Prior to the season, Harvard won all four games on its international training trip to Italy. The team announced that senior Christian Webster and junior Laurent Rivard would serve as captain. The Crimson only returned one starter from the prior year. Harvard's two captains from the prior season, Keith Wright and Oliver McNally were seniors. Wright had been the Ivy League Men's Basketball Player of the Year in 2011. Wright, the Crimson all-time leader in blocked shots, signed with Uppsala Basket of the Swedish Basketball League, and McNally, signed with the Moncton Miracles of the National Basketball League of Canada. The team welcomed five freshmen and ten returning players. The Ivy League media selected Harvard as the preseason runner-up to Princeton, giving the team the only first place vote that did not go to Princeton. Jeff Goodman of CBS Sports also selected Princeton first and Harvard second with his preseason predictions, noting that Harvard had been his preseason favorite until the September cheating scandal that involved about 125 athletes and students ensnared Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, leading to their withdrawal. Casey and Curry had been first-team and second-team All-Ivy selections respectively for the 2011–12 Ivy League men's basketball season, respectively. Both players withdrew from school in hopes of preserving their final year of athletic eligibility following the investigation. Harvard appeared on 14 televised games in the regular season. Of these 14, six came on the NBC Sports Network. In addition, the team had four games broadcast on four different ESPN networks. Its February 23 game against Yale was televised by CBS Sports.
Schedule
Harvard's November 14 contest against Massachusetts was televised on ESPN as part of the network's Tip-Off Marathon. Harvard lost the contest 67-64. On December 4, the team defeated Boston College for its fifth consecutive victory against Boston College Eagles men's basketball, making Amaker a perfect 6-0 against the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team also defeated cross-town rivals and Boston University as well as in-state rival Holy Cross. Harvard's contest against Columbia that was originally scheduled for February 9 at 7:00 PM at Levien Gymnasium in Manhattan was postponed until February 10 at 2:00 PM due to the February 2013 nor'easter. Harvard had cruised to a 9-1 record in conference play and then fell to 7-2 Princeton on March 1. The following night, Princeton defeated Dartmouth and Harvard lost to Penn to give Princeton the lead in the conference race. Harvard earned the Ivy League Championship with wins on March 8 and 9 over Columbia and Cornell to finish at 11-3 in conference as Princeton was swept on the same nights to Yale and Brown to fall to 9-4 in conference. On March 21 in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, Harvard earned the school's first NCAA Tournament victory and its first victory over a top 10 opponent when it defeated number three seeded New Mexico. The victory was the first by an Ivy League team in the tournament since the 2009–10 Cornell Big Red men's basketball team advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Two days later, the team lost to Arizona, ending its season. !colspan=9 style="background:#991111; color:#FFFFFF;"| Regular season !colspan=9 style="background:#991111; color:#FFFFFF;"| 2013 NCAA Tournament N.B. Source:
In season
Each week the Ivy League selects a player of the week and a rookie of the week. Led by Wesley Saunders' 5 Ivy League Player of the Week Awards and Siyani Chambers' 6 Rookie of the Week Awards, Harvard tied the Ivy League record with 13 single-season weekly recognitions.
All-Ivy
was named the unanimous choice for Ivy League Rookie of the Year and the first freshman to be first team All-Ivy. Chambers and Saunders were the first Harvard teammates selected together as first team All-Ivy. The following players earned Ivy League postseason recognition: ;First Team All-Ivy
^Wesley Saunders,
Siyani Chambers,
;Honorable Mention All-Ivy
Steve Moundou-Missi,
Laurent Rivard,
On March 12, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named Saunders to its 2012–13 Men's All-District I Team, based upon voting from its national membership. The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their Division I All‐District teams on March 26, recognizing the nation’s best men’s collegiate basketball student-athletes. Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, 240 student-athletes, from 24 districts were chosen. The selections on this list were then eligible for the State Farm Coaches’ Division I All-America teams. Saunders and Chambers were among the District 13 first team selections.
