What’s awesome about this entire story is not just that Lin is a fellow Harvardian, but the amount of work and heart the NBA player has put into getting to this stage of his career. Lin was cut by two different teams in the pre-season, and received only scant playing opportunities at the beginning of the regular season with the Knicks. His teammates believed in him, though. As Knicks center Tyler Chandler said, “We’ve been saying that [Lin] has talent in practice, but we didn’t know if it would translate in the game…He’s obviously showing all of us that he can.”

#swag

I think it’s safe to say no matter what team we hold our allegiances to in the NBA, most of us here at Harvard are rooting for you, Jeremy.

The Trivalry

1. Rafael Nadal – The Pit Bull

- What he’s famous for:The 25-year old Spaniard is the defending champion and current world No. 1 tennis player. Nadal’s rise to the top was as meteoric as it was spectacular. He turned pro at 15, beat Federer, the then world No. 1, for the first time at 17, and never looked back. He’s won all four major tennis tournaments, a gold medal at the Summer Olympics, and at Roland Garros alone he’s been crowned five times. Watch Nadal roam the court like a pit bull on steroid, while his opponent breaks a bucket of sweat in exhaustion and exasperation. It’s fun.

- What he’s infamous for: the permanent wedgie, made very in-your-face by the constant close-up camera shots of his Capri pants which cannot be any tighter. It’s tempting to imagine that Nadal’s constant tugging of his pants behind his ass might be a tactic to distract the opponent. Nadal also has a particularly “flamboyant” dressing style. He’s almost always in sleeveless tops of super bright colors, such as orange, and then pair that with, say, green pants. You can practically see him from Mars. Or the nosebleed section of the stadium, which actually is helpful.

He’s so rich that he basically owns a Spanish soccer team, Mallorca. He’s an avid soccer fan and was one of only six non-staff people allowed into the locker room of Spain’s national soccer team after it won the World Cup in 2010. He’s also the new face of Armani underwear. (Hence the picture on the left.) I’ll give you a few moments to regroup. Methinks he should just ditch the hideously colored clothes and go the way nature intends it!

He might be going bald very soon though, so enjoy the pretty while it lasts.

2. Novak Djokovic - The Djoker

The 24-year-old Serb is somewhat of a late bloomer. Winning his first Grand Slam in 2008, his fire never flared up but only fizzled out, and he seemed permanently stuck outside of the Nadal-Federer rivalry. For a while, it was almost sad to watch Djokovic played because he’d be awesome and then, before you knew it, he’d be keeling with some kind of pain or injury or something. He had so much potential, and then something happened.

Turns out, that “something” is gluten. Djokovic’s nutritionist recently discovered that the scrawny Serb is intolerant of the protein. A gluten-free diet later, and voila! He is on fire! In 2011, Djokovic has snatched his second Grand Slam at the Australian Open, taken the world no. 2 spot and scooped up an impressive 42-match winning streak (including four against Nadal, something he’s never accomplished before) in the process. Only 2 other players could beat that record in the history of modern tennis.

- What he’s infamous for: his uncanny impersonations of other high-profile players, from Nadal’s ass-grabbing to Roddick’s serve to Sharapova’s girly movements on court. Hence the nickname – the “Djoker.” Djokovic is a goofball. This is an example of personality trumping looks, making some scrawny-looking dude with a nondescript buzz cut one of the hottest things in the sports world. Well, personality and lots and lots of money. And professional success.

3. Roger Federer – The (Aging) Master

The thing about Rog (yes, my good friend) is that he’s perfect. Even Djokovic said that he couldn’t do an impression of Federer because the Swiss is perfect. Just yesterday a French commentator called him “l’élégance absolue.” One of his sponsors is Rolex, and what could be more perfect than that? It’s widely acknowledged that he’s one of the greatest tennis players the world has ever seen. I won’t bore you with the statistics.

Federer plays with so much control and grace. Every swing of the racquet is a culmination of intelligence and impeccable skills. There’s never any outbursts of anger when he loses, no shrieking when he hits a winner, just one clenched fist and a subdued smile. That’s why when he sheds tears upon winning (or, on the off chance, losing) a championship, everybody cries with him.

And then, he ages. Federer is turning 30 this year and while he probably still has a few years left, it’s likely that the former world No. 1 and the most universally liked athlete the sport has seen in a while, is past his prime. Sadness. (Sidenote: in comparison, the French are notoriously not fond of Nadal, even though his matches are quite something to see. I’m suspecting they don’t fancy his sense of style.)

