"Dan was working too hard to duplicate the 32-point game he had last year against these guys," Sullivan said, referring to the exemplary shooting day Clemente had back in 1999.

The Crimson also has to play like the experienced team it knows it is. Most of the sophomores saw heavy playing time last year, and Clemente and junior Drew Gellert have been staples of the program the last few seasons. On Tuesday, nerves led to some boneheaded mistakes.

For one thing, Harvard got in to early foul trouble and played like it. Not enough bench players picked up the slack when starters like forward Sam Winter, Clemente and guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman got their third fouls early in the second half. In one instance, stupidity may have cost the Crimson the chance at the win.

With Holy Cross up by two and less than a minute remaining, Harvard had to foul and let the Crusaders take their chance at the foul line, where they had not been spectacular. Instead, two defenders didn't foul, which wasted precious time. Finally, Clemente was forced to pick up his fourth foul by pushing Sankes. When Clemente was put in position to have to foul again a few seconds later, the Crimson was deprived of its best player and, more importantly, its only clutch shooter.

The game was also full of some ugly turnovers, including several hilarious miscues on fast breaks. If the Crimson wants to be a run-and-gun team, it's going to have to run properly first.

On the flip side, I saw plenty I liked. Harvard played well defensively, holding the Crusaders to 37.5 percent shooting. Last year, when the Crimson held a team to under 40 percent shooting, it almost always won. Expect that the trend will probably continue once the season gets underway.

Sullivan also kept his promise of a smaller, faster team. He started three guards, Harvey, Gellert and Prasse-Freeman, and backup Brady Merchant also came up big, scoring 10 points and draining a couple of treys. The offense looked faster, and only ran into real trouble when Holy Cross forced it to take a long time and shoot with only a few seconds on the shot clock.