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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.

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.

SALT LAKE CITY -- When Siyani Chambers chose Harvard, he hoped to be the Crimson’s starting point guard ... someday.

He dreamed of leading his team on an NCAA tournament run ... someday.

The fact that someday is today?

“Amazing," the 6-foot Ivy League rookie of the year said Friday, less than 24 hours after 14th-seeded Harvard knocked off No. 3 New Mexico for the program’s first NCAA tournament victory.

That word could describe his development, too.

“He’s the leader on our team," said senior guard Christian Webster, whose team will face sixth-seeded Arizona on Saturday for the right to advance to the Sweet 16. “Laurent [Rivard] and I are the captains, but he’s the leader. He drove this team."

It’s a role the 19-year-old ball handler never expected, at least not this soon, when he arrived on Harvard’s campus less than a year ago. First recruited by Crimson coach Tommy Amaker when he was in the eighth grade, Chambers decided pretty quickly that he wanted to play for the former Duke guard because of what he could learn.

But Chambers also thought he would have some time to be a pupil, while playing behind Brandyn Curry, a Cousy award candidate last season. That is, until September, when Curry and fellow senior Kyle Casey withdrew from Harvard following an academic scandal.

When the freshman heard the news, his head spun. “I was definitely nervous -- very, very nervous," Chambers said. “All of a sudden, it’s your first year, you’re coming in trying to learn the whole process about everything: playing, dealing with school and basketball.”

To persevere, he said, he leaned on his teammates -- and they leaned back, looking for the vocal freshman to glue together a team whose chances of winning the Ivy League all of a sudden seemed precarious, at best.

But Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball exceeded expectations probably because he had no other choice, gaining confidence (and his team’s confidence in him) by becoming a steady assist man and scorer early; he even hit the game-winning basket with four seconds left against Boston University on Dec. 11.

“He’s a special kid, and certainly he plays basketball in a special way, and I think you get excited when you watch him play," Amaker said. “I know when we recruited him, we wanted him to play in that manner; sometimes I thought he held himself back a little bit, and I told him if you ever come to play for us ... we want you to be dazzling because you’re capable of it.”

His season stats -- 12.6 points and 5.8 assists per game -- were dazzling enough to make him the first freshman named first-team All-Ivy League.

But the way he melded his team dazzled, too. Sophomore Wesley Saunders emerged as a go-to scorer (16.5 PPG). Rivard became a scary outside threat (five 3s against the Lobos on Thursday). Kenyatta Smith and Steve Moundou-Missi improved in the post. Harvard finished the regular season 19-9, winning the Ivy League.

So maybe it was fitting that as the seconds ticked down on Harvard's historic upset Thursday, Chambers was the one with the ball in his hands, grinning and carefully watching the clock. That moment is a feat the Crimson hope to repeat against another bigger, more heralded team Saturday.

And one Chambers never imagined when he thought about his goals a year ago.

“I just wanted to come in and learn as much as possible, so when it was my time I could step in and be able to contribute to the game," he said, remembering. “... When I first decided to come here, I did not think this is what I would be stepping into.

“But I’m glad I came here, and I’m glad this happened.”

Now.

SALT LAKE CITY NEWS AND NOTES

SAFETY FIRST: One teammate compared Wichita State sophomore Tekele Cotton to a strong safety. Shockers coach Gregg Marshall? He thinks the guard is more like a free safety.

Whatever the football analogy, you get the picture: The 6-2, 202-pound athlete is hard-nosed, hard-bodied and hard-focused on making stops. And if he can stymie a certain Gonzaga player like he did Pittsburgh guard Tray Woodall on Thursday (the senior was brought to tears after his 1-for-12, two-point performance), Cotton knows his team has a better chance to upset the No. 1 team in the country.

“I look forward to being that guy, to chase around their player like I did yesterday," said Cotton, who is also averaging 6.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game this season. “So I look forward to chasing around Kevin Pangos. I have no problem with it; I enjoy it.”

Pangos, the Zags’ standout sophomore guard, is averaging 11.6 points per game this season and scored the final five points in top-seeded Gonzaga’s six-point survival against 16th-seeded Southern on Thursday. He said the key to competing with a physical team such as the ninth-seeded Shockers is to be physical right back.

“We don’t shy away from that; our team is tough," Pangos said. “We don’t back down from that at all.”

This should be an interesting matchup. The Shockers held Pitt to 35.2 percent shooting from the field -- and just 5.9 percent on 3-pointers. The Zags are third in the nation in field-goal percentage, making 50.4 percent of their shots.

