Back in a gentler age, long, long ago, a basketball team didn't need a half-dozen to produce a successful season. Cut now, with Lew Alcindars sprouting from basketball courts all over the country like strange, giant jungle plants, a team without a big man is a team without a chance. This season, the freshman basketball team was without a big man.

The team's tallest starter was Carl Kendrick, a 6-4 forward who runs with a curious gait of someone pedaling a high-wheeled bicycle. Kendrick is, without question, a good forward, but against the likes of Boston College's 6-8 Jim Kissane, a 6-4 player can get few points and fewer rebounds.

"If we'd had one 6-7 or 6-8 player, or even a faster, bigger man to go along with Kendrick..."mused Coach George Harrington '59. The rest of his thought wasn't hard to guess; the team's 8-7 record could have been transformed from merely creditable to spectacular.

The freshmen's strength was a collection of versatile, hot-shooting guards. Harrington was starting three men in the backcourt by the end of the season: 6-3 Dean Rau, 6-3 Dick Perrin, and 5-11 Bob Beller, the team's high scorer. Beller poured in 37 points, a new freshman record, in the team's 105-101 win over Trinity just before Christmas vacation.

Two other guards, 6-1 Dan Orlovsky and 6-0 Jeff Grate, played almost as much as the nominal starters. "Grate has the best physical attributes of anyone on the team," said Harrington. "He can fly, and shoot real well from the outside. He's only six feet tall, and he can dunk the ball." Orlovsky, though somewhat slow on defense, had the ability to come off the bench and start scoring immediately.

Harvard had the misfortune to meet two of the best freshman teams in the East this season. Yale and B.C. Against B.C., the Crimson held its own for the first part of the game. "Then they got about four three-point plays on us," said Harrington, "and the kids just turned over." B.C. won 101-60. In the last game of the season, the undefented Yale freshmen belted Harvard 88-68.

Which Ivy League team can look for the most help from its freshmen next year? "Yale, no question," said Harrington. "They'll be very tough for three years now on the strength of their freshman team alone. They may come close to starting five sophomores next year."

The Harvard varsity is not so lucky Harrington rated Beller as the only freshman with a chance to start for the team next year. "None of them, the way they're playing right now, could step straight into the varsity lineup," he said.

But the worst news for the varsity is the freshmen's lack of size. Kendrick's best shot is a short turnaround jumped from near the basket, and even that would be suicidal against a defender such as Cornell's 6-7 Steve Cram. After Kendrick there is no one who seems able enough and tall enough to supply the varsity with the rebounding and short-range scoring that it will certainly need. FRESHMAN RECORD Won 8, Lost 7 HARVARD 77  Springfield 75 Connecticut 89  HARVARD 79 HARVARD 116  Brandeis 59 Boston College 101  HARVARD 60 HARVARD 105  Trinity 101 Boston U. 83  HARVARD 80 Dartmouth 67  HARVARD 66 Brown 91  HARVARD 78 HARVARD 78  Dartmouth 73 HARVARD 97  Northeastern 80 HARVARD 93  Tufts 91 M.I.T. 77  HARVARD 70 HARVARD 88  Exeter 67 HARVARD 97  Andover 66 Yale 88  HARVARD 68