Two-win Harvard looks for offense

For the Harvard men's basketball team, the first 15 games of the season proved to be a difficult learning process.

Plagued by inexperience and lack of depth, the Crimson (2-13, 1-1 Ivy) dropped their first 11 contests of the season, suffering only two legitimate blowouts -- an 86-42 loss to Boston University and a 100-59 loss at current No. 2 Stanford.

Harvard was in many other games until the end, losing eight of its 13 games by less than 10 points, including a 101-95 overtime loss to a Rider team which defeated Penn.

Starting point guard Michael Beal, while playing out of his natural position, is averaging 6.4 points and 3.3 assists per game. He stressed that the inability to close out games has marred his team thus far.

"We were in all our games," the sophomore said. "It was just a matter of learning how to close out games. It was just a matter of learning to do that. It's been all about learning how to close out the game and learning what the character of the team and every player on it is."

Beal also underscored his team's inexperience entering the season. Without its returning leading scorer Brian Cusworth -- who is sitting out this season -- and with the graduation of Brady Merchant and Elliot Prasse-Freeman, Harvard has had to call on multiple scoring options to shoulder the burden.

"It started off slow as was to be expected with our new team," Beal said.

"We've started to get it together. We lost almost our whole team from last year. We started off very inexperienced but now we are experienced."

For the Crimson to successfully turn things around, Kevin Rogus, Matt Stehle and Jason Norman will have to continue to contribute. Rogus leads the team in minutes per game with 31.9, three-point shots made with 38 and points per game with 16.1.

But in the Crimson's two victories, the 6-foot-4 junior guard has not shot well, shooting 1-for-10 in a 60-49 win over Dartmouth and 3-for-11 in a 58-53 victory at San Jose State.

In both victories, Stehle led the offensive charge. The 6-foot-8 sophomore forward, who can score on the inside and shoots an impressive 50 percent from behind the three-point arc, poured in 18 points on 4-for-8 shooting in Harvard's first Ivy League win of the season, including 2-for-3 from three-point territory.

Against the Spartans of San Jose State, Stehle went 6-for-7 from the field, leading the Crimson with 14 points.

Norman, an athletic 6-3 off-guard, has been Harvard's third-scoring option and is averaging 8.5 points per game.

As league play kicks off, Beal emphasized that inexperience will no longer be a legitimate excuse. The point guard expressed confidence that his team will achieve significantly more success in the month of February.

"Now that we have 13 games under our belt it's not about learning," Beal said.

"We're not young or inexperienced anymore. We've really learned how to play and compete in any game. It's just about making the plays to win."

With a solid Cornell team next on the schedule, the Crimson, who are currently in the midst of exams, appear poised to forget their 13 losses and use their win over Dartmouth as a springboard for success in league competition.

"What we're trying to do is make sure we're in a position to win any game," Beal said. "People can count us out or do whatever they want. It doesn't matter when we get out on the court."

And according to Beal, the team has undergone a transformation that will serve it well in league play.

"We're not just trying to play out the season and wait until next year. Our goals is to go out there and win every night. When we play Penn, we'll beat them."

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