ESPN

It might be football season, but thanks to an NCAA rule change, Steve Donahue and his college basketball coaching brethren can start working on the hardwood earlier than ever before.

The new rule states college hoops teams now can start practice 42 days before their first game, which for Boston College is Nov. 8. That means Donahue could get his Eagles on the court as soon as Friday.

There's plenty of work to be done before the season tips off at Providence.

ESPN Insider recently ranked the toughest nonconference schedules in college hoops for the 2013-14 season. BC came in at No. 4 in that exercise.

"This one shocked me, and I had to take a second look," ESPN Insider Jeff Goodman wrote. "However, there aren't a lot of cupcakes on the 13-game nonleague slate."

BC will play at Auburn, Harvard, Providence, Purdue and USC, and faces off with UConn, UMass and VCU on neutral courts.

After he heard the highlights of the Eagles' nonconference schedule at the Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-off Breakfast on Thursday morning to promote the Nov. 10 tripleheader at TD Garden -- with BC taking on UMass, BU taking on Northeastern and Harvard taking on Holy Cross -- new Celtics coach (and former Butler coach) Brad Stevens had to weigh in.

"Most of these guys need to fire the guys that are scheduling their games," he joked. "Just an FYI. Steve, I don't know about that schedule. I thought you were gonna keep going, Steve. I was like, 'Goll-y, what are you doing?'"

Donahue was asked about his team's stiff nonleague slate.

"I believe a team with an overall losing record can make the NCAA tournament now," he said. "Now that sounds crazy, but with these mega-conferences now ... "

Donahue believes some of the beefed-up conferences will be so brutal that a strong nonconference performance might be enough to boost a team with a so-so conference record into the postseason.

"When a 9-7 Boise State from the Mountain West makes the NCAA tournament and an 11-7 Virginia from the ACC doesn't, I think in my position, I gotta wake up," Donahue said. "And that's what we did. We analyzed really our schedule. ... I don't want to be 12-1 [in the nonconference] with an RPI in triple digits and then have to win 13 games in the ACC."

And then there's the entertainment factor, which can't be dismissed.

"The other reason for me is I want to attract as many teams as we can that will excite our fan base," the BC coach said.

It's not like the rest of the Eagles' schedule is getting any easier, as Goodman noted Thursday morning.

"You've got [to be], I think, finally maybe going into the year feeling comfortable with what you have in terms of talent and depth," Goodman, the event emcee, said. "And now the ACC rewards you by adding Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame. Three perennial top-25 programs."

"Louisville next year," Donahue added.

"Louisville next year," Goodman agreed, as the audience laughed, "but we won't get ahead of ourselves."

"It's in my mind, trust me," Donahue said, drawing more laughs.

"I thought you guys take it one day at a time, one game at a time?" Goodman joked.

"I try," Donahue said.

It's just that in college basketball these days, it's not always possible to focus on only the here and now. After all, there's a lot to look forward to.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

ESPN.com is breaking down the nonconference men's basketball schedules for each team in nine of the country's top leagues, including the Atlantic 10. Here's Myron Medcalf's take on UMass' foes:

MASSACHUSETTS

Toughest: LSU (Nov. 12), Charleston Classic (Nov. 21-24)
Next-toughest: BYU (Dec. 7), Florida State (Dec. 21), Providence (Dec. 28)
The rest: Boston College (Nov. 10), Youngstown State (Nov. 17), at Eastern Michigan (Dec. 3), Northern Illinois (Dec. 14), at Ohio (Dec. 18), Miami-Ohio (Jan. 4), at Elon (Jan. 18)

Toughness scale (1-10): 6 -- With Chaz Williams returning, UMass could make its first appearance in the NCAA tournament in more than a decade. The team’s nonconference slate, possesses a few opportunities for wins that will impress the selection committee. The Minutemen will face LSU in just their second game of the 2013-14. A matchup against New Mexico in the second round of the Charleston Classic is a possibility (have to get past Nebraska first). BYU, Florida State and Providence could be interesting games to look back upon on Selection Sunday.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Medcalf's analysis of the A-10's nonconference schedules.

It’s not quite September yet, but fall is in the air.

Students are streaming back onto campuses across the region and the football season is about to kick off.

Need another sign of the changing seasons? The college basketball schedules for 2013-14 are being released.

