The oft-repeated theory that the Middle West is the home of America's best basketball will get a Crimson sampling next week, when Coach Bill Barclay's five tours the outlands in Harvard's first Western court invasion since 1942.

While most undergraduates are enjoying the pleasures of egg-nogs, dissipation, and the usual Yuletide hilarity, Varsity basketball players will be leading a clean, athletic existence. Practice sessions will continue at the Indoor Athletic Building until Monday, when the members of the squad return to their home firesides for Christmas, but the evening of December 26 will find them convened at Cleveland, first stop on the junket.

Western Reserve is the first opponent scheduled, and the meeting will take place on December 27. Other points on route include Indianapolis, home of Indiana Central, on December 30; Peoria, Ill., where a game with Bradley Tech comprises New Year's Eve festivities; and Pittsburgh on January 2, with Westminster facing the Crimson.

For Barclay, it should be an opportunity to get a much better line on his charges, especially his reserve corps. Eleven players, a trainer, a manager and the coach will be in the entourage. Joining the westward movement will be Captain Saul Mariaschin, John Gantt, George Hauptfuhrer, Leo Page, Steve Davis, John Noble, Bill Henry, Bob Crotty, Bill Harford, Frank Holt and Ted Nelson.

Bradley Tech Strong

Reports from the outlying precincts indicate that Bradley Tech, with supposedly the best basketball team in the college's history, will provide the stiffest opposition for the Crimson. Western Reserve hasn't fared too well, and little is known about Indiana Central's progress. Westminster made a disastrous visit to Madison Square Garden a week ago, when C.C.N.Y. gave the Pittsburghers a thirty-point thrashing; but in years past the Smoky City delegation has produced a traditionally strong quintet.

Although the Varsity has won four of its first five games, there is still not much indication that the Barclay team can pose a tremendous threat to its Ivy League colleagues especially Dartmouth, Penn and Cornell, all of whom are reputedly loaded. The experience gained in the west can be of substantial help to the squad in its post-vacation engagements with league opposition.

In past years, the Crimson hasn't exactly set the west afire with its prowess. The last time the young men went west, in 1942, they sustained a five game losing streak at the hands of Bradley Tech, Detroit, Michigan State, Illinois, and Notre Dame, with a total of 212 points scored against their 168. Toughest to take was the Bradley Tech game, a 48 to 44 loss.