"I was a little bit [nervous]," Grancio said. "but I knew that I was going to play.

Again, the cynics laughed. Grancio hasn't played long enough to fill out a time card, the said. How can he help the team?

But he did play. And he did help.

Harvard lost the Cornell game, 83-64, but it was closer than the score would indicate. The game was filled with big scoring streaks on both ends, and thanks to Grancio's play, the Crimson opened a lead early in the second half, only to see it slip away.

Them, the Crimson ventured down to Columbia, and with another strong performance by Grancio, Harvard eked out a 76-75 victory.

And with the win, all those that didn't give the Crimson a chance were proven wrong by a young forward named Chris Grancio.

No member of the team, however will ever say that he is surprised by Grancio.

"I think that he [Grancio] stepped up big," Harvard Captain Tarik Campbell said. "He's been injured for a while, and it was just a matter of time [until he did this]."

"I think he's fantastic," Snowden said. "We really needed him to come up big."

But now, Snowden is healing. He still carries crutches with him, but only as a perfunctory symbol. While using them, Snowden looks more like a four-legged person than an injured one.

And it couldn't come at a better time for the Crimson. This weekend, Harvard plays host to both Pennsylvania and Princeton, easily the top teams in the Ivy League.

And the cynics rise up again. They say that the Crimson are destined to go 0-2 on the weekend. They say that Harvard has no chance against the league powers.

These naysayers have never bothered people like Chris Grancio before. "We want to get to .500 [winning percentage for the season]," Grancio said. "We've got a legitimate shot of doing that--it would mean going 5-1. I think that we can play tough and get a game from them [Penn and Princeton]."

"Every time you step on the court you have a chance," Campbell said.

If Snowden's ankle is healed enough, he will see some playing time. then, perhaps, Snowden and Grancio will be side-by-side in the Crimson frontcourt, for essentially the first time all season.

And Penn and Princeton had better be ready.