Harvard basketball wins Battle 4 Atlantis

The Harvard men's basketball team is better than national champion Connecticut. Exaggeration? Perhaps. But the Crimson left the Bahamas this weekend as the champions of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament there, which featured No. 20 Florida State and the No. 4 Huskies.

While Harvard never actually went toe-to-toe with UConn (this is my obligatory Glen Miller reference), the Crimson rolled through Utah in the opening round and then beat the (then undefeated) Seminoles 46-41 in an ugly game that featured a 14-14 halftime score. UConn was eliminated in that round by Central Florida, which Harvard went on to defeat, 59-49, in the final. The last two games were broadcast nationally on Versus.

ESPN's Andy Katz took notice, leading his morning blog post today with a note on Harvard. While I doubt the Crimson will crack the Top-25 after one upset, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make the national rankings sooner than later this season. The Harvard student newspaper thinks so too. They received 1 point in the ESPN-USA Today poll that came out a week ago, and 3 in the AP Top-25. New rankings should be out later today.

And just maybe this Harvard team is better than UConn. The two will play December 8 in Connecticut. The Crimson also face Vermont, Seattle, Boston College, Boston University, Florida Atlantic and St. Joseph's before the year is out.