One question that lingers for the Crimson is who will step up into a secondary scoring role behind Harvey.

“We’re not looking at it as if we need to get any one person more touches,” Sullivan said. “As a team we just need to shoot better. Our league is so predicated on the three that we need to get our percentage of those.”

With his dead-eye outside shot, Martin should attract attention from opposing defenses along the three-point arc. He, Harvey and Prasse-Freeman are the Crimson’s best long-range shooters.

Now in his fourth year at point guard, Prasse-Freeman averaged 7.6 points per game and dished out a league-leading 5.4 assists per contest last season.

Merchant, who averaged 7.2 points per game off the bench last year as a very productive sixth man, will be looking for an expanded role this season.

“I fully expect Brady to compete for a starting job now,” Sullivan said. “It was just difficult the last couple years for him to break in there when you have Elliott as such an accomplished point guard, Pat as such an accomplished shooter and Drew as such an accomplished defender.”

Merchant will have to adjust to his new role as team leader, accommodating for the presence of so many freshmen.

“I am going to have to be somewhat of a verbal leader especially,” Merchant said.

With respect to offensive execution, the Crimson backcourt will depend on creating space through penetration in order to find an open shot.

“With our perimeter players, we’re going to continue to try to beat guys off the dribble,” Sullivan said. “We’re really looking at creating driving angles for them and so we’ll probably set a lot of screens as a way to try to make that happen.”

Sophomore guard Jason Norman was one Harvard player who showed slashing ability last season. Newcomer Mike Beal has also shown promise this preseason driving to the basket.

“He’s shown some explosive moves in practice,” Sullivan said of Beal.

This emphasis on penetrating inside should also result in more trips to the free-throw line, which presents the Crimson with a chance to add to its point total, should it convert on the opportunities.

The Frontcourt

Perhaps the greatest uncertainty for the Crimson will be the source of its offensive production down low after losing Tim Coleman ’02 to graduation.