M. Hoops Ivy Notebook | Harvard trying to get over a nailbiter curse

Since hiring Tommy Amaker, Harvard has improved in a few areas. Closing out games has not been one of them.

Going into the weekend, Harvard was 1-9 in games decided by ten points or fewer. That one win came in November, and since then the Crimson (8-18 overall) have lost close games in the most criminal of ways. Their most-recent felony came when they coughed up a five-point lead with 38 seconds left against Cornell on Feb. 16.

On Friday, though, they broke through. Down by eight to Princeton with 2:22 left, Harvard unfurled a 15-0 run that pushed it to an overtime victory.

Then again, the Crimson were facing the only team worse than them at closing the deal.

Princeton now sits at 3-11 in close ones, the worst record in the Ivy League. (A pair of wins put Harvard at 3-9.)

Not surprisingly, Cornell leads the Ivy pack at 8-1.

Should've stayed home sick. And if the fight for worst close-games record isn't compelling enough, Harvard and Princeton have even more for which to struggle. Both teams remain winless on the road - Harvard is 0-13, Princeton is 0-11.

The Tigers finish their road slate against Brown and Yale, while Harvard gets its last chances against Columbia and Cornell.

The Crimson look to face a tougher road to the elusive win, with the league's top two teams on deck. But hey, at least they have a neutral-court win.

Yellow and Green, black and blue. If you doubted that a Princeton team that could run with Harvard would get blown out by Dartmouth, you'd be right.

Princeton captain Kyle Koncz was limping visibly through Harvard's furious second-half comeback, although he did finish with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

But he didn't play at all when the Big Green whooped on the Tigers one day later.

Koncz leads the team in minutes per game, rebounds per game and foul shooting, and is second in scoring.

Then again, Dartmouth was dealing with injuries of its own - to captain Johnathan Ball and leading scorer Alex Barnett. Both toughed it out but neither could replicate his pre-injury form.

Hey, it's only a seven-hour drive back. The Tigers might have seen that Dartmouth loss coming. Just ask Steve Danley - having the second leg of a Harvard-Dartmouth road trip in Hanover is perceived to be a recipe for failure.

But at least in recent years, the stats don't support that. In the last ten years, Ivy opponents are 19-10 in second-leg-in-Hanover games, but 21-18 in all other Leede Arena games.

When the best ain't good enough. A few weeks ago, Cornell was the clear Ivy League leader in free-throw shooting.

Then, they got down to business.

As of Sunday, Steve Donahue's team leads the NCAA in foul shooting at 78.8 percent, thanks in part to a staggering 84.7 percent in Ivy League play.

In ten league games, the Big Red have three of the league's top four shooters: Ryan Wittman (30-31), Louis Dale (44-46) and Adam Gore (34-37).

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