With last Saturday's 82-76 victory over Yale, the Harvard men's basketball team moved to 13-3 overall, assuring itself of its second straight winning record.

And considering the squad's history, that's a big deal.

"I can remember years when winning 13 games was a great year," says Crimson Coach Frank McLaughlin. "There were a whole lot of Harvard teams that would have been satisfied with 13 wins."

That's because a whole lot of Harvard teams have had records rivaling the Titanic's (0-1).

In the squad's 74-year history, only as Crimson clubs have put winning records into the books, and only 12 have won as many as 13 games.

For McLaughlin, it's the third winning season in his eight years here; for Harvard, it's the first time since 1971-72 and 1972-73 that it has put together back-to-back winning seasons. Last year's club wound up 15-11.

With eight games remaining to play, the worst this year's edition could finish is 13-11. The best it could finish--counting only the regular season--is 21-3, and that would mean two Harvard milestones.

It would smash the Crimson mark for most victories in one season, set by the 1945-46 squad that went 20-3. That club also currently holds the record for best winning percentage (.870).

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The race for the Ivy League crown hits the midway point this weekend, but three clubs have already established themselves as the teams to beat.

Harvard, Penn and Cornell--currently first, second, and third in the league--are slowly moving away from the rest of the field.

The Crimson will haul a first-place 5-1 Ancient Eight mark into a crucial showdown at 4-2 Cornell this weekend.

Though it won't be a must-win situation for the Crimson, it'll be close to that for the Big Red. A loss Friday night would give Cornell three league losses, with dates against Penn and at Harvard still on the schedule.

For Harvard, a loss Friday night wouldn't necessarily hurt--mainly because both Penn and Cornell must still come to town. But a loss wouldn't help, either. It would put the Crimson in a must-win situation Saturday night at Columbia.

Penn, meanwhile, will rote its 4-1' league record to Brown and Yale this weekend, while the rest of the league will jockey to stay out of last place.