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But before he can turn his focus to Princ- eton, Casey has one more opponent to tackle that evening: in less than 24 hours, the 6-7 forward has to finish and submit an essay analyzing the theories of sociologist Max Weber. As he walks through his dormi- tory's halls to the building's study room, Casey is stopped outside a party by a girl in a short black dress. "Kyle Casey!" she yells as she runs up to him. "I'm so excited for the game tomorrow." Casey shakes her hand, presses onward, and reaches the study room where he plops down at a table, pulls out Weber's The Protestant Ethic, and begins to type. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Casey calls it quits and heads back to his room. That evening, he played the biggest bas- ketball game of his life. "Going into that Princeton game, I was re- ally, really tired, but really focused at the same time," recalls Casey. But when the game tipped off, Casey looked anything but fatigued. He poured in a season-high 24 points, delivering the Crimson a share of its first league title in program history. It was weekends like this that Casey envisioned back in 2009 when he opted to join Tommy Amaker's unprov- en Ivy League squad over established bas- ketball programs. But that's not to say that the Louisiana native always saw himself playing in Cambridge, Mass. In fact, it took Casey quite some time to come around to the idea of joining a school known for ev- erything but its basketball program. When Casey – a three-time New England Prep School Athletic Conference selection from the Boston-area Brimmer and May School – was first contacted by the Crimson during his junior year, he scoffed at the thought of playing at Harvard. "I pretty much laughed and told one of my best friends, 'Yo, Harvard just called me. Real chance of that happening,'" says Casey. "Things definitely turned out differently." The reason that things did eventually turn out differently was Amaker. After signing on as the Crimson's head coach in 2007, the former Duke point guard managed to make a strong first impression on Casey. "He's a very honest guy – kind of just speaks from the heart. One of the first things he ever said to me was, 'Kyle, I don't drink, I don't smoke, but I'll curse your ass out,'" says Casey (who added that Amaker has since stuck by his word). "I was kind of shocked then…but now I can really ap- preciate that. He didn't waste any of my time, and I didn't waste any of his time." First impressions aside, what ultimately sold Casey was the coach's vision for the Harvard Basketball program. "I really bought into what Coach Amaker was doing with the program, and I was looking for a good balance between aca- demics and athletics," says Casey, a Schol- ar-Athlete honoree in high school who was considering such academically inclined schools as George Washington, Davidson, Stanford, and Vanderbilt. "I really felt like (Harvard) would be the best place for me to grow as a person and grow as a player and set myself up for the next 40 years of my life – not just the next four." In his first season with the Crimson, Casey brought a level of athleticism rarely seen in the Ivy League. Using his 42-inch vertical, Casey overwhelmed opponents, averaging 10.4 points and a team-leading 5.1 rebounds. After being named Ivy League Rookie of cutting to the basket on the exact same spot where he had injured himself four months prior, felt another pop. For the second time, he had broken his right foot. Casey was presented with an option: undergo surgery immediately and miss the remainder of the season, or play through the pain. For him, the choice was simple. So unbeknownst to all but his teammates, family, and closest friends, Casey played the second half of his sophomore year on a broken foot. "There were times that I was brought to tears at halftime," says Casey. "It was prob- ably one of the most painful things I've had to consistently endure in my life." Playing at an estimated 70 percent, the sophomore finished the year averaging 10.7 points and 6.0 rebounds. After a Princeton buzzer beater in the Ivy League playoff kept the Crimson from the NCAA Tourna- ment, Casey underwent his second surgery in six months. IN HIS FIRST SEASON WITH THE CRIMSON, CASEY BROUGHT A LEVEL OF ATHLETICISM RARELY SEEN IN THE IVY LEAGUE. the Year in 2010, expectations mounted for Casey's sophomore season. With the gradu- ation of current New York Knicks guard Jer- emy Lin, Casey was expected to take on the role of the Crimson's primary scorer, and was selected by numerous publications as the preseason Ivy League Player of the Year. Then, on Oct. 2, 2010, Casey suffered a major setback. During a routine game of pickup with his teammates, Casey made a hard cut to the basket, felt a pop, and collapsed to the ground. X-rays revealed he had broken his right foot. After undergoing surgery, Casey was sidelined for the preseason and the Crimson's season opener. He returned to the Harvard lineup four games into the year, but seemed to be missing the explosiveness he displayed as a freshman. Casey appeared to be getting back to his old ways by the start of conference play, but once again, the forward suffered an- other setback. One night after recording a double-double against Columbia, Casey, After 10 months and countless hours of rehabilitation, Casey, now fully healthy for the first time since his rookie year, has played a critical role in Harvard's early season success. The Crimson suffered just two losses in non-conference play – at UConn and at Fordham – and picked up wins over Flori- da State, St. Joseph's, and Central Florida, entering the Top 25 for the first time in program history on Dec. 5. Midway through the season, Casey aver- ages a modest 11.0 points per game – 0.2 behind Harvard's leading scorer, Keith Wright – but has demonstrated the ability to be the Crimson's most explosive scorer. In Harvard's Dec. 31 win over St. Joseph's, Casey poured in 20 second-half points on 8-of-11 shooting to lead Harvard back from a 10-point halftime deficit. But playing in the Ivy League, Casey and the Crimson know that conference play – where the Ancient Eight's automatic NCAA Tournament berth is determined – is what really counts. Last March, Casey delivered the Crimson its first Ivy League championship in program history. Now that he's fully healthy and con- ference play is heating up, Casey will look to lead Harvard to another milestone: its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1946. "One of our goals is to get to (the tour- nament) and to really make noise there," says Casey. "We're really competing and starting to really believe and see how good we can be." 39