As Harvard students crawl through the final days before the holiday break, the first thing on most people's minds is getting that final paper done or what Santa's going to bring them for Christmas. The last thing usually is basketball.

That's why the Harvard men's basket-ball team (5-1) faces a monumental task this Saturday against Northeastern (2-1) at home.

Not only will the Crimson have to temporarily shake off end-of-team anxieties, but it has to face an explosive Husky team that is led by one of the top offensive players in the American East--Ty Mack--who is coming off of a 34-point performance against Navy last week.

"In seasons past we've been sluggish at this time of the year," junior forward Paul Fisher said. "I think this is one of the biggest games of the year to see if we continue to grow up or we stagnate."

After Wednesday's disappointing 74-57 loss to B.U., the Crimson's 5-1 start is hopefully not shaping up to be like the New England Patriot's football season--that is, beat up on the bad teams but get hammered by the good teams.

At the very least, playing B.U. should have been a good primer for the Crimson as to what to expect from American East teams.

"This is the first time we've played [Northeastern] in awhile," Fisher said. "They have a lot of good athletes and there front court is very strong. We expect them to be at B.U.'s caliber."

If the Huskies are anything like B.U., then the Crimson is going to have to fight fire with fire by scoring as many point as possible from the opening whistle.

One of the reasons the Crimson was so overwhelmed by the Terriers was that it opened the first half by sporting B.U. a 13-3 lead from which it was never able to recover.

The Crimson will look to its rock and floor general, junior Tim Hill, as well as co-captain Mike Scott, who is having a very strong season thus far, to help ignite its offense.

The defense will need to focus on containing Ty Mack as well as boxing out Northeastern forwards Lin Lattimore and Changa Adams on the offensive and defensive boards.

For its part, Harvard will need continued strong interior play from freshman forward Dan Clemente, whose surprising arsenal of post moves and perimeter shots has played a significant role in the Crimson's success. Clemente scored 18 points in his first career start against B.U. and has complemented Fisher nicely in the paint.

Although junior guard Mike Beam has been hitting three-pointers with consistency, Harvard will need a better effort from its role players and bench, which contributed zero points against the Terriers.

Saturday's game will be the Crimson's final chance to hone its skills before Tuesday's Ivy League home opener against rival Dartmouth, a game which has historically been a good measure of Harvard's chances at competing for the league title.

The opening tip-off begins Saturday night at 7 p.m. Students gain free admission with their coupon book.