# 2014–15 Harvard Crimson men's basketball team

The 2014–15 Harvard Crimson men's basketball team represented Harvard University during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Crimson, led by eighth year head coach Tommy Amaker, played their home games at Lavietes Pavilion and were members of the Ivy League. They finished the season 22–8, 11–3 in Ivy League play to share to the regular season Ivy League title with Yale. They earned the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after defeating Yale in a One-game playoff, the ninth one-game playoff tie breaker in Ivy League history. In the NCAA Tournament, the Crimson lost to North Carolina in the second round.

## Recruits
### Class of 2014

College recruiting information :
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date |
| Chris Egi C/PF | Montverde, FL | Montverde Academy (FL) | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) | 215 lb (98 kg) | Sep 29, 2013 |
| Star ratings: Scout: Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 80 ||||||
| Andre Chatfield SG | Norcross, GA | Norcross High School (GA) | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | 175 lb (79 kg) | Sep 29, 2013 |
| Star ratings: Scout: Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 76 ||||||
| Overall recruiting rankings: ||||||
| Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "Harvard 2014 Basketball Commitments". Rivals.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "2013 Harvard Basketball Commits". Scout.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "ESPN Recruiting Nation Basketball". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "2014 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. ||||||

### Class of 2015

College recruiting information :
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date |
| Tommy McCarthy PG | Carlsbad, CA | La Costa Canyon High School | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | 155 lb (70 kg) | Oct 2, 2014 |
| Star ratings: Scout: Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 69 ||||||
| Weisner Perez SF | Morton, IL | Morton High School | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | 205 lb (93 kg) | Sep 26, 2014 |
| Star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: NR ||||||
| Overall recruiting rankings: ||||||
| Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "Harvard 2015 Basketball Commitments". Rivals.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "2015 Harvard Basketball Commits". Scout.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "ESPN Recruiting Nation Basketball". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. "2015 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. Retrieved November 7, 2013. ||||||

## Preseason

Harvard was again the unanimous preseason top team in the Ivy League media poll. The team entered the season ranked 25th in the AP Poll.