Oh and he’s also happily married.

Everybody Else

- The Brit: The hopes and dreams of Great Britain lie within the hands and injured ankle of Andy Murray, a young, curly-haired Scotsman. Britain, the host country of the most generous Grand Slam of all – Wimbledon, which is played on grass courts and requires all players to wear white – has yet to see any of its players win a Slam in 75 years.

- The Swede: Robin Soderling remains the only man in the past six years to have ever defeated Nadal on the clay court at Roland Garros.

- The Frenchmen: There were three in the fourth round, but only one – Gael Monfils – advanced to the Quarter Finals. Richard Gasquet was defeated by Djokovic and Gilles Simon by Soderling. But the point is that Gasquet and Simon are so yummilicious. That slender physique, that tousled mop of hair. One of them is likely gay (whichever one doesn’t matter, they’re French). Still, the prettiest things on this orange court, hands down.

- The Americans: Mardy Fish was out in the third round and I don’t know what happened to Andy Roddick, the man with the most powerful serve in the world. He’s married to Brooklyn Decker – a mega-hot Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Maybe that’s why he disappeared? The Bryan twin is the reigning world no. 1 in Men’s doubles though. We’ll have to settle for that.

When asked for comment, Amkar remarked: “I am appreciative of and flattered by the interest shown in me by other fine universities, but I am proud and honored to represent Harvard…I look forward to continuing my efforts to teach, lead and serve at this great institution.”

Post-Season Athletics

Men’s Basketball

After a heartbreaking loss to Princeton for sole possession of the Ivy League Championship, Harvard men’s basketball sought to continue their season in the NIT tournament on March 15th, but fell to Oklahoma State in the first round. Losing 54-71, it was no close contest, but the men’s team did finish with league recognition of Keith Wright, Kyle Casey, and Christian Webster.

Wrestling

Harvard wrestling had two members go on the the NCAA Championships at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA March 17-19th. Steven Keith wrangled out one win in the 125 pound weight class before his series was cut-short. Keith finishes his sophomore campaign with a 23-17 overall record and a 1-2 mark at his second NCAA Championships. While Keith’s run for All-America honors ended before arriving at his goal, Walter Peppelman managed a seventh place match and won All-America honors as Harvard’s 25th All-American wrestler–the 17th in the last 7 years. Another impressive point to add to Peppelman’s accomplishments from the tournament is that he was the only wrestler in the tournament that managed to turn No. 1 seed of Boise State, Adam Hall, for backpoints twice in a single match.

Diving

The Crimson diving team continued their season past their swimmer counterparts at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. Two men’s divers, Michael Stanton and Joe Zarrella, qualified for the one-meter final, placing 13th and 16th, respectively. Stanton also qualified for the three-meter final placing 16th alongside teammate Zac Ranta, who placed 13th. On behalf of the women divers, Brittany Powell led the Crimson by qualifying for the three-meter final and taking 16th overall. Leslie Rea made it to the one-meter final and garnered 16th place.

Fencing

Fencing had a spectucular showing at the NCAA Regionals at Vassar College over the break and earned 11 NCAA nods to head to the championships at Ohio State March 24-27. On the women’s side, freshman Alexandra Fiefer and junior Noam Mills won gold in their respective events. Other notable performaces came from sophomore Katherine Chou, junior Shelby MacLeod, sophomore Felicia Sun, freshman Dakota Root, and Junior co-captains Hayley Levitt and Carolina Vloka. Leading the men’s team, Junior co-captain Valentin Staller won silver, while Thomas Kolasa won bronze, and Eric Arzoin won fourth place in the men’s saber. There were three top six finished in the epee as Michael Raynis earned the bronze, James Hawrot won fourth place, and Ben White received sixth. Additionally, Tommasso di Robilant won bronze in the men’s foil.

Spring Athletics

Baseball

Men’s baseball has come off to a more-than-rocky start as they finished their tour of South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina with a 1-13 record. They managed to scrounge out one win at Kennesaw St. with Zach Hofeld awarding the win due to his performance on the mound. They will take on New York Institute of Technology, who also holds a losing record of 1-9, this coming weekend with two double headers.

