For Harvard, it was the beginning of the end. For Yale, it was just the beginning.

Ahead 16 points at the half, the Harvard men’s basketball team utterly collapsed against the Elis at Lavietes Pavilion last February, sleepwalking through a seven-minute scoreless stretch that let Yale back into the game—and, it turned out, contention for an Ivy title. In a foreboding sign for this season, foul trouble banished Harvard stopper Drew Gellert ’02 to the bench and Harvard’s defense went to pieces. So did the offense once Yale switched to a zone defense and even the mighty Pat Harvey was powerless to prevent a jarring 66-57 loss.

The fallout was severe. Lost was the momentum of a spirited win over Brown the night before. Lost was a chance to improve to 5-1 in the Ivy play and lost was a shot—albeit a long one—at the Crimson’s first-ever Ivy title.

And Yale? The Elis were off to the races—the Ivy playoff race, in particular. Yale rattled off four straight wins, including a sweep of Penn and Princeton. By March, Yale was cutting down its net to celebrate its share of the Ivy title.

This year, Penn is still the class of the league and Princeton remains a pest, but Yale isn’t going away anytime soon. Sophomore Alex Gamboa had a superb year in 2001-02, but, compared to teammate Edwin Draughan, he arguably isn’t even the most talented member of that backcourt. Paul Vitelli is fast emerging as one of the league’s most consistent forwards, anchoring a frontcourt that also includes T.J. McHugh and Ime Archibong.

This year, the Elis have welcomed two promising freshmen in Juan Wheat and Dexter Upshaw. And, after luring Princeton transfer Dominic Martin to New Haven, the Elis have added a legitimate center for the future.

As for this season, coach James Jones has lined up a first-class schedule that may not translate into a ton of non-conference wins, but has won the Elis respect. It’s a long way from last year’s tilt at Lavietes, when it took an epic meltdown by Harvard to give the Elis life.

“We definitely felt like that could have been us,” Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said of Yale’s emergence last season. “I think about three or four teams felt like that could have been them.”

Maybe so. On that February night in Cambridge, Yale was just another Ivy team looking to distinguish itself and the game against Harvard seemed a battle of equals at the time. A year later, however, the game looks more like two ships passing in the night, with Harvard squarely in Yale’s rear-view mirror. The Crimson may have been the league’s third most successful team after Penn and Princeton the last six years, but Yale will have a lot more to say about the next six.

PENNSYLVANIA

Coach Fran Dunphy (231-129, 13 seasons)

Last SEASON 25-7 (11-3, tied-1st, won playoff)

Key additions Friedrich Ebede; Patrick Haddan.

Key losses None.

KEY RETURNEES Ugonna Onyekwe; Koko Archibong; Andrew Toole; Jeff Schiffner; Tim Begley; David Klatsky.