Blockhouse turnstiles will click for the first time since last March tonight when Bill Barclay's varsity basketball team makes its home debut at 8:45 p.m. against Northeastern.

There new men will be in the starting lineup for Harvard: Dick Covey, last year's jayvee captain, at guard, and ex-tailback Pete Petrille and Ed Smith at the forwards: Johnny Rockwell will jump center, with Cliff Crosby at the other guard.

Another Mariaschin

Covey may be the Saul Mariaschin Coach Barclay has been looking for. He set up most of the plays against Brown last Saturday at Providence, and cleared of more defensive rebounds than anybody else except Smith,. "We made a lot of mechanical errors against Brown," Barclay explains, "but the defense was good and the boys really fought all the way."

Proof of how well the inside plays were working is provided by the fact that the Crimson scored only three times on set shots, two by Crosby and one by Smith. But Brown, which was supposed to challenge Holy Cross for the New England title this winter, never went ahead after losing an early 4-2 lead.

Huskies Dangerous

Northeastern rates a couple of pegs below the Bruins. But they can score, and that's what counts most. Tonight, the Huskies will send out an all-senior forward group of center Inga Walsh, the captain, Charles Diehl and Tom Blair. All three have been playing varsity ball for Northeastern for two years. Walsh is the big man. The six-foot-four former Milton High School athlete has a layup shot just as crisp as his crew haircut, and he handles the ball with considerable adroitness. Creedon and Landini, both sophomores, are the guards.

Rockwell, Prior Will Cover Walsh

The Crimson high command has mapped no special plans for stopping Mr. Walsh, who was name on the Boston Garden all-New England team last year. "We'll just play our regular style" Barclay said yesterday. "Rockwell or Prior will be covering Walsh, depending on which one happens to be on the court."

What does Barclay mean by "our regular style?" He means the fast break, which the Varsity has been polishing since October 18. "Naturally, we can't fast break all the time," Barclay explains. "We worked six against Brown, and scored three baskets."

The score of that game, 52-50, is misleading, since the varsity was never in any real danger and at one point in the second half held a nine-point bulge. Actually, Barclay's team left the floor thinking they had won 55-50.

Johnny Rockwell had been fouled while putting in a layup just as the buzzer sounded, and had then sunk the charity toss to make the score 55-50. But the referees went into huddle, decided the timing device had bee wrong, and disallowed both the basket and the foul. Rock hopes to get that one back plus a couple more tonight.