Softball

Women’s softball fared better in their Southern California route playing at UC Riverside, Loyola Marymount, San Diego State, and University of San Diego. Winning five of their eleven games over the course of the break with stand-out pitching by Ivy-League renown player, Rachel Brown, they headed into their first games on the Northeast with an even 8-8 record. They took on Boston University this Tuesday, March 22 with a 2-1 win, giving head coach Jenny Allard her 400th career victory. They will head to Quinnipiac and Iona this weekend for a pair of double headers.

Men’s Volleyball

The men’s volleyball team undertook quite the competition as they traveled to Southern California for games against Cal State Northride, No. 13 Pepperdine, and No. 1 USC. While they did not manage to win any of the matches, they did manage to scrap one set from USC, winning the third set 25-22. In that match alone, Chris Gibbons tallied 11 kills while Matt Jones was close behind with 10. Jones leads his squad with an impressive 202 kills, followed by Gibbons with 142 and freshman Kyle Rehkemper with 125. The Crimson will travel to Springfield on March 23 for a 7 pm match, but pick-up conference play when they take on NYU at home on March 25 at 7 pm in the MAC.

Women’s Waterpolo

Women’s waterpolo hit the West Coast with a Northern California tour. They work their way around the Bay starting with a win at Santa Clara, loss at California State Monterey Bay, win over Fresno Pacific, loss at UC Davis, loss at San Jose St., loss at California State East Bay, and a loss at Cal Berkeley. Even with such a competitive schedule, their overall record is at 10-9 and 1-0 in conference with a win over Brown back in February. They begin conference play again with a trip to Bucknell at the beginning of April but have their next game at home versus Wagner this Sunday, March 27 at 2 pm.

Tennis

Both men’s and women’s tennis made it out to California, but only the men’s team was able to compete in all their scheduled matched as they made the wise choice to stick with the sun of San Diego while the women’s team scheduled a tour of the Bay area of Northern California. Of the three matches scheduled, women’s tennis was only able to complete its match against San Francisco and easily toppled them 6-1. The men’s team also had a three-match schedule at the University of San Diego, and came out with wins against Denver and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their only loss of the week at the hands of Eastern Tennessee State with the score of 5-2.

Track and Field

While it often seems that the Track Season is all year around, they began their outdoor season at the Meeting of the Minds and the Shirley Crowe Multi Meet at Rice University. The women’s team earned wins in the 400 meter dash (Christina Twicken), hurdles (Melissa Bellin), and shot put (Shannon Watt) at the Meeting of the Minds while their counterpart, Nicole Silva, placed third in the heptathlon. The men had fine showings from John Dingus, Jared Kadich, and Brian Hill in the solo running events and bested Rice in the 4×400 relay by almost three seconds. Harvard took the titles in the pole vault (Nico Weiler), hammer (Eric Clayman), and javelin (Nick Farnsworth) as well. Both sides of the team hope to continue the winning trend at the Stanford Invitational this weekend.

Women’s Golf

Women’s golf made their spring debut at Cal Berkeley dropping a 289-315 decision at the Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton, CA. Bonnie Hu tied for the individual medalist while Mia Kabasakalis (81, 8th) and Christine Cho (83, 10th) placed in the top ten. Kabasakalis, Hu and Jane Lee all tied for the best marks of the day at -1.

Men’s Lacrosse

Men’s lacrosse has come out with a bang as it has already garnered a 5-1 record and ranking of 17th in the nation. Although they have been playing since late February, the team started its conference play against Brown, winning 11-7. Over spring break they gathered wins against both Bellarmine and Holy Cross at Soldiers Field Stadium. These performances have garnered goal keeper Harry Krieger both COOP Athlete of the Week and NEILA Player of the Week honors. Looking to keep their winning streak alive, the lacrosse team will travel to Dartmouth to take on the Big Green this Saturday at 2 pm.

Women’s Lacrosse

Women’s lacrosse has come off to a promising start, with a win against Johns Hopkins during spring break. While their record is 2-3, they have been neck and neck with ranked teams such as Stanford. 1-1 in Ivy League play, they take on Yale this weekend at 1 pm at home in Harvard Stadium. Leading the Crimson in goals are Danielle Tetreault with 15, Jennifer Vandermuelen with 13, Melanie Baskind with 11, and Jessica Halpern with 10.

