NEW YORK CITY--In this city of stark polarities, where limousines whiz by mentally deranged homeless people and porno theaters stand next to playhouses, another study in contrasts emerged Saturday in the Harvard men's basketball game against the Columbia Lions.

It was a mismatch, without a doubt.

With Captain Tyler Rullman limited by a 102-degree fever, the Crimson simply did not possess the firepower to keep up with the Lions, a hungry team on the rise.

Although Harvard's makeshift starting lineup managed to hang tough for the first seven minutes of the game--it actually led Columbia, 12-7, at the first radio timeout--it soon became apparent that the Lions' superior athletes, game plan and consistency would win the day.

The scary thing is that even with Rullman, Harvard would have been hard-pressed to make it a more competitive game. Columbia may be the best-kept secret in the Ivy League.

Most observers have focused on Penn and Princeton, the preseason favorites for the League title. Going into this weekend, though, Columbia was the team on top of the Ancient Eight, with a 4-0 league record.

Although the Lions were upset on Friday night by Dartmouth, they still trail Penn by only one game. Princeton, which lost in a shocker on Saturday to Brown, is almost out of the race already.

And don't think that the Columbia team and fans don't know it.

The Lions' bandbox gym was filled to capacity on Saturday, as hundreds of students braved the near-zero degree cold to support their team. A particularly raucous group sat behind the Harvard bench, heckling senior center Arturo Llopis and cheering loudly during timeouts to distract the Harvard huddle.

"This is our year," explained one of the fans who sat behind Press Row. "We've been waiting for a long time [since 1968] to win the League, and this is the team that's going to do it."

A few weeks ago, not many people outside of New York City would have agreed. Now, that number's got to go up.

All the ingredients of a league champion are in place: A good coach. An all senior starting lineup with a nice blend of passers, scores and defenders. A strong corps of reserves. A bunch of players eager for recognition. The list goes on and on.

"They've got a lot of weapons," Cornell Sports Information Director Dave Wohlheuter had warned the night before. "Tom Casey [the Lions starting center and Co-Captain] might score five points or he might score twenty. You never know, Omar Sanders is big for them at the guard position. And Par Downing, he gets a heckuva lot of points inside for someone who's 6'2". And of course, there's Jenkins."

"Jenkins" is Buck Jenkins, a lean 6'5" guard who made first-team All-Ivy last year and should repeat this season. In just 25 minutes of playing time against the Crimson he scored 25 points, 15 of them on long-distance three-pointers.

The Columbia media guide calls him a "slashing scorer," but against Harvard Jenkins just spotted up and let the bombs fly. All too often--from Harvard's perspective, at least--they and the rest of Columbia's shots were right on target.

The Lions won't always look so tough, of course. They could afford to play loose and fast against the Crimson, with starters laughing and gesturing to their hey-I'm-finally-getting-to-play backups, but it will be more difficult against the teams at the top of the standings.

Unquestionably, though, the Lions are in the hunt. Whether they emerge as kings of the Ivy League jungle will be determined in the next month, but for one night against Harvard, at least, they seemed ready to roar.