Duke University head basketball coach Mike Kryzewski and current Harvard University basketball coach Tommy Amaker will be forever intertwined. Kryzewski began his long and storied tenure at Duke in 1980 and his 1983 recruiting class was a turning point in helping him to turn the Blue Devils basketball program around. Amaker was a member of that 1983 recruiting class and in his four years at Duke he was known as a defensive specialist. After being drafted in the third round of the 1987 NBA Draft by the Seattle Supersonics, Amaker was only in the NBA for a cup of coffee before returning to Duke to earn his master’s degree. Amaker would spend the next decade on the Duke bench as one of Kryewski’s assistant coaches and he was a part of two national championship teams there.
In 1997, Amaker stepped out on his own and became the head basketball coach of Seton Hall University. In 2000, Amaker would lead Seton Hall to their first NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament appearance since 1994. Amaker appeared to be building something at Seton Hall which made it surprising when he chased the money and went to the University of Michigan in 2001. Amaker inherited a Michigan basketball program that was besieged with NCAA sanctions and he was always fighting an uphill battle there. In six years at Michigan, Amaker was 108-84 with an NIT Championship to his credit, but with no appearances in the NCAA Tournament while also taking a backseat in the Big Ten Conference to the both the Ohio State Buckeyes along with the Michigan State Spartans and thus he was fired in 2007.
Amaker wouldn’t be out of work for long as he became the head basketball coach of Harvard in 2007. Amaker took over a Harvard Crimson program that just wanted to compete with the Princeton Tigers and the Penn Quakers in the Ivy League and what they’ve got is something that they could never have dreamed of at the institution where leaders are built.
Tommy Amaker
Harvard basketball has been around since 1900 and before Amaker, the Crimson only had one appearance in the NCAA Tournament. This Thursday when Harvard faces the North Carolina Tar Heels in the second round of the NCAA Tournament it will mark their fourth consecutive appearance in the Big Dance. On top of that Harvard and Amaker have sent a player to the NBA which was previously unheard of. During his four years at Harvard, point guard Jeremy Lin was a two-time, First-team All-Ivy League member. In 2010, Lin went undrafted by the NBA, but he has played for four teams including his current employer in the Los Angeles Lakers as Harvard basketball isn’t exactly a hotbed for NBA talent as they tend to develop the guys that will own the teams.
Amaker was royalty at Seton Hall, but the almighty dollar lured him to Michigan where the pressure was simply too much. And now in Boston at Harvard, Amaker is treated like a king because he has built a program out of nothing.
On March 6, it looked bleak for Harvard to make their fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tourney. Harvard was coming off of a 62-52 home loss to the Yale Bulldogs. And being that the Ivy League does not have a conference tournament, Yale only needed to defeat the Dartmouth Big Green to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1962. Yale would lose to Dartmouth which would set the stage for a chance of redemption for Harvard. The Crimson and the Bulldogs would meet last Saturday in what was nail-biter throughout. And it was the experience of Harvard that won out as they defeated Yale to go on and represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament.
Boston is a long way from Tobacco Road in North Carolina, but Amaker simply can’t escape it. During Amaker’s playing career at Duke, current North Carolina head basketball coach Roy Williams was an assistant head basketball coach for the Tar Heels. And when North Carolina meets Harvard tomorrow night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Jacksonville, there will be plenty of familiarity between them as Amaker was an assistant coach at Duke in 1991 when the Blue Devils defeated the Kansas Jayhawks who were coached by Roy Williams for the national title.
Amaker has tournament victories under his belt at Harvard as the last two NCAA Tournaments have seen the Crimson advance to the third round which means that Carolina needs to be wary.
Under Amaker, the Crimson play with the same tenacity and aggression that he did which has not only made them the team to beat in the Ivy League, but also a tough out when the NCAA Tournament rolls around. It’s a game where Harvard has everything to gain while North Carolina has everything to lose as being that they are the blue bloods of college basketball. And when you’re playing with house money like the Crimson are it makes for an intriguing contest.
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