Springfield College hosts the Harvard basketball team tonight in an 8 p.m. game in Memorial Field House that should be full of contrasts.

It will be David versus Goliath. as Harvard, with an enrollment of roughly 4800 undergraduates, takes on Springfield with its small 1900 undergraduate enrollment. Goliath should win.

Both teams have the same record, 1-2, but there the similarity ends. Harvard has lost to two strong teams while Springfield has a schedule of smaller schools.

Springfield has already dropped games to St. Anselm's College (N.H.), 76-71, and Bentley College, 93-77, two teams that may not ring a bell as national powers. Coach Ed Bilik of the Chiefs said yesterday that St. Anselm's was a "so-so" ball club but called Bentley the best offensive team he had seen in 15 years of coaching. Springfield has one victory, a 94-67 demolition of Clark University.

Bilik isn't conceding anything. He gives David even odds in the game. "It seems our kids get up for the game. Enrollment-wise I'd have to agree, Harvard has more to draw on." But he added, "On a given night any team can get it going."

"Springfield, from what we've seen, is not as strong as Connecticut," coach Tom "Satch" Sanders said yesterday, but added he would adopt a "wait and see" attitude towards the game.

Saturday night the Crimson five were snowed under by a UConn storm of fastbreak baskets and lost, 80-52, in front of 1100 fans in the IAB. The team, as a whole, shot a dismal 25.6 per cent from the field and only 5 per cent from the foul line.

"I anticipate a better game from us, no doubt about that," Sanders said. "Certainly the shooting was bad. We are suffering under the offensive boards. That can be corrected, it has to be."

Steve Selinger, a junior guard who scored nine points in the second half after coming off the bench, received praise from Sanders. "Steve certainly did look good for the time he played," Sanders said. But he continued, "In any game you can always pick out bright spots, it's continuity that's going to win. If we can't get total team effort we're not going to win."

The Chiefs will start Joel Goldson and Keith Daly at the guard positions. Goldson, a deft ballhandler, is averaging 17.0 points per game and the 6 ft. 3 in. Daly plays the point for Springfield.

"Rebounding is going to be a problem," Bilik said. Springfield will rely on 6-ft.-8-in. Ed Gregory, who leads the Chiefs in both scoring and rebounding, and Doug Bain and Don Pingree. Gregory is scoring 18.3 points per game and notching ten rebounds a contest.

Bain is a weak scorer. "That's one of our problems," Bilik said, while Pingree is more of a swingman than a bona fide forward. Harvard matches up evenly against the Chiefs in size but it is doubtful Springfield can keep the lid on Tony Jenkins and Lou Silver.

Captain Jenkins is coming off a rough night against UConn, scoring only ten points, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him double that total. If Silver gets hot at the same time David could be massacred.

But, there is always that slingshot.