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And on the 2013 NFL draft's third day, Harvard tight end Kyle Juszczyk finally heard his name called.

With the 33rd pick in the fourth round, the 130th pick overall, the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens chose the Crimson H-back.

Juszczyk finished his career as Harvard's all-time leader in receptions (125), receiving yards (1,576) and touchdown catches (22) by a tight end, but will likely play more of an H-back role in the NFL.

He was ranked fourth among fullbacks, according to Scouts Inc. But he was the first player taken at the position.

Once the pick was official, Juszczyk tweeted his excitement:

Couldn't be happier to be a Baltimore Raven!Dream come true!Now it's time to work!#PurpleandBlack #NFL

— Kyle Juszczyk (@JuiceCheck44) April 27, 2013

Harvard coach Tim Murphy had high praise for his former player, the fourth drafted in Murphy's tenure as head coach, in a statement Saturday.

"Guys like Kyle Juszczyk do not grow on trees," Murphy said. "He will go down as one of the great players in Harvard and Ivy Football history. His rare combination of versatility, toughness, leadership and playmaking ability was one of the major catalysts for the highest scoring offense since the Ivy League was formed in 1956."

Juszczyk is the first Harvard player drafted since Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2005, and the 18th overall.

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

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Tommy Amaker believes the possibilities are endless for his Harvard Crimson.

That shouldn't be surprising. What else do you expect him to say?

The Crimson won their third straight Ivy League title, played in their second straight NCAA tournament and won their first NCAA tourney game in 2012-13, even though they lost two key players before the season even started.

And now that the dust has settled for Harvard after a 74-51 loss to No. 6-seed Arizona in the third round of the NCAAs, it's time to look ahead to 2013-14.

The picture does look fairly rosy for the Crimson.

Amaker and his staff had to scramble in September when Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry withdrew from school after being implicated in an academic cheating scandal that involved more than 100 students.

Young players like Wesley Saunders, Steve Moundou-Missi and Kenyatta Smith had to take on larger roles than they would've, and freshman Siyani Chambers was thrust into the starting lineup at the point. Laurent Rivard and Christian Webster, the only senior on the roster and as such the only player the Crimson will lose this offseason, were named co-captains.

The coaches called it an opportunity and started a mantra that went like this: "We may not have what we had, but we have enough."

Did they ever.

In his postseason wrap-up session with the media Wednesday in the lounge at Lavietes Pavilion, Amaker said he wasn't surprised by the improvements players like Saunders and Chambers made.

"One of the things that you try not to do is have something as a cap, or what you think could be the ceiling of something," Amaker said. "I've learned that through the years: You learn to put your philosophy in and put your blueprint down and then who knows where this thing could go?

"We believe that being here at Harvard allows us that opportunity that anything is possible."

Without Casey and Curry, the Crimson offense actually improved. In 2011-12, the Crimson averaged 65.6 points per game, third in the Ivy League; in 2012-13, the Crimson averaged 68.3 points per game, first in the Ivy League.

Though the defense slipped a bit, falling from first in the Ivy (55.6 points allowed per game) to third (64.1 points allowed per game), the Crimson made up for it with better 3-point shooting (39.8 percent as a team, first in the Ivy, up from 35.7 percent, fifth).

Chambers won the Ivy Rookie of the Year award, and Saunders led the Ivy in scoring. And now the Crimson get to add Casey (former Ivy Rookie of the Year, Harvard's leading scorer in 2011-12) and Curry (Ivy leader in assist-to-turnover ratio and Harvard's assist leader in 2011-12) to the mix, along with top recruit Zena Edosomwan.

"They've been as good as anybody in our league when they were here," Amaker said of Casey and Curry. "So having those guys return -- we have open arms.

"And [we] can't be any more excited for their return, for them to come back and be a part of our program, our school, our community and to finish what they came here to do, which is to be a Harvard graduate. Those things are very exciting to think about."

As to how exactly the pair will fit in with the new dynamic (Curry and Chambers play the same position; Casey and Saunders both have proven they can be go-to scorers), Amaker wasn't sure. And at this point, he's not getting hung up on the details.

After all, the Crimson haven't even started their offseason workout program yet.

"I haven't given it as much thought, certainly as you can imagine, as to the pieces of the puzzle for our team, but we certainly know they're going to be good players," he said. "They've done that throughout their time here and I don't anticipate that changing in the least bit when we get those guys back."

How much of a difference might having those two players back make? It's hard to say for sure, but at the very least the addition lengthens the rotation and spreads the burden a little more broadly.

In 2011-12, Harvard didn't have a single player among the top 10 in the Ivy in minutes played; in 2012-13, Harvard had four players among the top 10, including three of the top 5 (Chambers, first, 37.8 minutes per game; Saunders, third, 37.3; Rivard, fifth, 35.4).

Though Amaker praised his players for being responsible and preserving their strength throughout the season -- hinting that often players get worn down as much for off-the-court activities as they do on the court -- and admitted the Crimson got lucky not to suffer any serious injuries, the shortened rotation had to affect the team's play at times.