Boston College announced its schedule this past Thursday -- with highlights including a matchup with UMass at TD Garden (part of a tripleheader that also includes Harvard-Holy Cross and Boston University-Northeastern) and two games at Madison Square Garden in the 2K Sports Classic (the first versus New England rival UConn) -- and Harvard followed on Monday.

Highlights for the Crimson include the program’s first trip to the Great Alaska Shootout (which they’ll likely be favored to win) and a nationally televised trip to Storrs, Conn., to take on UConn.

There is one game that stands out on both schedules: Wed., Jan. 1, Boston College at Harvard.

Wait, BC at Harvard?

After his Crimson won their fifth straight game against the Eagles at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill in December, Tommy Amaker talked about what the matchup means for his team:

“It’s been very meaningful for us,” he said. “We’re thankful for the opportunity to play Boston College. We’ve been fortunate. But the outcome is not indicative of us wanting to maintain this game. It’s about us having an opportunity to play an ACC team -- it’s always gonna be a road game, they’re not gonna, I’m sure, come over to play us, which certainly I understand that.”

Oh, how things change.

While BC has endured a downswing since the switch from former coach Al Skinner to current coach Steve Donahue, Harvard has been ascendant. Amaker has stocked the program with talented, hard-working players like Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers, taken the Ivy League by storm (winning at least a share of the title in three straight seasons, going to the NCAA tournament in two straight seasons and winning the program’s first NCAA game in 2012) and made Harvard into a potential Top 25 team to start 2013-14.

And so the ACC team (Conte Forum capacity: 8,606) will go to the Ivy League team (Lavietes Pavilion capacity: 2,050) and play as a likely underdog (though ACC Rookie of the Year Olivier Hanlan and players like Joe Rahon, Ryan Anderson and Dennis Clifford give the Eagles hope that good times are just around the bend). It’ll be the Eagles’ first visit to Cambridge in more than 20 years, with the last such trip coming in 1991.

Won’t that be a sight to see?

The college hoops season can’t get here quickly enough.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

After reaching the highest heights in Harvard basketball’s long history in 2012-13, winning a third straight Ivy League title and the school’s first NCAA tournament game, Tommy Amaker lost just one player to graduation.

That means the rest of the best team in Crimson annals will be back, and as if that wasn’t enough Brandyn Curry and Kyle Casey -- would-be senior cocaptains who left school prior to the 2012-13 season because they were implicated in a widespread academic cheating scandal -- will be back to bolster the core of Wesley Saunders, Laurent Rivard and Siyani Chambers in 2013-14.

But, wait, there’s more.

That one player the Crimson lost to graduation? He’s coming back too.

After the Crimson were knocked out of the NCAAs by Arizona, Yanni Hufnagel, viewed as a top recruiter, left for Vanderbilt, and Brian Adams left for Marist. On Tuesday, Amaker announced the promotion of assistant Brian DeStefano to associate head coach and the hiring of Adam Cohen and Christian Webster as assistants.

Webster, you may recall, was a senior cocaptain in 2012-13.

“We’re really excited about those guys getting opportunities to move on and move up,” Amaker said of Hufnagel and Adams, speaking by phone from the Harvard offices. “Brian obviously coming from a volunteer position here, getting a full-time paid position [at Marist]. And for Yanni, it’s a tremendous opportunity to go to Vanderbilt and the SEC.”

The moves are a clear step up the coaching ladder for both Hufnagel and Adams, and a sign that other programs value what the Crimson have accomplished.

“Selfishly you’d like to think that that’s a strong factor,” Amaker said of the program’s success leading to the turnover in the coaching staff. “At least we hope so.”

But ultimately, Amaker said, it’s about timing and finding the right opportunity at the right time for the individual.

“They’re very deserving of the opportunities,” he said. “We’ll miss them but we’re also excited about the new additions.”

Cohen, a 2008 Arizona grad who worked as a student manager under former coach Lute Olson, spent the 2012-13 season working for Ben Braun with the Rice Owls after three seasons with the USC Trojans. He started as video coordinator and ended as the director of basketball operations for USC.

“His bio speaks for itself,” Amaker said. “His background and his ability is widely known. I really respect him as a person. He’s been at a number of different places, worked for some outstanding people and to have the opportunity to bring him on board was a tremendous coup for us.”

DeStefano, who like Amaker is a Duke grad and cut his teeth under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, is entering his seventh season with the Crimson.