Sailing

Sailing had quite the week by competing in both the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional and the Truxton Umstead Trophy, a coed competition. The women’s team took ninth out of 18 teams at the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional and the coed squad finished ninth out of 19 teams at the Truxton Umsted Trophy. At the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional, juniors Emily Lambert and Alexandra Jumper had a total of six top-three finishes over the course of 14 races and even managed to sail past beat Georgetown to win the division. The teams set sail again March 26 with the women’s team competing at the Women’s Duplin Trophy Race at Tufts and the coed squad at the Owen, Mosbacher & Knapp Trophies at Kings Point.

Casey led the Crimson to their first Ivy League championship in team history. Picture from gocrimson.com.

With its victory over Princeton tonight, 79-67, Harvard clinched at least a share of the Ivy League.  Harvard finishes their season at 23-5 and a 12-2 Ivy League record.  They remained undefeated at home, going 14-0 in Lavietes Pavilion.  Princeton now has an Ivy League record of 11-2, with one game remaining at Penn on Tuesday.  If Penn wins, Harvard will win the Ivy League outright and secure a berth in the NCAA Tournament, March Madness.  If Princeton pulls off the road win, the Crimson and the Tigers will be named Ivy League co-champions and would play a game (believed to be next Friday at Yale) for the spot in March Madness.

Kyle Casey led the team tonight with 24 points including one nasty dunk with about 16 minutes to play to put Harvard up 47-42.  The rowdy student section chanted his name when he fouled out, minutes before they stormed the court in celebration.

Update: If necessary, the Princeton-Harvard playoff game will be Saturday, March 12 at 4 p.m. at Yale.  That game would be broadcast on ESPN3.  Likewise, the upcoming Princeton-Penn game which will determine if a playoff game is necessary will be available on ESPN3.  If Princeton wins, the Ivy League will announce ticket information for the playoff game on Wednesday morning.  Presumably, once the Ivy League allots tickets to Harvard and Princeton, Harvard Athletics will provide information regarding student tickets.

Laurent Rivard led the Crimson with 23 points. Photo from GoCrimson.com

The Harvard basketball team started 2011 off the right way with a 78-69 upset victory over Boston College.  This marked the third year in a row that Harvard has defeated the Boston area rivals.  With these three straight upsets and a 9-0 record against Massachusetts teams over the last two seasons, one could certainly make a case that Harvard has been playing the best college basketball in the state.

Unlike the last two years, Harvard pulled off this victory without previous seasons’ superstar, Jeremy Lin.  The hero of this upset was Laurent Rivard, a highly touted freshman recruit from Quebec.  He led both teams in scoring with 23 points. Various Crimson players have stepped up this season, making this team a strong candidate for best in the Ivy League.

Unlike every other Division I league (of course, we had to be different), the Ivy League has no playoffs, so the league champion is the team with the best regular season conference record.  That league champion, of course, secures a spot in the NCAA Tournament, “March Madness.”  Cornell has won the Ivy League three seasons in a row, including last year, when they had a remarkable run to the Sweet 16, but after losing their coach (to Boston College, as coincidence will have it) and  four of their five starters, they look hard-pressed to repeat.  Instead, Harvard and Princeton look like the two favorites to end up on top of the league for 2011.

The Crimson have looked strong through non-conference play, posting a 10-3 record including a 7-0 record at home.  Harvard has its first Ivy League game this Saturday at Dartmouth.  They then have a final non-conference game at George Washington before returning to Cambridge to kick conference play into full force with a 2:00 p.m. home game on January 22, against Dartmouth again, in Lavietes Pavilion, when much of the student body will be arriving back on campus.

The video is a follow-up of last year’s popular debut attempt, appropriately titled “Geeks Gone Wild,” featuring some fresh faces including a first-year member of the Expressions Dance Company who surely knows how to dougie, and a Varsity Squash player who uses words like “alternate reality” to explain the ending of Lost.

SPOILER ALERT! (Not that it matters to anyone) Harvard won the Geek-Off by a landslide, and we’re a little ashamed to admit that this victory tastes somewhat sweeter than the one on the football field. Granted, we also had one too many sips of Four Loko to understand what was going on down there as fully masked players fought over a tiny ball. (Seriously, what is the point of watching a game with hot athletes if you can’t even see their faces?)

However, we must say that last year’s video was slightly more entertaining, featuring an out-of-the-world Math geek whose familiarity with Pi made us proud, French geeks (they’re European!), and half-naked Currierites jumping up and down.

Check out the new Geeks Gone Wild II video here: We beat Yale at everything.

