Amidst all the talk of this year's Crimson exploits, it's easy to forget that last year's Harvard squad hit an NCAA record 82.2 percent of its free throws.

It's extremely possible that the Crimson's on its way to breaking its own record.

Even if doesn't, there's a good chance the Crimson will finish as the top-ranked team in free throw percentage.

If that happens, Harvard will become only the fourth team in NCAA history to repeat as free throw champion.

Vanderbilt was the last to repeat, hitting a nation-high 80.2 percent in 1974 and a nation-high 76.6 percent in 1975.

Miami, Fla., which will bring back its basketball program next year, repeated as free throw champion in 1964 and 1965.

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Speaking of free throws, the charity stripe has accounted for 12 of the Crimson's 13 victories.

Harvard, which has taken 258 more shots from the line than its opponents, takes a trip to the stripe every 96 seconds. Its opponents take a trip there every five minutes.

That works out to an average of almost 22 more Harvard free throws per game.

And that usually works out to a Harvard victory.

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One of the reasons for Harvard's sudden rise in this year's free throw percentage rankings has been the improved performance of junior Arne Duncan.

The last time we checked, Duncan was hitting at only a .673 clip. Three weeks since, the small forward has hit 12 of his last 13 free throws and raised his average to .740.

Though he's still the only starter hitting less than 81 percent of his shots from the line, Duncan's no longer the main reason Harvard's not hitting at a higher clip.