“Just getting used to all the restrictions in the Ivy League was very, very challenging,” Sullivan says. “The first Ivy League game I was coaching at Harvard was the first Ivy game I saw.”

And while his first four teams had losing records, Sullivan managed to turn the Crimson program around by the 1995-1996 season, as four out of the next seven years he posted winning records. The 1996-1997 campaign was one of the best in school history, as Harvard went 17-9 and finished second in the Ivies.

However, the past two seasons have been particularly difficult for Sullivan and Harvard, especially last year’s 4-23 finish, which the one Sullivan calls, “without a doubt,” his toughest season as a coach. The 2002-2003 season was also frustrating, as Harvard had a winning record heading into the Ivy season, but seemed to implode with the loss of Patrick Harvey ’02-’04, who was declared academically ineligible to play at the end of first semester, and in the middle of league play.

“It was really a nice feeling going into every year knowing that we had a legitimate shot to win the Ivy League title, and I think that he’s had a little bit of a harder time in the past couple of years,” says Tim Hill ’99, a point guard during the best years of Harvard basketball, who won the team MVP in his senior year.

But like his colleagues, Sullivan’s students are quick to compliment Sullivan and his work.

“I love coach,” says captain forward Jason Norman. “I’m sure he took a lot of heat because of the way we played and because of our record. I really want to win a championship for him this year.”

Such a finish would seem to be a fitting way to put a real stamp on Sullivan’s upcoming record-setting season.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reahced at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.