Thursday Nov. 18:

Light Up the Yard: The Harvard-Yale Pep Rally

8 PM John Harvard Statue

FREE food and refreshments

Disney Revue – A Comedic Reworking of Classic Childhood Tunes

8 PM Adams House Pool Theater

FREE w/ reservations DisneyRevue@gmail.com

Also showings Friday Nov. 19 8 PM & Saturday Nov. 20 8 PM, 10 PM

Friday Nov. 19:

Men’s Swimming & Diving vs. Columbia

5 PM Blodgett Pool

FREE

Women’s Ice Hockey vs. Dartmouth

7 PM Bright Hockey Rink

FREE w/ HUID

Glee Club H-Y Football Concert

8 PM Sanders Theater

$10 w/ HUID

Harvard’s Oldest Improv Troupe (OTI)

Annual Harvard-Yale Show

9 p.m. Science Center D

FREE

Harvard-Yale Acappella Jam

9~10 PM, Harvard Hall 104

FREE

To inspire the sox defeat the orioles 6-1, kuumba performed the national anthem, the national champion women’s squash team strutted their stuff.

oh baby!

THE drew faust threw the ceremonial first pitch (even better than Obama did, we must say), and many of your fellow Harvardians either attended or volunteered to make the night quite a pah-ty!

Guess harvard really is the bomb, after-all!

C-c-c-combo breaker!

Dance Dance Revolution was initially released in 1998 and has since basically been replaced first by Guitar Hero and eventually by Rock Band because, apparently, we Americans would much rather sit down and play pretend guitar than actually move our legs to double-time J-pop. However, the fact is that the fusion of endorphins and the Tetris effect of objects moving across a screen is still an intoxicating combo. And fortunately for those of us (read: people like me) who are pining for the days when we nerdily* spent hour stomping on arrows, we recently received this email:

Dance Dance Revolution Club Club

“Those who were seen dance-dancing were thought to be insane by those who
could not hear the music.” – Fictional Friedrich Nietzsche

Harvard University’s brand new DDR club meets for the first time this
Friday, and you’re invited–join us as we take part in the Japanese video
game sensation that has swept the world! All skill levels are welcome,
whether you’re a dancing master or can’t tell your up arrow from your down
arrow.

Friday, February 12th
7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Sever 110

Tell all your friends, and email Avalon Owens at
aowens@college.harvard.edu with any questions.

Yeah, we’re pumped.

*And believe me, I mean “nerdily” as an awesome compliment.

Wright goes up over two Big Green Defenders for the score

While you were at home catching up on sleep and watching TV, the basketball team was back at school, kicking off Ivy League basketball by defeating Dartmouth in a blowout, 76-47. The team’s star, Jeremy Lin, finished the game with 11 points and six steals, one of which resulted in a highlight-worthy breakaway dunk.  The true star of this game, however, was Keith Wright, who finished with 22 points, three blocks, and six rebounds.  Freshman Kyle Casey was impressive, off the bench, with four blocks and an alley-oop on a pass from guard Oliver McNally.

With the win, Harvard improves to 12-3 overall and begins at 1-0 within the Ivy League.  In the past, Harvard has not had a noted basketball program.  Last season, they finished at 14-14 overall and 6-8 in the Ivy League.  This year is a different story. Tommy Amaker returns in his third season as head coach and his efforts in revitalizing the program, espescially at the recruiting level, are now showing.  Lin is averaging 17.0 points/game and the rest of the team is shining as well.  Harvard has defeated Holy Cross, William & Mary, Boston University, Boston College, and George Washington.  They also played a close game as the away team against then No. 13 UConn, before falling 79-73, a game in which Lin scored 30 points.

Cornell was the Ivy League favorite at the start of the season and has won the league the past two seasons.  Like Harvard, Cornell has been having a great season which includes a near upset then No. 1 Kansas University in Kansas one week ago.  They stand at 14-3 in overall play and play their first Ivy League game against Columbia on January 16.  The Ivy League does not have playoffs.  Instead, the league champion is decided by regular season Ivy League records.  That champion receives an automatic berth the the NCAA Division I Tournament, March Madness.  Harvard has not played in the tournament since 1946, but this perhaps this will be the year.  The Ivy League championship could quite likely come down to the two games between Harvard and Cornell.  The teams meet in Ithaca, January 30, and again at home February 19.