Four months ago, at the outset of the 2000-2001 NCAA men's basketball campaign, expectations ran high for the Harvard squad. With three starters and several other key reserves returning from the previous year, many observers predicted big things for this year's group.

Just two weeks ago, with the Crimson (12-12, 5-7 Ivy) coming off a convincing victory over Penn that snapped the Quakers' twenty-five-game conference winning streak, the predictions appeared to be correct. Even a hearbreaking 69-67 last-second loss to Princeton the following night could not dampen the Crimson's spirts.

At the time, Harvard was 5-2 in the Ivy League after tangling with the conference's two perennial powerhouses and was in the thick of the race for the league title and the automatic NCAA tournament berth that comes with it.

Then, things fell apart for the Crimson. Road losses to Brown and Yale, both by eight point margins, followed by a 62-48 loss to Penn on February 23 and a 70-47 drubbing at Princeton the next night dropped Harvard into sixth place.

Now, the sputtering Crimson enters the final weekend of the season playing only for pride. A sweep over Columbia and Cornell would bring the squad to the .500 plateau in the Ivy League.

Harvard needs just one win to best last year's total and reach .500 overall for the fifth time in the last six campaigns. The games also have a great sentimental significance for the Harvard basketball family. They mark the end of the career of one of the most decorated Crimson players in recent memory, captain Dan Clemente, as well as his senior classmate Bryan Parker.

Columbia (11-14, 6-6 Ivy) comes into Friday night's game having had its chance at the Ivy title crushed by a heartbreaking 67-65 loss to Brown last weekend. The Lions are led by Craig Austin, who ranks third in the league in scoring with an average of 18.2 points per game and is one of Clemente's competitors for Ivy League Player of the Year honors. Columbia has also demonstrated the capacity to be a dangerous squad, beating Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Yale in consecutive games before falling to Brown.

The Lions beat Harvard 65-55 a month ago in New York in a game in which the Crimson started flat and never recovered. Columbia brings a 1-11 road mark to Lavietes Pavilion, however, where Harvard has beaten eight of its 11 opponents this season.