Webster will join the Crimson staff in a volunteer role, just as Adams before him did. Adams came to Harvard with five years of experience working for the Boston Celtics, where he was video coordinator.

All Webster has on his résumé is the success he and his teammates had in Amaker’s system. In his four seasons with the Crimson, the Washington, D.C., native was part of four 20-plus win teams, three Ivy League titles, four postseason appearances -- including NCAA tournament berths as both a junior and a senior -- and Harvard’s first NCAA tourney win, helping upset No. 3 seed New Mexico 68-62.

Asked if it will be difficult for Webster to successfully transition from player and teammate to coach and mentor just two months after graduation, Amaker said it may be.

But it’s possible, and he should know.

“He was sensitive to that,” Amaker said. “I did it, and I told him it wasn’t straight out -- I was a year between -- but it was still [coaching] players that you played with.”

Amaker joined Krzyzewski’s staff at Duke as a graduate assistant in 1988, just a year after graduating and being selected in the NBA draft by Seattle. (The SuperSonics cut Amaker shortly after drafting him, and he decided to get into coaching.)

“I’m sure it will have its moments when it will be strange when he’s trying to coach and teach and still have relationships with guys,” Amaker said. “But he’s very much respected within our program and I think that’s the key for it to work. For the players to recognize and respect him.

“If he didn’t have that, maybe it wouldn’t work. If he didn’t have that, maybe I wouldn’t want him to be a coach.”

But Amaker believes Webster, who finished his playing career as the program’s winningest player at 90-30 overall and 45-11 in the Ivy League, has what it takes to make it work.

“Being one of the more respected players that we’ve had in the program since I’ve been here, I’m thrilled that he wanted to pursue this and try this,” he said. “I’m excited as heck and thrilled and honored to continue to have Christian be a part of this.”

In fact, the head coach said he’s already planning to use Webster as a recruiting tool.

“If we’re going to talk about what we’ve done and who we are, all I have to do is point to him,” Amaker said. “I’m sure that families and parents will run to have their kids here at Harvard if they can turn out like Christian Webster.”

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Amherst men's basketball team beat Mary Hardin-Baylor, 87-70, to win the Division III national title on Sunday in Atlanta.

It's the second national title for Amherst, the other coming in 2007.

The Lord Jeffs finished the season 30-2, winning their final 24 games.

For more on the game, check out Amherst's website.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Their season's final buzzer having sounded, the sweat from the last game long since washed away, it was finally OK to admit it: the losses hurt.

When Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry were implicated in an academic cheating scandal and chose to withdraw from school in September to protect their eligibility, the Crimson's chances to repeat as Ivy League champions and to return to the NCAA tournament seemed to take a body blow.

But when Tommy Amaker looks back now, he sees that moment differently.

"Really neat, terrific stories generally are created or come about because of something unusual," the Harvard coach said Wednesday at Lavietes Pavilion. "Adversity. Those are the moments that [make] special things happen. And that's what we kinda embraced."

The 2012-13 Crimson had a saying, one that stayed with them as the season unwound, day by day, game by game: "We may not have what we had, but we have enough."

"We emphasized that within our locker room, within our team, there was still enough in here to accomplish everything that we had set out to accomplish," Amaker said. "And boy, did they ever do that."

In 2012-13, Harvard:

• won its third straight Ivy League title (second straight outright title, after a share in 2010-11)
• played in its second straight NCAA tournament (after going 65 years between its first and second appearances)
• won its first NCAA tournament game (beating No. 3 seed New Mexico 68-62)

"To win a game and advance in the tournament was pretty special," Amaker said. "Obviously, the circumstances surrounding our team at the start of the year ... to overcome adversity, to have young guys step into different roles ... I couldn't be prouder of our guys.

"There's no doubt that they made some special moments for our ballclub and our program and hopefully we can grow it and use it as we move forward to get better."

The special moments the Crimson produced in 2012-13 were made possible in large part by huge contributions from two underclassmen, Siyani Chambers (a freshman) and Wesley Saunders (a sophomore).

Chambers, a native of Golden Valley, Minn., was brilliant from the get-go. Forced into the starting lineup from the tip -- thanks to the withdrawals of would-be co-captains Curry and Casey -- Chambers proved mature beyond his 19 years, ending up leading the Ivy League in assists and minutes per game and winning the rookie of the year award.

