You can't tell the players without a scorecard (or a freshman register), but Coach Frank McLaughlin hopes that his "kiddie-corps" will become household names for the Crimson faithful in 1978-79.

No fewer than seven freshmen are on the 12-man travel squad that will open Harvard's 68th hoop campaign tonight at Amherst against the UMass Minutemen. Gone are eight of 11 returning letterwinners--five of whom didn't even bother to try out--as McLaughlin has decided to go with his rookie recruits under the Ivy League's new freshman eligibility rule.

McLaughlin feels that the caliber of play in the Ivies will improve under this latest innovation. "I was personally against the rule change, but I think it is necessary in order for us to be competitive outside our League schedule," says McLaughlin, who posted an 11-15 mark in his rookie season at the Harvard helm.

And what a schedule it is. The former Notre Dame assistant coach's grand scheme for a top ten team includes beefing up the slate in order to draw student-athletes away from the big-name schools.

The fighting-fire-with-fire schedule includes a sojourn to South Carolina next Monday and a Christmas vacation swing westward to face Stanford, Brigham Young, and Pepperdine. Sandwich those teams around the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii (Harvard has drawn Arizona State in the first round), add a Boston Garden date (against Boston College as part of a college doubleheader), sprinkle Holy Cross in for good measure, and you begin to understand wny even the most rabid Harvard hoop aficionado will settle for a .500 season.

Co-captains Bob Hooft and Glenn Fine are the only seniors on the romper-room unit, and McLaughlin is counting on the sagacious vets to be expert baby-sitters in his youth campaign.

Swingman Hooft, the Winnemucca whiz, alternated between a starting and sixth-man role last year but still managed to connect for double-digits in 18 of Harvard's 26 contests.

All-Ivy second team stalwart Fine returns to quarterback the Harvard offense. Glenn led the Ivies in assists last year and Harvard in steals. Fine won the "Mr. Hustle" award at the Motor City Classic last year, and there is no better nickname for the 5-ft. 10-in., 155-pound sparkplug. His aggressive style of play makes him the nucleus of the squad and the darling of Harvard fans, but has also landed him in early foul trouble in the past.

Harvard's third returning letterwinner--and lone junior--is guard Bob Allen, who finished second to Fine in assists last season. Allen improved vastly over the course of the campaign and by season's end cracked the starting line-up, hitting for double figures in five of the last seven games.

As in seasons past, Harvard covets the dominating 'big guy,' but as in the past, they don't quite have him. The forward front line is solid with three 6-7 frosh--Dave Coatsworth, Kirk Mundy, and Florian Homm. 'Coats' is a burly 230-pounder, Mundy an All-Stater from North Dakota, while Homm hails from West Germany, where he played on the Junior National Basketball team prior to earning All-Michigan honors as an exchange student.

Harvard also has 6-10 Bob McCabe in the wings, but McLaughlin isn't drooling because of Bob's questionable knees. Speaking of injuries, sophomore Bob Sims returns after a frosh campaign cut short by the surgeon's knife. Sims averaged 13 points in the two games he did play before injury and joins fellow soph Mark Harris and rookie Tom Clarke at forward depth slots.

Harris was the top rebounder and second leading scorer on last year's freshman contingent. Leading frosh scorer Tom Mannix (16.7 average) will team with Donald 'Duck' Fleming and David Durham (whose father is head basketball coach at Georgia) in giving Fine some extra backcourt help.

"We've got more depth, better shooting and ball-handling than last year," claims McLaughlin, always the master salesman. But whether or not he can peddle an untested, inexperienced product remains to be seen.