It’s rare for programs to make many consecutive trips to the NIT these days. Inclusion in one is evasive enough. The competition is fierce. The way is hard. The gate is narrow.
Yet Harvard is one of two teams who’ve qualified these past two seasons. And with Nebraska out of the picture, the Crimson are the only ones with a real chance of making it happen again.
There are challenges, of course. Harvard is not the best team in the Ivy League. Far from it, in fact. Yale is kind of good this year by national standards, which makes them really good in relation to their fellow elitist nerds who don’t care about basketball (but I care, Yale; I care). Beyond that, the Ivy League Tournament is at Harvard, in case you haven’t heard. The Crimson could stun the NIT world and win the Ivy’s regular season championship only to fail in the conference tournament, winning consecutive home games and missing the NIT. They sit upon the edge of a metaphorical knife (and possibly a literal one—those perverts).
The campaign begins tomorrow, in the first of back-to-back Saturday matchups with Dartmouth. If you can somehow find the game online and want to watch, look for Harvard to dominate (the mark of an Ivy League contender is shit-housing Dartmouth) but turn the ball over way too much (Harvard’s particular NIT brand this season looks to be sloppy offense).
Good luck, Harvard. It’s not easy. This, we know. But if you can do it, your particular NIdynasT will be rounding into form. The eyes of an expectant nation watch. Again, good luck.
