Tommy Amaker Knows How to Recruit, Looks to Send Harvard Dancing

When you think of Harvard, you think of libraries, study halls, and geniuses in the making. You don't think of the Lavietes Pavilion or the Crimson basketball squad.

It appears that Tommy Amaker is making an attempt to put Harvard basketball on the national college basketball map and, in doing so, is trying to make his team into something more than an afterthought.

The Crimson will return all but two of their top eight scorers, including leading scorer Jeremy Lin, a 6'2" guard who produces in every aspect of the stat sheet. Lin is an early favorite to contend with Cornell's Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale for Ivy League Player of the Year honors.

Five highly-rated recruits are verbally committed to Amaker and the Crimson. Amaker used his national recruiting ties to find and sign four of the five high school seniors.

Brandyn Curry, a 6'1" point guard from Hopewell H.S. in North Carolina, is rated an 87 by ESPN and is listed as the 42nd-best point guard in the class of 2013. Reports say that he is a point guard who contributes to every part of the game. He is a tenacious defensive player who can also shoot and be a floor general, according to reports on ESPN. Curry was considering Stanford and William & Mary prior to verbally committing to Harvard.

Kyle Casey, a 6'6" small forward from Brimmer & May in Massachusetts, is also rated an 87 by ESPN and is considered the 50th-best small forward of this year's incoming freshman class. He can shoot and drive to the basket. To give you a sense of how much potential Casey has, here are the other schools that he was considering: Stanford, Vanderbilt, Davidson, and Providence. Looks like he can play.

The three other recruits that round out this year's incoming class are Jeff Georgatos, Christian Webster, and Dee Giger. Giger's rating of 80 by ESPN is the class' worst—three Ivy League schools did not even sign an 80 recruit, and none signed more than two.

It really looks like Amaker is forming a winner up in Boston.