Before the season began, Amaker called Saunders the Crimson's best player. The Los Angeles native lived up to that billing in his second season in Cambridge, leading the Ivy League in scoring and totaling double digits in points in all but the Crimson's last game (the 74-51 shellacking by No. 6 seed Arizona in the NCAA's round of 32, when he finished with eight).

And while technically Amaker named Laurent Rivard and Christian Webster co-captains, Webster admitted to reporters after the No. 14 seed Crimson upset the Lobos that Chambers led the team this season. Chambers' dazzling debut and the performances of Saunders and fellow sophomores Steve Moundou-Missi and Kenyatta Smith give Harvard high hopes going forward, especially considering that Casey and Curry are expected to be back for next season.

On Wednesday, Amaker said the coaching staff preached the losses of Casey and Curry as an opportunity for other players to step forward.

Then there was that phrase again, "We may not have what we had, but we have enough."

"We used that, we embraced that, we believed in that and we knew that it was an opportunity for us to possibly create something that could be very special," Amaker said.

After a whirlwind few days as Big Dance darlings because of their upset win, the Crimson came back down to earth courtesy of the 74-51 dispatching by the Wildcats. Looking back at the two games now, Amaker admitted that the Crimson needed everything to line up perfectly -- they had to play their best at the same time as their favored opponent faltered -- to win these kinds of games as currently constituted.

But the coach hinted that perhaps that won't always be the case. That perhaps there's room for these Crimson to get to a point where a win in mid-to-late March won't be quite so shocking to the general populace.

"We talk about possibilities are endless, and that's the beauty of being here at Harvard," Amaker said. "We have literally seen here at this place that anything is possible. And that includes basketball. We do play for Harvard, so that includes us.

"So we [try never] to feel like we're putting a cap or ceiling on what is possible. We want to do the best we can and maximize who we are and where we are, and I think live up to our standards and identity, and we can live with it after that. Whatever that is. And sometimes you find, as we found this year, that some of those growth opportunities are enormous."

So, yes, losses hurt. But upon reflection people sometimes find that it's the hardest blows that taught them the biggest lessons in sports, as in life.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Though it might seem like it happens in an instant, history is made slowly.

So when the buzzer sounded in Salt Lake City and the Crimson flooded onto the court to celebrate the school's first NCAA tournament victory, they had indeed made history. But they didn't just magically appear on that stage at the Big Dance, didn't just magically turn into Ivy League contenders and then champions.

Harvard has traveled a long road to this point, a yearslong journey that isn't over yet.

The journey started six years ago, when the school decided to make a fresh commitment to the program, on and off the court, and chose Tommy Amaker as its next coach.

Building toward history

It's hard to overstate just what a historic achievement No. 14 seed Harvard's 68-62 win over No. 3 seed New Mexico really is.

Amaker is the 17th coach in Harvard's long basketball history, which stretches all the way back to 1900 (although Harvard didn't field teams from 1909 to 1920). Entering the 2012-13 season, the Crimson had played 2,268 games (winning 1,015 and losing 1,253) but had never won a postseason game of any kind (0-2 in the NCAA tournament, 0-1 in both the NIT and the CollegeInsider.com tournament).

Of course, before Amaker took the 2009-10 team to the CollegeInsider.com tourney following a buzzer-beating loss to Princeton for the Ivy League's automatic NCAA bid, only one Harvard team had even played in a postseason tournament.

And that was in 1945-46.

Amaker took over in Cambridge before the 2007-08 season, having been fired by Michigan following the 2006-07 season. Amaker's Wolverines finished that season at 22-13 overall, including an 8-8 record in the Big Ten, with a second-round loss in the NIT.

What Amaker found by the Charles was a program that needed major upgrades both on and off the court. The Crimson needed better locker rooms, they needed better facilities and they needed more on-court talent.

But asked Friday about his "vision" for the Harvard program, Amaker said he didn't have to do anything special to make it a reality.

"I love the word 'vision,' first of all, and we use that a lot because that was real and truthful from day one of what I felt in my heart about Harvard. It's an incredible brand. It's a magical name, and that's not a knock to any other wonderful place or institution or university," Amaker told reporters in Salt Lake City. "I just think that it speaks for itself in so many ways of being considered the very best.

"I didn't have to overcome, or we didn't have to try and feel like we were overcoming anything. What we tried to do is present a vision and present Harvard as an option, as an opportunity. I never used the word 'sell.'"

