The Harvard basketball team, loaded with untested talent, gets a chance to unload some of it tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Boston Garden when it opens its season against a pesky Northeastern squad in the first round of the Beanpot Tournament.

The Crimson's eight returning lettermen, who helped engineer last year's 16-10 season, have learned some new tricks, and with the addition of two outstanding sophomores. Harvard should be able to overpower the smaller, lesstalented Huskies.

The contest marks the debut of Coach Bob Harrison's multiple-style defense, and the debut of 6-8 forward Tony Jenkins and 6-1 guard Jim Fitzsimmons, both former high school All-Americans.

In and Out

Harvard's new defenses, which include full-court man-to-man and zone presses and a variety of half-court defenses, will be a major factor in the game. By shuffling his entire squad in and out of the game, Harrison hopes to press the entire game, thereby taking advantage of the squad's depth and speed.

"I expect them to sit on the ball, and sit on the ball, and sit on the ball," Harrison said yesterday, "So we've got to go out and make them play. By pressing and changing defenses I think we'll be able to wear them down," he explained.

Offensively, the player shuffle won't hurt since the Crimson has the potential to be one of the highest scoring squads in the country. Junior forward Floyd Lewis, All-Ivy last winter, averaged 17.2 points a game, and teammate James Brown tallied 16.9 per contest. Both Jenkins and Fitzsimmons are top scoring threats so the team doesn't have too many offensive worries.

The Crimson plans to rely on the fast break on offense, and Harrison has designed a half-court offense with a lot of cutting and breaking so that the team can flow into it from the fast break without a lot of setting up to do.

Northeastern will try to counter Harvard's defenses with a disciplined, slow-down style of play aimed at getting the percentage shot. Tom Moxley, a 6-4 senior forward, is Northeastern's top scoring threat, and 6-7 center John Haviland is its top rebounder.

Harvard should be able to control the game unless it falls into last year's pattern of playing only as well as its opponent. To prove itself one of the top teams in the nation the Crimson will have to force its opponents to play its game. Otherwise it will find itself in cliffhangers against good teams (like Northeastern), and outplayed against the great ones.