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Harvard’s Seth Towns and Bryce Aiken remain out indefinitely

Ivy League Basketball Tournament - Championship

PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 11: Seth Towns #31 of the Harvard Crimson shoots the ball during the first half of the Men’s Ivy League Championship Tournament at The Palestra on March 11, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images)

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Ivy League favorite Harvard will be without two of its key players for the start of the season.

Head coach Tommy Amaker spoke to reporters on Friday and indicated that reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Seth Towns and starting point guard Bryce Aiken will both remain out indefinitely with knee injuries. While Aiken has been battling knee injuries since being limited to only 14 games last season, the injury to Towns remains a bit more of a mystery.

In the Ivy League Conference Tournament title game last season, Towns sustained a knee injury with 8:20 left in the second half as Penn went on to ultimately win the game and claim the league’s NCAA tournament autobid. Towns also missed Harvard’s next contest when they lost in the opening round of the NIT to Marquette.

A September report from Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports indicated that Aiken and Towns were expected to be fully cleared for basketball activities once practice officially started. But on Oct. 20, Stadium’s Jeff Goodman reported that neither Aiken nor Towns played in Harvard’s closed preseason scrimmage against Boston College.

Now that Amaker has indicated that Aiken and Towns will remain out, it’s going to be one of the key subplots to watch in this early college basketball season. The duo combined to average slightly over 30 points per game last season as the Crimson have huge expectations heading into this season.

Harvard is already used to playing (and playing well) without Aiken. But the loss of Towns could be huge -- especially since we don’t know the severity of his injury. With the Crimson returning nearly its entire core from a team that just missed making the NCAA tournament, Harvard needs both of those guys back and healthy if they want to meet the high preseason expectations.

(h/t: David Tannenwald)