Amaker did inherit some talent, including a point guard named Jeremy Lin, but otherwise the cupboard was close to bare early. (Lin, of course, went on to star in the Ivy League and then bounced around the NBA before bursting onto the scene with the Knicks last season. He now plays for the Houston Rockets.)

With Lin and a first recruiting class that included players such as Oliver McNally and Keith Wright, who would become stalwarts and two-year co-captains as juniors and seniors, Amaker set about building a winning culture in Cambridge.

That was a big deal because while the Crimson have had success in other sports, before Amaker arrived the men's basketball program never had.

Keeping the momentum going

The success the Crimson have had this season is surprising for a number of reasons, the most obvious being all the talent they lost after last season. McNally and Wright graduated, and their would-be senior co-captain replacements also left before the 2012-13 season began.

Kyle Casey, the do-it-all forward and former Ivy League rookie of the year, and Brandyn Curry, the steady, speedy point guard, both chose to withdraw from school after being implicated in an academic cheating scandal that involved more than 100 students.

Their abrupt departure could have submarined the season. Where there should have been two experienced, knowledgeable and talented hands on the helm, suddenly there were none.

But that was true only briefly.

"The facts are what they are, and it wasn't anything that any of us would prefer to have happen at our school across the board with so many kids and families and folks involved in something like that which is somewhat from what I've seen," Amaker said Friday.

"But I think our guys have been able to adjust just like I would expect most young kids to be able to do. They've done it exceptionally well. I've been very impressed with how they have been able to do that."

After losing Casey and Curry, Amaker turned to senior Christian Webster and junior Laurent Rivard. The duo would have to lead, and hope youngsters such as Wesley Saunders, Steve Moundou-Missi and Kenyatta Smith (all sophomores) and Siyani Chambers (a freshman) would follow.

At first, the sudden added responsibility was jarring.

"Of course [the loss of Casey and Curry] was a big blow to our team," Rivard said on a conference call with reporters Monday, "but the coaching staff was quick to tell us that it was an incredible opportunity for the team and for each of us individually.

"We embraced that role and we did what we could to get the team to where it's at now."

Webster, who had 11 points against New Mexico to cross the 1,000-point mark for his career, said they've grown into their roles as the season has gone on.

"If you look at us from earlier in the season to now, it's like a change in worlds," Webster said in the call Monday. "It's gotten so much better."

Rivard, a native of Saint-Bruno, Quebec, played a big role in the upset of the Lobos. The sharpshooting guard was 5-for-9 from behind the arc, including three big 3s in the first half, to help the Crimson build a lead first and later come back after the Lobos had rallied to take the lead.

His 17 points were only one off the team lead (Saunders had 18), and without his consistent ability to slip free of his defender -- mostly New Mexico forward Cameron Bairstow -- and hit open shots, Harvard almost certainly would have lost.

And while Rivard was only a two-star recruit coming out of Northfield Mount Hermon -- the prep school in Gill, Mass., that he transferred to in order to increase his recruiting profile -- that doesn't mean the shooter wasn't coveted.

After Rivard helped Harvard beat Boston College during his freshman season, Steve Donahue was asked whether the marksman had taken the Eagles by surprise.

"I know Laurent very well," Donahue said that day in January 2011, after Rivard scored a game-high 23 points in a 78-69 Harvard win in Conte Forum. "We recruited him very hard at Cornell. Terrific basketball player."

But as is becoming more and more common, the recruit chose to go to Harvard instead. And that has made all the difference.

"I think the back-to-back games in the Ivy League is going to help us a lot," Rivard said Friday of Harvard's preparation for Arizona. "It's a little different here now. I guess we have a day off in between.

"But during the Ivy League season, we would win or lose on Friday night and we had to turn the page whether we felt good about how we played or not, but we had to turn the page and focus on the next opponent. That's what we're doing today. We have practice right now. We're going to start focusing on Arizona, and I think it's going to help us."

Since 2010, the Crimson have added more three-star recruits (five) than the rest of the Ivy League combined (three, two for Yale and one for Penn), according to ESPN Recruiting Nation. And that total doesn't include the 2012-13 Ivy League rookie of the year, the first freshman to be voted first-team All-Ivy, Siyani Chambers (a two-star recruit).

