Patrick Harvey, a 2002 first team All-Ivy guard, is leaving the Harvard men’s basketball team for academic reasons, the Harvard Crimson reported yesterday.
The 6-0 Harvey ranks second in the Ivy League in scoring, averaging 16.7 ppg. Last season his 18.1 ppg trailed only Brown’s Earl Hunt. One of the top foul shooters in the league, he is currently shooting 80 percent from the line.
Last season, he was fourth in the league with a .816 free throw percentage. Harvey also led the league with 69 3-pointers. He averaged 2.1 steals per game in 2001-02, second behind former teammate Andrew Gellert.
Harvey was placed on academic probation at the end of last academic year. Teammates told the Crimson that he earned an unsatisfactory grade in at least one of his classes during the fall semester. According to Harvard University policy, poor academic standing in consecutive semesters can result in a student being asked to withdraw.
This is not the first time the fifth-year senior has dealt with woes in the classroom. He took a leave of absence for the entire 1999-2000 year, which would have been his sophomore year, due to a poor academic record the previous spring.
Harvey will appear before Harvard’s Administrative Board today to discuss his academic status. It is possible that he will not be permitted to graduate with his class in May.
“It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances,” Harvard senior guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman told the Crimson. “Things just didn’t work out for him.”
Harvey is ranked 12th on Harvard’s career scoring list with 1,208 points, and second in 3-point goals with 181. He started in 18 of the Crimson’s 19 games thus far this season, missing a game due to an ankle injury.
Harvard (10-9, 2-4 Ivy) hosts the Red (7-11, 2-4) on Saturday night. When the teams met last Feb. 22 in Boston, Cornell was able to limit Harvey to just six points in the 55-46 Crimson win.
Archived article by Owen Bochner