The Harvard men’s basketball team (8-8) will try to make its way above .500 for the first time since the season’s first game Saturday against Howard (8-9). Beat writer David Freed highlights three things to watch as the Crimson go for its second road win of the season.
STARTING UP FRONT
During Harvard’s last three games, the Crimson has not received the production from junior center Zena Edosomwan that they are accustomed to. After turning in an All-Tournament performance in Hawaii that included a 25-point, 16-rebound effort against No. 2 Oklahoma, Edosomwan has just one double-double in four games since returning. He played just 22 minutes against Dartmouth due to foul trouble and was stifled for the first half against Ryerson before breaking through in the second. Howard has a thin front line after center Marcel Boyd, so look for Harvard to feed Edosomwan early and often to get him going.
BEST MAN UP
To stop Howard, you have to stop James Daniel. The junior from Hampton, Virginia averages over a third of the team’s points and nearly half its assists, scoring almost 29 points a contest. Daniel has a tendency to hijack the team’s offense at times, taking 36 shots in a double overtime loss to Radford earlier this year. When opponents stop Daniel, they typically stop the Bison, as Howard has won just two games all season when Daniel shot under 40 percent from the field.
This puts the defense of senior Agunwa Okolie on center stage. Always tasked with guarding the best opposing perimeter player, Okolie has gone up against a distinguished slate so far this season. He has guarded four potential All-Americans in Kansas’ Wayne Selden, Providence’s Kris Dunn, Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, and BYU’s Kyle Collingsworth. None of the four average as much as Daniel, however, and Okolie’s defense will be the key to stopping the Bison attack.
TURNOVERS, TURNOVERS
During Harvard’s two-game winning streak, coach Tommy Amaker has consistently singled out the same area of improvement: turnovers. With two freshmen starting in the backcourt, the team has struggled to take care of the ball all year. However, Harvard will play a mirror image of itself in Howard. The Bison rank 240th in the country in turnovers, averaging just over 14 a game, and generate only seven steals a contest. This minimizes their ability to exploit Harvard’s Achilles heel, a boon for Amaker’s squad.
