"We had the luxury of having a skilled shooter at the four-position last year," Sullivan said. "Dan was somebody who could screen or step behind the line, and we don't have that caliber of shooter at the four anymore. This takes a lot of cute wrinkles away from our offense."

The potential to score from distance made Clemente extremely difficult for most power forwards to defend, and when defenses honored the outside shot, it generated scoring opportunities for center Paul Fisher in the paint.

Last year's frontcourt was among the lvy's best, with Scott, Clemente and Fisher all finishing in the top 20 in scoring and combining to produce 39.6 points per game.

That it's a major blow for the frontcourt is the least I can say," Fisher said. "We were hoping Dan would build on what he accomplished last year, but now the spot is wide open. The practices have been much more intense for everyone in the frontcourt. We'll definitely miss his point production and his rebounding."

There was talk even before the severity of Clemente's injury was known of switching the sophomore to small forward while replacement candidates like sophomores Tim Coleman and Chris Lewis or senior Bill Ewing filled in the four-spot.

Now Sullivan will have to revamp the frontcourt with even greater urgency, possibly converting to a modified three-guard offense like the one he employed at times last season with Scott and junior guard Damian Long.

Though veterans, Ewing, Coleman and Lewis have yet to establish themselves as scoring forces in the paint, and certainly none will contribute in the manner that Clemente did from outside.

Any frontcourt point production, it seems, will have to come from inside, and will require greatly improved ability from any of those fill-ins to score down low.

But Clemente's injury will increase the pressure on the Crimson to improve its defense, one of the biggest question marks entering the season.

"The challenge is that we lose a significant volume of three-point shooting," Sullivan said. "Good three-point shooting was a buffer to poor defense last year. It bailed us out of some games, kept us close in others.

"Defense was a top priority going in, but now that we lose 100 three-point shots from Dan and Mike Scott, the players should have a sense that we're redirecting our energies even more toward defense."

The injury comes as a shock and a terrible piece of luck for a team in the midst of the most successful stretch in program history. With 45 wins in the last three seasons, Harvard tied a school record.

The Crimson was picked to finish in the top half of the Ivy and perhaps even challenge a graduation-depleted Princeton team for second place behind the University of Pennsylvania.

Clemente's loss naturally makes a first-division finish more difficult, but team members were optimistic.

"If the people that do the predictions knew that Dan was going to be out for the year, they probably wouldn't think that second or third place was doable, more like third or fourth," Fisher said. "But if we pick things up, there's no reason for a decline."