CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Huskies will return on the road, but will only have to travel 4.1 miles to Lavietes Pavilion Tuesday night for a contest at Harvard that will begin at 7 p.m.
Northeastern is in the midst of a six-game road streak that will continue tomorrow against the Crimson before heading to Vermont on Saturday.
T.J. Williams, who is averaging 22.8 points per game to go along with 6.6 assists per game to lead the CAA this season, will look to continue his hot streak against the Crimson.
The game can be found on the Ivy League Digital Network.
QUICK HITS
• This is the 97th season of Northeastern men's basketball. Northeastern has an all-time record of 1,176-1,089 (.519) in 2,265 games
• The Huskies are 371-253 (.595) all-time in conference play including a 113-83 (.577) record since joining the CAA in the 2005-06 season.
• The Huskies have amassed 12 regular season conference championships and eight tournament titles including a 2015 title which sent the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 24 years
• The Huskies and Harvard have met 53 times in the past in a series that began in the 1920-21 season, Northeastern's first as a varsity program
• Harvard holds a 38-15 series lead over the Huskies, though Northeastern won last year's meeting, in their Matthews opener, 80-71
• The Huskies fell in a couple of close contests last week, beginning with an 80-77 loss on Wednesday at Cornell followed by a 77-75 loss at Stony Brook on Saturday night
• Northeastern's four losses have come by a combined 11 points this season
•
Alex Murphy registered a new career-high with a 24-point effort at Cornell on Wednesday
• Following his 20-point performance against Stony Brook,
T.J. Williams has now notched at least 20 points in six of eight games this season and his averaging a CAA leading 22.8 points per game to go along with a CAA best 6.6 assists per game
• The Huskies have also added five new faces to the squad this year in graduate student
Alex Murphy (Duke/Florida), transfer
Vasa Pusica (San Diego) and a trio of freshmen in Boursiquot,
Bolden Brace, and
Shawn Occeus
SCOUTING THE CRIMSON
• The Crimson are off to a 2-4 start to the 2016-17 season, but only one of those wins has come against a Division-I opponent in Fordham
• Harvard started its season off in China where they fell to Stanford 80-70 but returned home to face Fisher College for its first win of the year
• Since that game, the Crimson fell thrice to a pair of in-state rivals and to George Washington before bouncing back with a 64-52 victory over Fordham on Saturday
THIS SEASON
• Harvard is led by Bryce Aiken who is averaging 12.4 points per game followed by Seth Towns who has recorded 11.5 ppg
• Siyani Chambers has recorded a team-high 33 assists on the year, while Zena Esosomwan has a team-leading 5.8 rebounds per game in just 85 minutes of action
ALL-TIME SERIES
• Harvard and Northeastern have met 53 times in the past with the Crimson holding a 38-15 series lead. The two teams met for the first time during the 1920-21 season, Northeastern's first as varsity program
• The Huskies lost 22 of the first 23 games against Harvard dating back to 1955-56. Since the 1955-56 season, Northeastern is 14-16 against the Crimson.
• Under
Bill Coen, the Huskies have a 3-2 record against Harvard, winning the first two showdowns of Coen's vs. Harvard, but falling in two straight outings since resurrecting the series in 2014-15 before last year's victory
• This year's game will mark the fourth straight season that Harvard and Northeastern will meet, the longest streak since the two teams met 10 times in a row from 1950-51 until 1959-60
LAST TIME OUT VS. HARVARD
• Behind 22 points and 10 rebounds by
Quincy Ford, the Northeastern men's basketball team tallied its largest home victory over Harvard in nearly 57 years, an 80-71 throttling of the Crimson in front of 2,383 people on banner raising night at Matthews Arena
• The Huskies overcame a sluggish start to finish with the nine-point win and improve to 6-1 on the season, the best start of the
Bill Coen era, and first time the Huskies have started 6-1 since the 2005-06 season
• The win was the largest at home over Harvard since a 68-46 victory on Dec. 17, 1958 and was Northeastern's biggest win over the Crimson since Dec. 18, 1999 in Cambridge
• Four Huskies finished the game in the double-digits, led by Ford's 22, his second-straight 20-point effort and second double-double of the season, sixth of his career. Ford extended his double-digit scoring streak to seven games
•
David Walker finished with 14 points and five assists, while freshman
Jeremy Miller finished the game with 12 points after tallying 11 in the first half alone, setting a new career-high and the first double-digit effort of his young career
•
Devon Begley rounded out the pack with 10 points, including a one-handed slam that gave Northeastern a 10-point, second half lead
• Zena Edosomwan led Harvard with 18 points and seven rebounds on the night
LAST WEEK IN NU BASKETBALL
• The Huskies began their six-game road trip with a mid-week game at Cornell on Wednesday night, falling to the Big Red 80-77 in a game that went down to the wire
• Despite a 27-point, nine assist performance from
T.J. Williams and a career-high 24-point effort by
Alex Murphy, the Huskies were not able to hold off a hot shooting Cornell on their home turf
• Cornell was led by Matt Morgan who entered the game averaging 16.5 points per game. He went off for 34 points behind a career-high seven treys, matching a Cornell record at Newman Arena
•
Devon Begley had his hands in all aspects of the game finishing with five points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals on the night
• The Huskies headed down to Stony Brook to round out the week and battled all game against the Seawolves, before falling 77-75
• The Huskies got out to a 7-0 lead, before Stony Brook bounced back with a 15-0 run to gain a lead they would hold until early in the second half
• Northeastern regained the lead using a 12-0 run that spanned from the end of the first half until the beginning of the second half, and the two teams went back-and-forth for the rest of the period before the Seawolves came away with the win
•
T.J. Williams finished with his sixth 20-point effort of the season with 20 points and seven assists while
Alex Murphy added 19 in the loss
• The Huskies' four losses have come by a combined 11 points
CENTURY MARK
• Last Wednesday night's game at Cornell marked the 100th game of senior
T.J. Williams' Northeastern career and did he make the most of it
• During his first 99 games, Williams tallied 870 points and 282 assists
• In his 100th game, Williams recorded 27 points and nine assists to add to his career season
JUST LIKE J.J.
