Seth Towns ’20 – a former standout for the Crimson and the 2017-18 Ivy League Player of the Year – is set to return to Harvard University Men’s Basketball as an assistant coach ahead of the 2024-25 season, Tommy Amaker, The Thomas G. Stemberg ’71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard Men’s Basketball, announced on Friday.
“We are more than thrilled to welcome Seth back to Harvard Basketball and to the Harvard community as a whole,” Amaker said. “Seth embodied our program’s ideals as a ‘Scholar and Baller’ as a student-athlete and has demonstrated tremendous resiliency and perseverance throughout his career. Rather than follow the paths of others, Seth has always gone where there is no path and left a trail. We look forward to the impact he will have on our current student-athletes.”
Over a collegiate playing career that spanned eight years in which he made multiple comebacks from injuries, Towns provided an immediate impact for the Crimson during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, including earning AP Honorable Mention All-America honors and Ivy League Player of the Year accolades as a sophomore. After missing the 2018-20 seasons due to injury, Towns continued his playing career at Ohio State (2020-22) and Howard (2023-24).
One of the most decorated student-athletes in program history, Towns became just the fourth player in Harvard history to earn AP All-America honors and – at the time – became just the third sophomore to win the Ivy League Player of the Year award. In 2017-18, Towns also captured Lou Henson All-America, First Team All-Ivy, First Team USBWA All-District, First Team NABC All-District, and Ivy League Tournament All-Tournament Team honors after a season in which he posted 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, while shooting 44.1 percent from 3-point distance.
Following his graduation from Harvard, Towns returned to his home state to compete for Ohio State, helping the Buckeyes reach the NCAA tournament in 2021 and 2022. Towns closed his collegiate playing career at Howard, leading the Bison to March Madness in 2024. He tallied 14.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game for Howard in his final season.
Towns re-joins a Crimson program that under Amaker has won seven Ivy titles and advanced to the postseason eight times.
Towns named Assistant Basketball Coach at Harvard