Next season, the Crimson lose only the senior Webster, and should not only add another solid recruiting class -- including coveted prospect Zena Edosomwan, who turned down the likes of California, USC, Wake Forest, Washington, UCLA and Texas to commit to Harvard -- but also welcome back Casey and Curry (assuming the cheating scandal is settled).

So after winning a third straight Ivy League title, making a second straight NCAA appearance and capturing the first postseason win in school history, all in a season in which it was supposed to be weakened, Harvard likely will be even better in 2013-14.

Just imagine the history that Crimson team could make.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin, the best player to ever come out of Harvard, tweeted the following after his alma mater pulled off an upset of historic proportions last night in the NCAA tournament:

YYYYYEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!! HARVARD winssss!!! hahahahhah i told you.... #threepointgoggles #bracketbusters twitter.com/JLin7/status/3…

— Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) March 22, 2013

The Crimson have been here before (even if "here" is actually a new arena in a new city in a new state against a new opponent) and they're hoping that helps.

Playing Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Albuquerque, N.M., last season provided experience that could prove valuable against New Mexico in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah, this season. At least that's the idea.

"I thought we did a terrific job [in the Big Dance] last year, being the first time in so many years," Tommy Amaker said in a conference call Monday morning.

The Crimson started slowly before rallying in the second half to make it close late against Vanderbilt, getting to within five points of the Commodores before falling 79-70.

But the roster Harvard takes into the tourney in 2013 is vastly different than the one it took into the tourney in 2012. Four-fifths of the starting five is gone: Oliver McNally and Keith Wright both graduated, and Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry both withdrew from school after being implicated in an academic cheating scandal.

Laurent Rivard is the lone remaining starter, one of three current Crimson players who played more than 10 minutes in the loss to the Commodores last season. (Rivard played 25 minutes, Christian Webster played 20 and Wesley Saunders played 11.)

Nine of the 14 players on the Harvard roster were in the program for the trip west last season, but besides Rivard, Webster and Saunders only Steve Moundou-Missi (six minutes) and Jonah Travis (one minute) actually set foot on the floor during the game.

"I think we'll just be a little bit more confident, a little bit more relaxed," Webster said. "When you go into this tournament, it's nerve-wracking when you come to the stadium and you see the big, blue [NCAA] logo and you see the TV cameras and you know that this is what everybody in America is watching. It's a big deal.

"And last year I think we were a little nervous. … I think that will help us just focus on the game and just play ball."

"When you have a point of reference there is a different comfort level that I think players and people adjust to," Amaker said, referring to the past tournament experience. "What does that mean? You're not really sure."

Star point guard Siyani Chambers, a freshman from Golden Valley, Minn., who took the Ivy League by storm on his way to rookie of the year honors, obviously wasn't there for last season's run. It'll all be new for him, and how he reacts to the situation will go a long way toward determining Harvard's chances.

When Chambers plays well, Harvard plays well. When Chambers struggles (as he did in losses at St. Joseph's, at UConn and at Memphis in the nonconference schedule), Harvard struggles.

Will his teammates' time in the tourney in 2011-12 help him on Thursday? That remains to be seen.

"This year knowing what to expect, and [having] kinda been through it once before will certainly allow them to be a little bit more relaxed about the environment and the situation," Amaker said. "Now does that mean we're gonna play perfectly? I doubt that.

"But certainly it gives us a point of reference that we hope will serve us well."

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Siyani Chambers is not easily rattled.

The rookie point guard immediately was thrust into the starting lineup this season, thanks to the unexpected loss of would-be senior cocaptain Brandyn Curry to a widespread academic cheating scandal at Harvard. No matter -- all Chambers did was dominate the Ivy League, earning rookie of the year honors.

All he did was finish first in the Ancient Eight in assists (5.7 per game, 1.6 more than Ivy player of the year Ian Hummer of Princeton), fourth in free throw percentage (81.9), fifth in 3-point shooting percentage (44.0) and sixth in scoring (12.9 points per game).

Oh, and the 6-foot, 170-pound freshman hardly rested all season long -- playing the most minutes per game (37.8) in the Ivy League.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Chambers finds himself in the spotlight as Harvard prepares to take on New Mexico in the NCAA tournament on Thursday in Salt Lake City (9:50 p.m. ET, TNT).

On Tuesday, ESPN.com’s Myron Medcalf named Chambers one of 10 mid-major stars who could bust brackets come game time.

