Lin to the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

. The team entered the season not having participated in the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

since the 1946 Tournament. It also entered the season as the only member school not to have won at least one Ivy League men's basketball championship since the league was formed during the 1956–57 season. Of the 34 men's and women's sports in which Harvard competes, this was the only sport that they had never won a championship. They had only finished in second three times in the past and only one of those was outright. Most preseason publications predicted

would finish in first place and Harvard would finish in second place, although the ''

Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' projected that would finish in first followed by Princeton and Harvard. Breaking a three-year streak by

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

, the Ivy League media poll selected Princeton as the top team with twelve first place votes, Harvard second with four first place votes and Cornell third with one first place vote. It was the first Princeton team to be the preseason selection since the .

Season

During the season, the team lost to its only ranked opponent, #4

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

(December 22), but defeated power conference opponents

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

(January 5) of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

and

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

(November 28) of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

. The Colorado victory was the team's first ever against a Big 12 opponent. In addition to defeating Boston College, the team defeated other cross-town rivals (December 11) and (December 31). The team also lost to Amaker's former team (as a coach),

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

(December 4). The Harvard gameplan involved

fast break Fast break is an offensive strategy in basketball and handball. In a fast break, a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible, so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up. The ...

s initiated by its defensive and an inside-outside game. Although Harvard never appeared in the

2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, for a few weeks (January 24, January 31 and February 21 and March 7) during the season they received a vote in the AP Poll. As the season wound down, there was much ado in the press about a possible Harvard Ivy League championship. The most recent Harvard team to be in contention for a championship entering the final weekend was the 1984 team. On March 5, Harvard clinched a share of the league championship for the first time since the Ivy League was formed. By defeating

at home on March 5 and earning a split of the season series, they clinched at least a share of the

Championship with a 12–2 conference record. Princeton fell to 11–2 with one conference game remaining to force a one-game playoff for the conferences automatic bid to the

. Harvard finished the season a perfect 14–0 at home, which surpassed the prior season's record of eleven home wins. Harvard will enter the

2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 7, 2011, with the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic and ended with the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on April 2, 2012, at the Mer ...

with a 17-game home streak (10th longest in the country). Harvard's 12 conference game wins was also a school record. On March 7, Harvard received a vote in both the AP Poll and the

Coaches' Poll In the United States, the Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I (NCAA), Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I (NCAA), Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. ...

. It was the first time in program history that they received votes in the Coaches' Poll.

Postseason

On March 8, Princeton defeated Penn to force a one-game playoff at the

Payne Whitney Gymnasium The Payne Whitney Gymnasium is the gymnasium of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. One of the largest athletic facilities ever built, its twelve acres of interior space include a nine-story tower containing a third-floor swimming pool, fe ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

. Princeton won the playoff by a 63–62 margin. However, many thought Harvard had a chance to make the tournament in spite of the loss as an at-large team. Four of Harvard's regular season losses were to postseason contenders, and

represented the conference well the year before. Entering selection Sunday (March 13), Harvard ranked 35th in the

Ratings Percentage Index The rating percentage index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. It is one of the sports rating systems by which NCAA basketball, baseball, softball, ...

(RPI). However, Harvard was not selected. Unfortunately, neither of Harvard's quality wins (against Colorado and Boston College) helped them because both teams were left out of the NCAA tournament and relegated to number one seed status in the NIT tournament. It was the Ivy League's first NIT invitation since the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

when Brown participated. As a regular season champion not invited to the NCAA tournament, they were an at-large selection for the 2011 National Invitation Tournament, where they were seeded #6. On March 15, Harvard was defeated by by a 71–54 margin in the first round. The final record of 23–7 established a school record for number of wins, surpassing the prior season's total of 21. Harvard finished the season ranked 40th nationally by the ''Collegiate Basketball News'' RPI, CollegeRPI.com RPI and NCAA RPI. The team finished second in the nation in

free throw percentage In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

(80.8%), led by Oliver McNally who was 2nd as an individual with a 92.6% and Christian Webster who was 12th with an 89.4%. Harvard had no seniors on the team and was expected to be a contender again the following season.

Schedule

, - !colspan=9 style=, Regular season , - !colspan=9 style=, Ivy League Playoff , - !colspan=9 style=, NIT

Honors

In season

Each week the Ivy League selects a player of the week and a rookie of the week.

Postseason honors

Keith Wright was an

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

honorable mention

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

, a CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson All-American and a

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the men's basketball head coach for the Univ ...

First Team All-District selection. The Ivy League selected its postseason awards on March 9.
Player of the Year: Keith Wright, Harvard (Jr., F, Suffolk, VA)
All-Ivy League (ALL CAPS: Unanimous)
:First Team All-Ivy: KEITH WRIGHT, Harvard (Jr., F, Suffolk, VA) :Second Team All-Ivy: Kyle Casey, Harvard (So., F, Medway, MA); Brandyn Curry, Harvard (So., G, Huntersville, NC) :Honorable Mention: Christian Webster, Harvard (So., G,

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

)

Notes

External links

Harvard Crimson
@

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Season stats
@

{{DEFAULTSORT:2010-11 Harvard Crimson Men's Basketball Team Harvard Crimson men's basketball seasons Harvard Crimson Men's Basketball Team, 2010-11

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

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 gam ...