I turned the conversation back to the varsity and asked him about what had happened to his pre-season strategy to use a good deal of zone and man-to-man pressing. Again he replied pointedly.

"You want to see the films of the Dartmouth and Northeastern games? We pressed--I can prove it to you."

I told him that I knew the team had pressed in those games, but after them, had almost neglected it. He replied that the team simply didn't have the personnel to do it. He also explained that he didn't need the press in the last nine games of the season as the team had gone 8-1.

Harrison then proceeded to run through the schedule and rationalize each loss on the team's record. For example, he attributed the first loss to Dartmouth to injuries and illness and the first losses to Pennsylvania and Princeton to the fact that they were held right after Christmas vacation. He said the second losses to Penn and Princeton came because they were held right after exams.

"You know how Harvard kids are about exams, they don't open a book until reading period and then they stay up half the night studying." Harrison said.

After explaining the season's losses, Harrison reiterated that he doesn't criticize other people or alibi.

"Take this guy at Penn (Chuck Daly), a year ago when he was in Boston he said 'Harrison is an idiot for using (James) Brown at guard.' He goes off to Penn and uses a guy bigger than Brown at guard. But I don't call him an idiot," Harrison said.

Towards the end of the conversation, Harrison started to warm up to me and apologized for being antagonistic. He admitted he was taking out his frustrations on me, but said that with all the criticism he had been getting it had been increasingly difficult for him to discuss the basketball season without getting angry.

Before I left, I asked if he had had problems communicating with any of his players. He said that Harvard hadn't experienced any special problems in that area, but that all teams faced some sort of problem during a season. I thanked him for his time and as I left he said in a sort of meek way. "If you want to cancel this article, I really wouldn't mind."

After speaking to Harrison. I was convinced that the man had a good understanding of basketball. However, I was unsure whether he had been able to communicate it to his players. He had been so harsh when speaking to me that it seemed a reasonable assumption that he might have had problems working with his ball players. Perhaps this was at the root of the problems of the basketball team.

Part Two will appear in Thursday's Crimson.