Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Broken right foot ends season for Harvard’s Kenyatta Smith

amaker

After playing his best basketball of the 2012-13 season during a two-game stretch in which Harvard beat Penn and Princeton on consecutive nights, averaging 17.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.0 blocks per game on that weekend in mid-February, Harvard center Kenyatta Smith was able to earn more minutes in the Crimson’s front court rotation.

In Harvard’s second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament, Smith scored ten points in each of the Crimson’s two NCAA tournament games. And even with Kyle Casey rejoining a rotation that already boasted Wesley Saunders, Steve Moundou-Missi and Jonah Travis, Smith had the potential to earn minutes in his junior campaign.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out that was for Smith, who injured his right foot just days before the Crimson began their season against Holy Cross. Smith wouldn’t see any action until he played two minutes in Harvard’s 80-50 win over Dartmouth, and there was still some hope that he could give the Crimson another interior option for the rest of the Ivy League slate.

But on Monday Smith re-injured his right foot, and as a result his 2013-14 season has come to an end. The news was first reported by The Harvard Crimson.

As a sophomore Smith averaged 5.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. And as fate should have it, the bad news for Smith comes just prior to a weekend matchup (Princeton/Penn) in which he performed so well last season.

With Casey, Saunders, Moundou-Missi, Travis and Zena Edsomwan at his disposal, head coach Tommy Amaker has multiple front court options from which to choose, with all five figuring prominently in the rotation all season long. Smith would have given Harvard yet another front court player, and his shot-blocking ability would have been a nice addition for a team that already leads the Ivy League in blocks per game (5.3).

Follow @raphiellej