## Schedule

In the penultimate game of the regular season on March 6, the team lost to Yale, falling behind them by a game in the standings with one game to play. However, the teams finished the season tied for the Ivy League title and Harvard won the one-game playoff on March 14 to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The 2014–15 team was the first Ivy League team to make a fifth consecutive postseason appearance since the 2001–02 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team completed a seven-year run for Princeton. They were the third Ivy team to make four consecutive NCAA basketball tournament appearances, a feat last accomplished by the 1991–92 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team. On March 19 in the 2015 NCAA tournament the team overcame a 16-point second half deficit against fourth-seeded North Carolina to take the lead before surrendering it in the final minute of play.
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Regular season ||||||
| 11/14/2014* 7:00 pm | No. 25 | MIT | W 73–52 | 1–0 | Lavietes Pavilion (1,941) Cambridge, MA |
| 11/16/2014* 5:30 pm, NESN | No. 25 | vs. Holy Cross Coaches vs. Cancer Classic Tip-Off | L 57–58 | 1–1 | TD Garden (N/A) Boston, MA |
| 11/20/2014* 8:00 pm, ASN | | Florida Atlantic | W 71–49 | 2–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (1,343) Cambridge, MA |
| 11/25/2014* 7:00 pm | | Houston | W 84–63 | 3–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (1,423) Cambridge, MA |
| 11/29/2014* 2:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Massachusetts | W 75–73 | 4–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (2,195) Cambridge, MA |
| 12/03/2014* 7:00 pm, NESN | | Northeastern | W 60–46 | 5–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (1,553) Cambridge, MA |
| 12/06/2014* 7:00 pm | | at Vermont | W 64–52 $^{2OT}$ | 6–1 | Patrick Gym (2,628) Burlington, VT |
| 12/08/2014* 7:00 pm | | Boston University | W 70–56 | 7–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (1,311) Cambridge, MA |
| 12/21/2014* 12:00 pm, ESPNU | | at No. 6 Virginia | L 27–76 | 7–2 | John Paul Jones Arena (14,593) Charlottesville, VA |
| 12/28/2014* 2:00 pm, P12N | | at Arizona State | L 46–56 | 7–3 | Wells Fargo Arena (6,503) Tempe, AZ |
| 12/30/2014* 8:00 pm, ASN | | at Grand Canyon | W 72–59 | 8–3 | GCU Arena (7,412) Phoenix, AZ |
| 01/05/2015* 7:00 pm | | Saint Rose | W 84–38 | 9–3 | Lavietes Pavilion (1,033) Cambridge, MA |
| 01/10/2015 7:00 pm | | at Dartmouth | W 57–46 | 10–3 (1–0) | Leede Arena (1,867) Hanover, NH |
| 01/14/2015* 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at Boston College Rivalry | L 57–64 $^{OT}$ | 10–4 | Conte Forum (3,529) Chestnut Hill, MA |
| 01/20/2015* 5:30 pm | | at Bryant | W 66–57 | 11–4 | Chace Athletic Center (1,246) Smithfield, RI |
| 01/24/2015 2:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Dartmouth | L 61–70 | 11–5 (1–1) | Lavietes Pavilion (2,195) Cambridge, MA |
| 01/30/2015 6:00 pm, ESPNU | | at Princeton | W 75–72 | 12–5 (2–1) | Jadwin Gymnasium (2,570) Princeton, NJ |
| 01/31/2015 7:00 pm | | at Penn | W 63–38 | 13–5 (3–1) | Palestra (4,632) Philadelphia, PA |
| 02/06/2015 7:00 pm | | at Brown | W 76–74 $^{OT}$ | 14–5 (4–1) | Pizzitola Sports Center (1,567) Providence, RI |
| 02/07/2015 7:00 pm | | at Yale | W 52–50 | 15–5 (5–1) | John J. Lee Amphitheater (2,532) New Haven, CT |
| 02/13/2015 6:30 pm, CBSSN | | Columbia | W 72–68 | 16–5 (6–1) | Lavietes Pavilion (1,624) Cambridge, MA |
| 02/14/2015 4:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Cornell | W 61–40 | 17–5 (7–1) | Lavietes Pavilion (1,603) Cambridge, MA |
| 02/20/2015 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Penn | W 69–46 | 18–5 (8–1) | Lavietes Pavilion (1,295) Cambridge, MA |
| 02/21/2015 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Princeton | W 63–55 | 19–5 (9–1) | Lavietes Pavilion (2,195) Cambridge, MA |
| 02/27/2015 6:30 pm, CBSSN | | at Cornell | L 49–57 | 19–6 (9–2) | Newman Arena (3,208) Ithaca, NY |
| 02/28/2015 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at Columbia | W 80–70 | 20–6 (10–2) | Levien Gymnasium (2,644) New York City, NY |
| 03/06/2015 8:00 pm, ASN | | Yale | L 52–62 | 20–7 (10–3) | Lavietes Pavilion (2,195) Cambridge, MA |
| 03/07/2015 6:00 pm, CBSSN | | Brown | W 72–62 | 21–7 (11–3) | Lavietes Pavilion (2,195) Cambridge, MA |
| Ivy League one game playoff ||||||
| 03/14/2015 4:00 pm, ASN/ESPN3 | | vs. Yale | W 53–51 | 22–7 | Palestra (5,256) Philadelphia, PA |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| 03/19/2015* 7:20 pm, TNT | (13 W) | vs. (4 W) No. 15 North Carolina Second round | L 65–67 | 22–8 | Veterans Memorial Arena (12,761) Jacksonville, FL |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll,. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. W=West Region. All times are in Eastern Time. ||||||
Source:

## Honors

Wesley Saunders was First Team All-Ivy selection, while Siyani Chambers and Steve Moundou-Missi were second team selections. Moundou-Missi was the Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Saunders joined Don Flemming as the only players to have earned three consecutive first team all-league selections. Saunders was a 2014–15 Men's All-District I Team selection by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

## Rankings

Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. :
| Poll | Pre | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Wk 17 | Wk 18 | Wk 19 | Final |
| AP | 25т | | | | | | | | | | | | | RV | | | | | RV | N/A |
| Coaches | RV | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |