Both the Harvard men's and women's basketball teams travelled to California over winter break and came up empty.

The men lost to Santa Clara, 80-69, and to Rhode Island, 80-67, at the Cable Car Classic in Santa Clara, while the women lost to third-ranked Stanford, 85-63, and Utah, 60-49 at the Stanford Invitational.

Despite the records, the trips were well worth it, said Captains Tyler Rullman and Erin Maher.

The Men

The men went 1-4 during the break, defeating Boston University on Saturday, 79-59, but losing to Colgate and Vermont earlier in December before travelling embarking on their West Coast safari.

According to Rullman, the last three games have shown marked improvement in the Crimson's play.

"Both our games were close," Rullman said. "Against URI it was close until the end, and we were in a position to win against Santa Clara. We're on a bit of a roll, now."

That was most evident against the Terriers. BU is not the team it was last year when it defeated Harvard, 85-84, but the pounding Harvard delivered this year is a sure sign of better times.

Rullman scored 30 points and junior Tarik Campbell added 19 points in the win. Campbell's point total has gone up in each of the last six games: from nine to 10 to 12 to 14 to 18 to 19.

"Tarik's asserting himself much more," Rullman said. "He can't be guarded. He just takes his man to the hole and dishes off or scores, which he's doing with more consistency now."

California has been the land of dreams and hope for many people. Will the Golden State work its magic upon Harvard? Rullman thinks it already has.

"We've proved we can play with some tough teams. Our confidence is way up," Rullman said.

The Women

The women only played two games over break, but one of those games was against Stanford, the likes of which nobody on the team had faced before. (Think of the men taking on Kentucky.)

"It was pretty neat," Maher said. "We were all anxious to see if they played on another level or not."