Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan says that the 1999-2000 Harvard men's basketball team will be a work in progress. The question is how long that progress will take.

What's for sure is that nothing will come easy to a team that finished in fourth place in the Ivy League last year (13-13, 7-7) but lost five seniors--more than any other team in the league.

Graduation hit the Crimson hard. Tim Hill, Mike Beam, Paul Fisher, Bill Ewing and Chris Dexter--who were the guts of the winningest four-year stretch in program history (58 wins)--were four of Harvard's top five scorers last year. The five started 80 games between them and leave the Crimson with just three regulars who saw substantial minutes.

Of those three--junior forward Dan Clemente, captain Damian Long and sophomore point guard Drew Gellert--only Clemente averaged double-digit points, and he is the team's leading returning rebounder with just 4.6 per game.

"We're definitely the least-experienced team in the league," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "We've got to look at ourselves as trying to find a niche somewhere in the Ivy, but we're a work in progress. How long it will take us to become a legitimate work, I don't know. Long-range, we'll be fine, whether that's now or next year. We're not saying 'Wait until next year,' but we just need to start playing."

In a competitive league, which features at least three realistic title contenders, the Crimson will have to work hard to separate itself from the second tier. But it has a strong legacy of achievement on which it's looking to build.

"For these guys, it's all about maintaining the winning thrust," Sullivan said. "They don't want to see the winning streak drop off, and they'll find a way."

Backcourt