Harvard’s Offensive Ineptitude Explored

By now, you’ve probably heard about the 30 turnovers that the Crimson committed in West Point, N.Y. last night. If that were the extent of the offensive failings, Harvard probably still would have won the game, which says way more about Army’s own offensive struggles than it does say anything good about the Crimson.

The crux of the offensive issues for Harvard was an utter refusal to go away from star guard Jeremy Lin and allow other decently effective players take the scoring burden. On a night when Lin didn’t have it going, the Crimson was powerless to shift his possessions to other players, watching Lin burn through roughly 26 percent of the team’s trips down the floor to abysmal results.

Last year, much of the onus was on Lin to produce and as he went so did Harvard. But with more offensive weapons this season, there is far less of a need for the Crimson to put all of its proverbial eggs in one basket.

One might look at the 4-for-20 performance from behind the arc as a sign that Harvard should have pounded it inside more. Sadly, with interior players Keith Wright, Kyle Casey and Pat Magnarelli turning the ball over on well over every other effective possession, their strong shooting from inside was completely negated. Unable to have its posts convert entry passes to buckets without the inevitable give away, the Crimson was left with no choice but to hoist jumpers from deep.

Even the things Harvard did well had a tendency to backfire. The Crimson got to the line 31 times against 35 field goal attempts – a very good ratio to be sure – but hit just 19 of those tries or 61 percent. That was well below its season average and just compounded what was an already terrible performance.

Finally, Harvard’s six assists on just 15 made baskets indicate a complete lack of offensive rhythm. Lin had four of the six, leaving the remainder of the team with two in a combined 169 minutes on the floor. If you’re going to turn the ball over 30 times, you should at least be doing it because you’re moving the ball and racking up assists at the same time.

The efficiency statistics are attached in the link below. What’s clear is that guard Oliver McNally had a standout game and while forward Doug Miller’s numbers look good too, keep in mind that he used just three possessions in 11 minutes. (For that matter, same with forward Andrew Van Nest, whose healthy offensive rating is based on just over two possessions in 12 minutes).

What’s also clear is that a player scoring just 48 points per 100 possessions probably shouldn’t be using almost twice as many possessions as the person using the second most on the team. Add to that the fact that the guys using the third and fourth most were sitting at 79 points and 41 points per 100 possessions, respectively, and you’re going to have a team that can barely scrape out 53 points on 70 trips down the floor.

In order for Harvard to become most consistent offensively, it can’t die on the sword when Lin is having an off night. The Crimson must allow its secondary options to take control on those nights and better align its possession usage with offensive production.

Harvard-Army Expanded Box Score

Michael James

Michael James wrote 98 posts

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