• Through his first eight games of the season,
T.J. Williams has recorded six 20+ point efforts on the year, including a 30-point effort, a career first for the senior, against Boston University in the season opener.
• The last Husky to record as many 20+ point games through the first eight games of the season was Jose Juan Barea, who had six such games to start the 2005-06 season, also his senior campaign, more than 10 years ago
• Through the first eight games, Williams is averaging a CAA leading 22.8 points per game, 6.6 apg, and 3.6 rebounds per game
• During that same stretch, Barea was averaging 23.1 ppg, 9.5 apg, and 3.9 rpg
• However, Barea was held without a 30-point game that year until Jan. 7, 2006 when he dropped 32 at Old Dominion
• Last season,
David Walker began the year with four such 20+ point games, including a 30-point effort vs. Lipscomb (Nov. 21)
CAREER HIGHS FOR MURPHY
•
Alex Murphy reset his career scoring mark at Cornell (Nov. 30)
• After a career night in his Husky debut against Boston University netting 20 points, four rebounds and four assists, Murphy went off for 24 points at Cornell
• His 24 points, came on 11-of-16 shooting, both career bests for the Duke and Florida transfer
• He also added four assists, the second time in his career that he has reached that mark, and six rebounds, his fourth career 5+ rebound game and second of the season
• Another career best came on Nov. 14 at UConn when he pulled down 15 rebounds, doubling his previous career best (7)
• Murphy has recorded a 14.1 point per game average to go along with 5.9 rebounds per game
JOURNEYMEN
• After finishing out their non-conference home slate on vs. Kent State, the Huskies will now head out on a six-game road swing to close out their non-conference schedule
• The road trip will take them 2,789 miles and to three different states beginning with Wednesday's contest at Cornell, the first on Cornell's campus since the 1983-84 season
• The road trip also includes contests at Stony Brook, at Harvard, at Vermont, at Michigan State and at Oakland
• The Huskies hit a couple bumps in the road in New York falling to Cornell (80-77) and Stony Brook (77-75) to start off the road trip and will look to bounce back on Tuesday night at Harvard
LEADING THE CAA
•
T.J. Williams has been on fire to start the 2016-17 season posting a 22.8 points per game average, which tops the CAA and ranks 11th in the country this season
• Not only is Williams scoring, but he is aiding his teammates and has 53 assists on the year or 6.6 per game, which tops the CAA and ranks 11th nationally
• Williams notched the first 30-point game of his career to begin the season against Boston University and has 20+ point games in six of eight games this season
• More than one-third of Williams' points have come from the free throw line (64-of-182), the most free throws made by an individual in the CAA and fifth-most in the country in 2016-17
• His 182 total points also rank first in the CAA and 17th in the nation
• Williams' free-throw percentage of 76.2 percent is unranked in the CAA, but is a 11.6 percent increase from his career free throw percentage heading into the season (.646)
BEYOND THE ARC
• After last season's record setting three-point shooting effort, the Huskies continue their three-point prowess in the 2016-17 season
• After seven games this season, Northeastern ranks second in the conference with a 38.4 percent shooting mark from deep
• That mark ranks 67th in the nation
• The Huskies have distributed the ball evenly from beyond the arc, as nine of Northeastern's 11 players have connected from deep this season, led by
Devon Begley's 13 and freshman
Shawn Occeus' 11 treys
•
Jeremy Miller has also added double-digit baskets from downtown with 10 while
T.J. Williams, and
Alex Murphy each have added eight treys of their own
GET THAT OUTTA HERE
• This season, the Huskies have tallied 22 blocks on the season, led by
Jeremy Miller who has registered 10 of those blocks
• Miller's 10 blocks ranks second in the conference and 159th in the nation
• Last season, Miller finished the year with just eight blocks
•
Anthony Green is next on the team with five blocks, in just 76 minutes of action, which ranks 14th in the conference