NO ALARM HERE: Zags coach Mark Few wasn’t particularly rattled that the game against Southern went down to the wire; a win is a win is a win right now.

“At this point of the year, I don’t think we need to worry about aesthetics or, you know, differences," he said. “I know it’s cliché, ‘survive and advance,’ but there really is no other alternative. We’re not getting style points and we’re not getting graded -- you know, you either win or your season is over.”

QUOTE-WORTHY: “We know we’re in for a fight, especially the confidence that they have. When you win a game like that, it doesn’t just all of a sudden leave you; many times it carries through for the rest of the weekend. For us, it’s not about being consumed with Harvard, as much as it is about being consumed with ourselves, making sure we’re ready to go.” -- Arizona coach Sean Miller

SALT LAKE CITY -- A year ago, Harvard guard Laurent Rivard was in awe just seeing the midcourt NCAA logo; after all, the Crimson hadn’t made the tournament in six decades.

So helping the program to its first tournament victory -- a 68-62 win over No. 3 New Mexico that marked the biggest seed upset by an Ivy League team?

That, he said, was indescribable. Although he tried: “You imagine it … it’s something everyone dreams about,” Rivard said after scoring 17 points and going 5-for-9 from 3-point range, “but it’s a different feeling when it actually becomes real.”

The win seemed improbable for a plethora of reasons: The Lobos (29-6) were bigger (7-footer Alex Kirk finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds), and more seasoned by playing in a conference many considered one of the nation’s toughest. Heck, some even thought UNM was robbed by the tournament committee when it didn’t earn higher than a No. 3 seed.

But Harvard countered with a four-guard lineup that was sharpshooting (52.4 percent overall, including 8-for-18 from 3-point land) and that frustrated Lobos leading scorer Kendall Williams into a forgettable, 1-for-6 night. Led by their tallest starter, 6-foot-8 Kenyatta Smith, the Crimson also aggressively banged with Kirk and 6-9 Cameron Bairstow (15 points, nine rebounds).

“We knew they were going to be tough,” Smith said. “We just had to be confident.”

And they were, particularly down the stretch.

New Mexico, trailing for most of the game, took a 53-52 lead with 6:26 left on yet another Kirk inside move. But Harvard, even with its three bigger guys in foul trouble, countered with a 7-0 run -- beginning with another 3 from Rivard and including a jumper from guard Wesley Saunders (18 points) -- to rebuild its cushion. The Lobos never got closer than four after that.

“For me to see the composure that we had is meaningful to me as a coach,” Harvard’s Tommy Amaker said. “We had the lead. We lost the lead. We had to make plays and to have an answer each time when things got really tight there. We had to make pressure free throws. … But we didn’t wilt or cave in.”

Somehow, the Crimson (20-9) didn’t seem to feel the pressure of being a No. 14 seed on the brink of making history.

“I was just playing in the moment, enjoying the moment,” freshman point guard Siyani Chambers said. “… It felt like, just getting here, was our night.”

Indeed, not long ago it seemed like a long shot that the Crimson would make the tournament at all -- much less advance to the round of 32.

First there were the offseason academic problems that led the team’s co-captains -- Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry -- to withdraw from school.

And although those departures gave Chambers (5 points, 7 assists in 40 minutes Thursday) the opportunity to develop more quickly, the team wasn’t quite the runaway favorite it might have been to dominate the Ivy League -- as evidenced by back-to-back road losses at Princeton and Penn in early March.

Yet the Crimson endured. And prevailed.

And forget about last year’s awe-inspiring NCAA logo. Now, there’s a new daydream: the Sweet Sixteen.

“Before this, we wanted to be the Cinderella story,” Smith said. “And I guess now, we kind of are.”

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The PA announcer at Lavietes Pavilion played it cool.

The Crimson desperately needed a win Friday night to keep their hopes of a third consecutive Ivy League title and a second straight NCAA berth alive. And then they would still need help to catch Princeton.

They’d trailed visiting Columbia, the only Ancient Eight opponent to beat them all season prior to a disastrous sweep at Princeton and Penn the weekend before, for most of the first 38 minutes. But led by clutch plays from Steve Moundou-Missi and Siyani Chambers, the Crimson came roaring back and took the lead late.

The crowd was on its feet, still delirious from the Crimson’s charge, when the announcer’s voice piped in.

“Final score: Princeton 66,” he said, pausing slightly, “Yale 71.”

The crowd went wild again. Not only had the Crimson come from behind to secure what would be a 56-51 win over the Lions, but they’d gotten the help they needed and were once again in control of their postseason destiny.