That puts Chambers, a Golden Valley, Minn., native, alongside the likes of Saint Mary’s Matthew Dellavedova and Creighton’s Doug McDermott, names known throughout the college hoops nation.

But wait, there’s more.

ESPN Insider Chad Ford broke down the West Region from the perspective of NBA draft decision-makers, and had this to say about Tommy Amaker’s point guard: “He’s not Jeremy Lin, but Chambers has been awesome as a freshman.”

And true to form so far, Chambers appears to be taking this latest experience in stride.

While his teammates sat at the podium Sunday night for the post-Selection Show news conference, near-constant smiles on their faces, the rookie had his game face on.

Then he was asked if this first year in Cambridge -- filling a huge role for the team, helping deliver a third straight Ivy title and a second straight NCAA berth -- could have gone any better.

“I don’t think so,” Chambers said, with a small laugh.

“In high school and coming up, you’re always watching this stuff and you’re always like, ‘Man, I wish I could be a part of it,’” he said. “And to finally be here and hear our team’s name called, it’s just very, very, very exciting for me personally and I know it’s very exciting for the team, as well.”

And if the past proves to be prologue with Chambers, the excitement’s only beginning.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi previews the road ahead for Harvard, the West Region's No. 14 seed.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Anticipation can be a strange thing.

Waiting for something to come, good or bad, happy or sad, you can be filled with joy or drowned in dread.

For Harvard on Sunday, there was no question -- something good (a berth in the Big Dance) was coming. But as the names were ticked off and the lines of the bracket filled up, bit by bit, the feeling built.

When will our name be called? Where will we go? Who will we play?

After all those questions finally had been answered (at approximately 6:32 p.m. ET; Salt Lake City; New Mexico Lobos), Harvard coach Tommy Amaker told a story that showed the wait had weighed on them all.

As the coach and four of his players -- cocaptains Christian Webster and Laurent Rivard, and young stars Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers -- climbed the Murr Center stairs on their way to the post-selection show news conference, Amaker had a question for his still-giddy guys.

“Did you guys think they forgot about us?” the coach asked.

The answer?

“They seemed to be very confident that we were going to get our name called,” Amaker said, with a smile.

Confident or not, the wait felt just as long for them as it did for the fans who gathered to cheer them on.

“I mean, it was nerve-wracking to wait that long to hear our names called,” Saunders said. “But after it was called, it was a great relief. It was just a culmination of all the hard work that all of us have put together, and [of] just overcoming all the obstacles that we faced this year. It was a great feeling.”

One worth waiting for.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- It was a day of celebration, of continuing a tradition passed down from one generation to the next.

A day to wear the bright color so closely associated with the group of people being honored.

Oh, and it was also St. Patrick's Day.

In Cambridge on Sunday, the crimson-clad Harvard faithful gathered for what is fast becoming an annual event: A viewing party in the Murr Center's Hall of History for the NCAA tournament selection show.

For the second straight year, Tommy Amaker's team assembled before flat screen TVs, velvet ropes setting them off from the crowd, to see who and where they would play in the postseason.

There were a few anxious moments, the crowd letting out an audible sigh of relief when No. 2 seed Ohio State was matched with No. 15 seed Iona in the Dayton regional, as the names were called and the brackets filled up. And then there was a roar.

After landing a No. 14 seed and a matchup with No. 3 seed New Mexico in Salt Lake City, the Crimson and their fans let loose. It had been a long 30 minutes, but now they knew who their dancing partner would be.

A few minutes later, the Crimson talked about what this accomplishment means to them, considering all they’ve been through this season.

“We’re proud to have an opportunity to represent our conference and our institution,” Amaker said. “I can’t say enough about these guys and what they’ve been able to accomplish this year.”

After going 65 years between its first NCAA appearance and its second, Harvard now has made two in a row -- and if not for a Princeton buzzer-beater in an Ivy League playoff game in 2011, the streak would be at three.

This season's success might be the most surprising. Amaker lost his two would-be senior captains, Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, to an academic cheating scandal prior to the season; both withdrew from school to preserve their eligibility while the process works its way out. Combined with the graduation of four-year vets Oliver McNally and Keith Wright, the mantle was left on the shoulders of youngsters such as Wesley Saunders and Siyani Chambers.

