However, the team struggled to find consistency on the interior, especially on the defensive end. It also had difficulty adapting to the loss and gradual recovery of standout quick forward Clemente. He was hobbled throughout the season with a degenerative ankle condition, but still finished second on the team with 14.7 points per game and shot 41.7 percent from behind the three-point line.

These latent personnel holes and chemistry problems were a source of frustration throughout much of the season.

Harvard dropped five of its first six contests after Thanksgiving, posting a solid 79-64 win over Sacred Heart amidst setbacks to middling opponents that included Marist and Boston University.

Three of the five losses saw Harvard surrender more than 70 points. Crimson opponents shot better than 45 percent from the floor against the Crimson this year, an uncomfortable statistic against which the team fought all season.

With a 6'3, 6'7, 6'9 starting frontcourt for much of the season, Harvard struggled to exert a presence inside--a task made even more difficult since the 6'7 Clemente is an especially perimeter- and jumpshot-minded big man.

After mixed results over the winter break, the team entered Ivy play in earnest.

Showing flashes of excellence, the team blitzed Cornell 70-56 in Ithaca and came within two points of upstart Dartmouth, losing 69-67 in Hanover.

However, inconsistent shooting and post-play woes removed the Crimson from serious contention by the midpoint of Ivy schedule. After Fisher went down with mononucleosis for the final month of the season, it seemed that Harvard's mid-season improvements would go for naught.

But Fisher was replaced in the lineup by Ewing, who played the most inspired basketball of his Harvard career down the stretch of the season.

Ewing first burst onto the Harvard basketball scene as an active, shot-blocking 6'10 sophomore as the first man off the bench to reinforce then-seniors Chris Grancio and Kyle Snowden. Ewing struggled at time to step into a leading role as an upperclassman, but after Fisher's illness forced him into the starting role Ewing played with aggression and intelligence.

Ewing scored ten points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a double-double effort in the Princeton upset, and led all regular contributors with an impressive 59.5 field-goal percentage on the season. He also dominated in shot blocking. His 47 rejections dwarf junior Damian Long's eight, the team's second-highest total. The total is also good for second on the school's all-time list.

Beam made substantial strides this season as well. In addition to draining the game-winner at B.C., he led the team with 68 three-pointers, averaged 11.0 points per game, and set Harvard's record to three-pointers in a game with seven on 7-of-9 shooting in a win over Yale.

Perhaps the most unanticipated and encouraging development for the Crimson this season was the emergence of freshmen guards Drew Gellert and Patrick Harvey. In a season dominated by seniors, the two became an increasingly important part of the team's arsenal as the season progressed.

Despite seeing very limited action in the first half of the season, Gellert was second on the team in both assists and steals with 50 and 33, respectively. Harvey was third on the team in three-point-shooting percentage at 40.0, and added 18 steals and 20 assists.

In a backcourt occasionally guilty of stagnation and complacence, the freshmen provided activity and defensive intensity.

Perhaps even more importantly, with entire starting backcourt departing this year, the two proved that they had the sense, maturity, and ability to step in immediately in the fall.