"I think we've had moments this past season where we weren't as sharp, we weren't as good. And that's gonna happen," Amaker said. "But certainly we're hopeful that we can learn and grow from moments that we weren't as good, we weren't as ready. We certainly can do a lot better and be a lot better. We had a handful of games that we felt we controlled down the end and couldn't close."

Of the Crimson's 10 losses, six were by eight points or fewer.

"There are a lot of things there that I think we can certainly look toward as areas where we can get better," Amaker said. "The depth of our team, the roster, the different combination of things that we're hoping to be able to present next year, [all those are areas] that can be possibilities for us to be a better basketball team and program."

Perhaps, as Amaker said, the possibilities really are endless.

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

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.

He's a professional now, playing basketball for a living. But that doesn't mean Keith Wright feels any less of a connection to his alma mater.

The forward for Uppsala in Sweden's top league (where he's listed at 209 centimeters and 109 kilograms) was watching Thursday night as No. 14 seed Harvard upset No. 3 seed New Mexico 68-62.

"It is such a huge win for our program," Wright said by email Friday. "I'm so proud of those guys."

Part of Tommy Amaker's first full recruiting class in 2008, Wright helped establish the winning culture that's flourishing in Cambridge right now. The 2010-11 Ivy Player of the Year played 33 minutes in the 12th-seeded Crimson's loss to No. 5 seed Vanderbilt in last season's NCAA tournament, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds.

After the Crimson upset the Lobos, Wright said he was able to video chat with some of his former teammates and coaches.

"For Coach Amaker to do what he did with the squad this year, given the circumstances, is unbelievable," Wright said. "All of the alums are so proud to be a part of what Harvard had become."

That includes some of Wright's other former teammates, like Oliver McNally and Houston Rockets star Jeremy Lin.

After the buzzer sounded in Salt Lake City, Lin tweeted his excitement.

Wright did the same:

its 6 am..i have a game tonight…but i can't go back to sleep now…hahaha IM TOO HYPED for the little homies #gocrimson

— Keith Wright (@KWright44) March 22, 2013

Hours later, Wright sounded just as excited.

"It was just awesome to see. You can give credit to Coach Amaker but the players buying into his system and the brand of Harvard basketball is the most important part," Wright said. "Players like Wes Saunders stepping up and the emergence of Siyani Chambers was great to see. Kenyatta [Smith] finally coming into his own towards the end of the season … I'm just a proud alum, man.

"I feel extremely blessed to be a part of the Harvard program and community. We are all a family!"

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.

An odd thing happens once the Selection Sunday-fueled adrenalin rush wears off and teams get down to the business of preparing to play tournament basketball: Many teams realize they know next to nothing about their opponent.

That’s what happened to the Harvard Crimson on Sunday night, when they found out they would be facing the New Mexico Lobos on Thursday in Salt Lake City (9:50 p.m. ET, TNT).

Not only have the two schools never met on the hardwood, but hardly any of the Crimson have even seen the Lobos play (Tommy Amaker joked Sunday night that he hoped his players were studying late at night, when their upcoming opponent would’ve been playing in Mountain West action, rather than watching TV).

And so while the athletic department staff scrambled to book flights and lodging for the tournament, the coaching staff began the mad dash to tipoff by searching for game film and scouring scouting reports.

On Monday morning, Amaker participated in a conference call with reporters. He’d seen a few game films on Steve Alford’s team in the hours since the announcement, and had a little better idea exactly what the Crimson will be up against.

“[The Lobos are] a big, strong team. A talented team,” he said. “A team that may not be in one of the bigger, higher-profile name conferences, has kind of gone under the radar nationally in some circles. But I think basketball people recognize a team that has won 29 games and has won their league, and has had a sensational season.”

He didn’t stop there.

“The thing that comes through loud and clear right away is that (1) they’re talented, (2) that they have great balance and (3) that they’re big,” Amaker said. “They’re a team that has a lot of size up front. And when I say balance, they have a number of guys that can score, they can score in and they can score out. … They have a lot of confidence in what they do.”

According to ESPN Insider’s Charlie Creme, Alford’s team relies on a lot of motion and getting to the free-throw line on offense, and on defending well without fouling on defense. Led by the 2012-13 Mountain West Player of the Year, Kendall Williams (14.0 PPG, 5.0 ASG), the Lobos finished the season ranked No. 15 in the country and reached as high as No. 11.

Every member of their starting five is 6-foot-3 or taller: Alex Kirk, 7-feet; Cameron Bairstow, 6-9; Tony Snell, 6-7; Williams, 6-4; Hugh Greenwood, 6-3.

Harvard’s tallest player, meanwhile, is Michael Hall, a 6-foot-10 freshman who has played 17 minutes in his college career. And Siyani Chambers and Wesley Saunders, arguably the Crimson’s best players, stand just 6 feet and 6-foot-5.