“Seems like another typical night in the Ivy League,” Tommy Amaker joked. “Just really thrilled for us to be able to gut this win out. [We] didn’t play exceptionally well, obviously.”

The Lions sprinted out to a 9-2 lead in the first six minutes of the game as the hosts made just one of their first six shots and turned the ball over twice. The Crimson eventually got their offense going somewhat, cutting the Lions’ lead to three on two occasions, but Columbia led by six at the half, 28-22.

Harvard shot just 1-for-7 (14.3 percent) from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes, while Columbia shot 3-for-5 (60 percent) in the same span.

When the Crimson went in for the half, Amaker let them in on one piece of news: Princeton was also losing at the half, down 12 at Yale.

“Coach did let us know that, just to see if that would give us a little extra drive,” Kenyatta Smith said. “And I think to some degree it did, that and our frustration with ourselves and the way we were playing. We knew we had to get it together. We knew we weren’t playing the way we wanted to play, the way we should’ve been playing.”

Whether it was more the news from New Haven or the knowledge that they weren’t playing up to their own standards, the Crimson were noticeably more aggressive in the second half.

A three-point play by Wesley Saunders and a 3 by Laurent Rivard got them back within striking distance, then Chambers came up with the first of his big plays, making a steal and winning the race to the basket to tie the game.

From there, the teams went back and forth as the time ticked off.

With Harvard down two and less than a minute to go, the crowd was on its feet trying to will a defensive stop. Moundou-Missi obliged, cutting off the baseline on Isaac Cohen’s drive, altering the shot without fouling and then corralling the rebound. The outlet quickly found Chambers, who pushed it hard, found a seam, took the contact and made the layup for an and-1 to put Harvard ahead 50-49 with 40 seconds to go.

“You can’t say enough about Chambers. What else can the kid do for our team this year?” Amaker said. “His minutes, his efforts, his moxie, his savvy, his daring. All those things we’ve seen a lot this year. But at a moment like this, in a situation where we’re down two, and he drives it and gets the foul and makes the bucket and gets the free throw …”

But the game wasn’t over yet, as Columbia advanced the ball and called time with 35.7 to go. Harvard would need to hold onto its one-point lead.

That’s when Moundou-Missi showed up again, reading the inbounds play, easily stealing the pass and going in all alone for a big, two-handed dunk to put Harvard up three and essentially seal the win.

Now 18-9 overall and 10-3 in the Ivy, if Harvard can hold serve Saturday evening against Cornell (13-17, 5-8) they’ll be assured of at least a share of the Ivy title. If Princeton also wins out (at Brown on Saturday, at Penn on Tuesday), there will be a playoff game on Selection Sunday, March 17, at 1 p.m. in the Palestra in Philadelphia.

But that’s for later.

“We tried to come in here not worrying about [Princeton’s] game, we were trying to focus on our game,” Chambers said, “but hearing that they did lose and that we might still get a chance to get a share of the title was very exciting.”

Apparently, the PA announcer isn’t the only one at Harvard who can play it cool.

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

With an NCAA bid on the line, Harvard will take on 6th-ranked Union in the ECAC Hockey title game on Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., after the Crimson dispatched 13th-ranked Cornell, 6-1, in semifinal play on Friday.

The No. 3 seed Crimson (13-9-11) scored the game’s first six goals, including two tallies each from Alex Killorn and Marshall Everson, to deny the No. 2 seed Big Red a fourth consecutive appearance in the ECAC finals. Instead, Harvard will be appearing in its seventh championship game in the past 11 years, with the hopes of securing the school’s ninth league title.

Cornell, which had beaten and tied Harvard during the regular season, had no answer for Ted Donato’s squad on Friday. Crimson goaltender Raphael Girard had 18 saves and came within 66 seconds of recording his first playoff shutout, when Cornell’s Joel Lowry finally got a puck past the sophomore at 18:54.

In its last two games, which included a 8-2 quarterfinal win over Yale, Harvard has outscored its opponents 14-3. Union, meanwhile, also won handily on Friday, ousting Colgate by a 6-2 score. The Dutchmen and the Crimson will meet at 7:30 Saturday at Boardwalk Hall, with Harvard needing to win to get the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

While the Crimson’s season ended in disappointment with a 79-70 loss to No. 5 seed Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the future remains bright in Cambridge.

Tommy Amaker loses only three seniors off the school’s first NCAA tourney team since 1946, albeit two of them starters and key contributors. Oliver McNally and Keith Wright, who’ve served as co-captains the past two seasons and played a huge role in putting the Crimson on the path they’re currently on, will be missed dearly.