In the preseason, Harvard was picked to finish third in the Ivy League. Then conference play began, and the Crimson proved they were still a force to be reckoned with in the Ancient Eight. Until a late-season hiccup (back-to-back losses at Princeton and Penn) threw a wrench into the machine, it seemed the young Crimson were headed for a wire-to-wire Ivy win. But rather than wallow in self-pity after the bad weekend, the Crimson came home and took care of business against Columbia and Cornell (and got help from Princeton, which lost at Yale and at Brown) to seal the Ivy title and NCAA berth.

“I think it means a lot,” Amaker said of making back-to-back tournaments, despite the change in leadership on the court. “For us to have our name called on Selection Sunday, it’s very meaningful. I think it’s certainly something I’m sure that will sink in with us at some point, but we certainly know it’s taken a lot to get to this point.

“We’re proud of it, we were proud last year. And if you can continually become a contender in your conference -- and certainly we’ve been fortunate to win it now for three years and two years to be involved in the NCAA tournament -- I just think it’s an incredibly impressive few years for Harvard basketball.”

For Christian Webster, a co-captain and Harvard’s lone senior, this berth meant even more than last season’s did.

“I’d say so,” Webster said. “Just overcoming all the adversity we had to go through this season -- that’s one of the greatest feelings you can ever have, is overcoming adversity. And us being able to get to this point, with no one thinking we can get here -- it’s just an awesome feeling.”

For the second straight season, the Crimson are headed west for the Big Dance. Last season the Crimson, a No. 12 seed, flew to Albuquerque, N.M., to take on No. 5 seed Vanderbilt.

In the immediate aftermath of the selection show, the Crimson said they didn’t know much about the Lobos (29-5, Mountain West champions). Most of the players at the post-show news conference have never been to Utah (Laurent Rivard said he had, but not since the sixth grade).

They’re not sure when they’ll be leaving for Salt Lake City; plans might be complicated by an approaching winter storm.

But as Amaker said, these are the problems they were hoping to have. And on Sunday night, they were just happy to be back in this position for another year, with another group.

“With the youth of our team, the way these guys have responded -- accepting different roles, stepping forward, young guys stepping in,” Amaker said. “You can’t say enough about what this team has done for this season.”

This Harvard team has done enough to ensure that its season isn’t done quite yet.

There’s still dancing to do.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

Though they finished tied for second in the conference, the Boston University Terriers (17-12, 11-5 America East) found themselves on the sidelines for Championship Week in 2013.

Because of BU's impending move to the Patriot League for 2013-14, the America East Conference ruled the Terriers ineligible for the postseason tournament prior to the season.

But coach Joe Jones & Co. won't be sitting out the postseason entirely, as the school announced Thursday it has accepted an invitation to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

"We are very excited to accept an opportunity to continue our season in the College Insider Tournament," Jones said in a statement. "My staff and I are very excited to work with our guys and continue to build the foundation for our program.

“We look forward to represent our great university in the postseason."

Led by junior D.J. Irving, at 14.3 points per game the sixth most prolific scorer in America East, the Terriers placed four players on all-conference teams in 2012-13. Irving was a unanimous All-AE first team selection, junior Dom Morris and freshman Maurice Watson Jr. were named to the All-AE third team, and Watson and John Papale were also named to the AE All-Rookie team.

This is the third time in the past four seasons that BU will play in a postseason tournament, with a CBI berth in 2010 and an NCAA berth in 2011.

Coincidentally, the Terriers will face another future Patriot League member, Loyola Maryland (21-11, 12-6 MAAC), in the first round of the CIT on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET).

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

In previewing the Atlantic 10 tournament, which begins Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, ESPN.com college basketball writer Eamonn Brennan lists UMass point guard Chaz Williams as one of his five players to watch and lists the Minutemen, who open play Thursday night at 9 against George Washington, as his sleeper pick:

Sleeper pick: This is kind of a funny question, because as I mentioned in the intro, at the start of the season it felt as though this league had about 10 sleepers. Those ranks have dwindled, of course, but there are still plenty of threats that didn't get a first-round bye. Xavier has improved steadily over the course of the season (and the first rule of Xavier is never bet against Xavier); Richmond is a threat to get hot and rattle off a handful of wins with Derrick Williams back from injury; anything can happen with Charlotte, but it's a tough out; and Saint Joe's … well, OK, let's not go too far. If I had to settle on one, I'd probably go with UMass. The Minutemen are the team with the most on the line, and they certainly have the talent to go deep.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Brennan's A-10 tourney preview.