Success hasn't spoiled the Harvard Classics.

Despite the increased competitive pressures form this year's upgraded schedule, each Classics player still gets playing time, even if it costs the Classics a victory.

The Classics, Harvard's alternative basketball team, might have won last Thursday's ball game against the Providence College Junior Varsity were it not for the team policy that everyone who dresses for a game gets to play. After the game Classics coach John Harvey said, "We could have beat them."

Loose Combinations

"When we play as many as 12 players with a variety of combinations, no particular combination gets loose or adjusted to one another," Harvey said. "Our best games have been games when we had, say, only eight players there."

As it was, the Classics managed to stay close throughout, and drew to within three points with under two minutes left before losing 67-58.

The Classics are loose, even in their "big" games like the game at Providence. The bench is raucous and vocal, shouting approval a fancy dribbling and particularly good passing. Halftime is spent not in the locker room, but rather entirely in taking shooting practice--at home games to pop music blaring over the IAB sound system. Harvey rarely gives pregame or postgame talks.

Too Loose

Harvey said playing in the 11,000 seat Providence Civic Center did not put added pressure on the players, but rather "it made them too loose." Just the same, against Providence the Classics, Harvey said, "looked worse than in any game this season against a relatively good team--there was poor passing and not enough patience on offense."

Since the Providence loss the Classics have notched two no-sweat victories to raise the record to 12-3. Last Friday at the IAB the Classics sharpened their passing, played more patiently, and coasted to a 72-55 win over the Suffolk University Junior Varsity.

Tuesday night the Classics rolled over Wentworth Institute, 82-66, in a game Harvey said was "easy to play" because only nine team members made the trip.

Tonight at 8 p.m. at the IAB the Classics tap off against UMass-Boston, undefeated in nine starts, and improved since last year, when the Classics took them by just two points.

The Harvard Classics meanwhile are generally even closer to the big time. They scored their most recent coup by being picked by the New Hampshire Men's All Star Team, which includes two former NBA players, to play a preliminary game to a Celtic contest in the Boston Garden on March 19.

Harvey says he doesn't know why the New Hampshire All Stars chose the Classics--except that "the reputation keeps spreading."