But there’s a lot of talent remaining on the roster, and another highly regarded class incoming.

Kyle Casey, an all-Ivy first-teamer in 2011-12, and Brandyn Curry were juniors this season, and likely will be counted on to lead the team next season. Laurent Rivard was just a sophomore, and while his effectiveness tailed off after he became a starter midseason the Canadian native has showed great potential in his first two seasons.

In addition, Steve Moundou-Missi, Corbin Miller, Wesley Saunders and Jonah Travis all showed flashes as freshmen -- each being named Ivy Rookie of the Week at least once during the season. And while Corbin will leave the Crimson after this season to go on his Mormon mission, the other freshmen should improve with a year’s experience under their belts and an offseason of work on their games.

And Amaker has a four-player class committed for 2012-13, including one three-star prospect (Agunwa Okolie) and three two-star prospects (Mike Hall, Siyani Chambers and Evan Cummins). Four-star prospect Zena Edosomwan, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound power forward from Harvard Westlake School in North Hollywood, Calif., is reportedly enrolling in prep school for a postgrad year to improve his grades and his game for Harvard.

He could come aboard in the Class of 2013.

So though the loss to the Commodores will sting for a while, all signs point toward Amaker & Co. making an extended run at the top of the Ivy League.

It’s unlikely that it will take another 66 years for Harvard to make it back to the Big Dance.

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

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Reaction from No. 5 Vanderbilt's 79-70 win over No. 12 Harvard.

Overview: Vanderbilt had lost to a double-digit seed in three of the past four NCAA tournaments.

Possibly none of them was as beloved as Harvard. Siena, Murray State and Richmond all knocked off the Commodores. But this Vandy team is not like the others. This one finally knows how to close. Vandy carried the momentum from the SEC tournament to snuff out the Crimson’s historic bid to win their first NCAA tournament game. It was Harvard's second appearance and first in 66 years.

Turning point: Harvard made a series of runs in the second half, and there was a sense the game could be turning when the Crimson cut the lead to 11. But the Commodores had a possession that changed the momentum. Harvard had put on a tremendous run to cut an 18-point deficit to two possessions. But a John Jenkins jumper gave the Commodores a 13-point lead. On the plan, the Commodores had four shots to make one. Harvard couldn’t grab an offensive rebound, and Vandy kept getting opportunities. That possession signaled a shift that contributed to Harvard getting down five more.

Key player: Jenkins scored 27 points, made three 3-pointers and was 10-of-13 from the line. He made key plays consistently when the Commodores were challenged. Jenkins always has had the most talent on this team, but there have been a few moments during his career when he has disappeared. That hasn’t been the case recently. He’s on a tear from being named the SEC's most outstanding player at the tournament last weekend in New Orleans to a fantastic start at the NCAAs.

Key stat: The Commodores got to the free throw line in bunches, and ultimately that’s what did the Crimson in because they couldn’t play catchup fast enough. There was no officiating issue. Vanderbilt simply created more contact and got to the line while Harvard did not. The final number had Vandy 21-of-30 while Harvard was 11-of-14.

Miscellaneous: Harvard '46 grad Don Swegan was in attendance. He’s one of three or four surviving members (he’s not sure) from the last NCAA tournament team from the Crimson. Swegan was a hot commodity. The 86-year-old was tracked down by Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott (Harvard '86, where he was a tennis player). NCAA president Mark Emmert also made his way over to talk to Swegan. The Friends of Harvard basketball reacted to a story on Swegan on ESPN.com and paid for his expenses down from near Youngstown, Ohio, to the game. ... The NCAA has plenty of logistical issues in scheduling and bracketing. But there used to be a rule that would prevent a school from hosting and its team playing at the same time. The Pit crowd was near capacity but probably would have been a sellout if the University of New Mexico wasn’t playing at the same time as Vanderbilt-Harvard. ... I anticipate Harvard won’t have to wait long to be back here. The Crimson will be the favorite again in the Ivy. ... I’m not sure whose whistle is louder, Miami’s Jim Larranaga or Vandy’s Kevin Stallings. I can beat them with my loud clap. But the whistle is heard over crowd noise pretty easily.

What’s next: No. 5 Vanderbilt will take on No. 4 Wisconsin on Saturday at the Pit in what should be a tantalizing third-round game. The winner has a legit shot to knock off Syracuse, assuming the Orange get past Kansas State, next week in Boston. The Dores and Badgers will play a rugged, 3-point shooting game Saturday. It should be a good watch, as these are two teams that could make a run to the Elite Eight.