The team played its home games in Boston, Massachusetts at the Lavietes Pavilion, located across the Charles River from the university's main campus in Cambridge with a capacity of 2,195.

The team was led by fifth-year head coach Tommy Amaker and senior co-captains Keith Wright and Oliver McNally.

Its 14 non-conference wins also tied an Ivy League record previously held by the 2009-10 Cornell Big Red.

[5] The season culminated in an invitation to the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, where Harvard lost in the second round.

Harvard came into the 2011–12 season off of its first Ivy League championship and two school record-setting years in terms of total wins.

Expectations were high for Harvard, and a December 8 contest against Connecticut was the only Ivy League game scheduled for broadcast on ESPN2 during the season.

[23] Harvard's season began with a Crimson Madness event on October 15 where the team raised a 2010–11 Ivy League Championship banner and held an intrasquad scrimmage.

[32] McNally extended his free-throw streak to 51 in the Florida State victory,[33] but his run ended in the final minutes of the UCF game.

[38] The Florida State victory was the school's second over a ranked team in its history and the highest-ranked opponent in the Coaches' Poll that Harvard has ever defeated.

[50] A 65–35 win over Yale three weeks later was Harvard's widest margin of victory against its Ivy League rival in 183 meetings.

[54] A day after beating Princeton, however, Harvard lost to Penn, snapping a 28-game home winning streak dating to February 20, 2010.

[60][61] Harvard set a school record by selling out 10 of 12 home games at Lavietes Pavilion (the sellouts came in all seven Ivy League matchups, as well as versus MIT, Saint Joseph's, and George Washington).

[51] All five of Harvard's starters and 12 total players returned from the previous year's championship team, but freshmen accounted for over 22% of minutes played in the 2011–12 season.