The Crimson will have their work cut out for them defending the paint and trying to hold their own on the glass (where the Lobos thrive). But there are areas in which they may be able to do damage.

Specifically, the areas behind the 3-point arc.

While Alford’s team defends very well inside the arc, it struggles to defend outside of it -- where the Lobos rank 240th in the country in 3-point percentage defense, according to KenPom.com.

Harvard, meanwhile, ranks seventh in the country in 3-point shooting, finishing at 40.1 percent as a team. The Crimson are led from behind the line by Laurent Rivard, who hit 74 three-pointers in 2012-13, tying a school record, and led the charge in the tourney last season with a 6-for-7 showing on 3s in the 79-70 loss to Vanderbilt.

And though there’s still a lot to learn and a game plan to construct, the Crimson know a great deal more now about the challenge awaiting them than they did Sunday night.

“They’re not 29-5, a 3-seed and the champions of their conference for nothing,” Amaker said. “This is one of the better teams in the country.”

One the Crimson and their fans will be much better acquainted with come Thursday night.

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.

The brackets are out and Ivy League champ Harvard, a No. 14 seed in the West, will open play against No. 3 New Mexico on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

We'll have more on the Crimson's dance card later, but for now you can check out the full bracket HERE.

A day after the Ancient Eight season ended officially, Siyani Chambers was unanimously voted the 2012-13 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

But that's not all.

Chambers also found his name on the list for All-Ivy League first team, along with teammate Wesley Saunders (a unanimous selection). Junior co-captain Laurent Rivard and sophomore Steve Moundou-Missi were honorable mentions.

A 6-foot, 170-pound point guard from Golden Valley, Minn., Chambers finished first in the Ivy League in assists per game (5.7, 1.6 more than Princeton's Ian Hummer in second) and in minutes played (37.8 per game), fourth in free throw percentage (81.9), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (44.0) and sixth in scoring (12.9 points per game).

Chambers is the seventh Crimson player to be named Ivy Rookie of the Year, and the first since Kyle Casey won the award in 2009-10.

He was second on the Harvard roster in scoring, behind only Saunders. The sophomore from Los Angeles led the Ivy League in scoring with 16.5 points per game, ranked seventh in assists per game (1.9) and third in minutes played per game (37.3).

Saunders scored in double digits in all 28 of Harvard's games, helping the Crimson to a 19-9 overall record, including an 11-3 Ivy record, the team's second straight outright Ivy title and NCAA berth.

Rivard, a sharpshooter from Saint-Bruno, Quebec, tied a single-season team record with 74 3-pointers in 2012-13. The junior averaged 10.4 points this season, and has made the second-most 3s in Harvard history through three seasons in Cambridge.

Moundou-Missi, a sophomore from Yaounde, Cameroon, led the Crimson in rebounding, with 5.1 boards a game (10th in the Ivy League).

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

Siyani Chambers doesn’t play like a freshman, but every once in a while there’s a reminder that he is one.

On Monday, two days after Harvard clinched its second straight outright Ivy League title (third straight if you include a share of the title in 2010-11) and berth in the NCAA tournament, Chambers was named Ivy rookie of the week for the sixth time in 2012-13.

That ties Chambers, a native of Golden Valley, Minn., for fifth most all time.

But that wasn’t what was on Chambers’ mind on Monday, when he took to Twitter with an update that made it clear that though he may be advanced beyond his age on the court, off the court he’s still new to this whole experience:

So I just got hit by a buzz saw in terms of that midterm #countthestuggles

— Siyani Chambers (@SChambers4) March 11, 2013

It’s easy to count the struggles Chambers has had on the court because there haven’t been many. It’s harder to count the successes.

In Harvard’s final two regular-season games, needing to win out to preserve a shot at the title, Chambers was his usual steady, savvy self.

He scored 16 points (on 5-for-6 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 shooting from the line), had three assists and grabbed two steals against Columbia on Friday -- a statline that doesn’t do justice to the impact he had on the game, especially late. Then on Saturday, he had 16 points (on 6-for-9 shooting, including 3-for-4 from 3-point land), five assists and four rebounds against Cornell.

Chambers finished first in the Ivy League in assists per game (5.7, 1.6 more than Ian Hummer in second) and in minutes played (37.8 per game), fourth in free throw percentage (81.9), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (44.0) and sixth in scoring (12.9 points per game).

It’s to the point that Tommy Amaker doesn’t know what else he can say about his preternaturally polished point guard.

“You can’t say enough about Chambers,” Amaker said after the rookie led the Crimson back against the Lions. “What else can the kid do for our team this year? His minutes, his efforts, his moxie, his savvy, his daring. All those things we’ve seen a lot this year.”

As of Monday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Harvard as a No. 13 seed in the South region of the Big Dance, matching up with No. 3 seed Michigan State in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Harvard has been marveling at the Chambers show all season long, and chances are at least one more opponent will see a similar display in the NCAAs.