While the Harvard football team is looking for redemption against Yale this weekend, two Crimson alums will also have to redeem themselves after a week of last-second collapses.

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Fencer Jerry Chang’s impressive showing in the Garret Penn State Open may have earned him The Crimson’s Athlete of the Week honors this week, but a medley of other athletes turned in excellent performances as well, earning them acknowledgment on the runners-up list.

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When the Harvard men’s basketball team takes on Holy Cross at Lavietes Pavilion on Dec. 22, the Crimson will attempt to earn a fifth consecutive victory over the Crusaders. Harvard came out on top, 73-64, when the two teams met last year on Nov. 15, 2011.

But despite the Crimson’s recent dominance of the Crusaders, last season’s contest was closer than the score indicated. The game was tied, 34-34, at the half, and Harvard found itself up only four points with seven minutes remaining before a late run put the game out of reach.

The main contributors in the matchup will be very different than last year’s, as key players from both schools are no longer with their teams.

In last year’s campaign, most of the Holy Cross production came from guard Devin Brown and forward R.J. Evans, who led the team in season scoring and netted 17 and 13 points against the Crimson, respectively.

But although they lose Brown and Evans, the Crusaders return most of its core team this season. Both junior forward Dave Dudzinski and sophomore guard Justin Burrell, who started every game last year and were third and fourth on the team in scoring, will likely account for a good portion of the team’s offense.

Dudzinski, who led Holy Cross with 6.0 rebounds per game last year, will team up with senior center Phil Beans to anchor the Crusaders down low.

Holy Cross will also rely on freshman guard Cullen Hamilton, who scored 15 points in his first collegiate game and subsequently named Patriot League Rookie of the Week.

The Crusaders finished with a 15-14 record last year and lost to Lafayette in the quarterfinals of the Patriot League tournament. Holy Cross was picked to finish fourth this year in the conference preseason poll.

The Dec. 22 matchup represents the final game for both Harvard and Holy Cross before a weeklong break, and whoever can pull out the victory in Cambridge will be rewarded with an early Christmas gift.

While most Harvard students are locked in Lamont for reading period on Dec. 7, the Harvard men’s basketball team will travel to Storrs, Conn. to face the University of Connecticut.

The last outing for the two teams saw the then-No. 25 Crimson, playing its first game as a ranked team, lose to the Huskies, 67-53. Connecticut used an aggressive defense to stifle Harvard in the paint in the low-scoring affair. Huskies guard Jeremy Lamb led the night in scoring with 18 points. Center Andre Drummond tallied 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting that included an explosive five dunks. The Crimson was propelled by then-junior Kyle Casey’s 12 points and was able to come in at the half just trailing by two points, 30-28. The second half of the game saw Connecticut go on a 17-3 run to seal their victory.

The Juskies went on to go 20-14 overall and 8-10 in the Big East. The reigning national champions fell, 64-77, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Iowa State.

With Lamb and Drummond now pursuing NBA careers, legendary head coach Jim Calhoun now retired and the team in academic hot water and already banned from postseason play, this season may be a rebuilding one for Connecticut.

Kevin Ollie has stepped into Calhoun’s shoes as head coach, and the program recruited 6’5” guard Omar Calhoun as well as two forwards, Phillip Nolan and Leon Tolksdorf. Calhoun, who hails from Brooklyn, played for the New York Gauchos—the same AAU team which Kemba Walker was once a part of—and will be a scoring threat.

The Huskies backcourt is dominated by the duo of veteran guard sophomore Ryan Boatright and junior Shabazz Napier. Napier and Boatright were the second and fourth highest scorers per game last season, with 13 and 10.4 points per game each, respectively.

Forwards DeAndre Daniels, Niels Giffey and Tyler Olander will round out the starting five. At 6’8”, 6’7”, and 6’9”, respectively, the trio may challenge the Crimson in the post.

This week Harvard alums are dominating the job market, with three separate graduates inking contracts on and off the field—not to mention a certain Law School alumnus who won reelection on Tuesday.

Olympic swimmer Alex Meyer ’10 announced this week that he is coming back to the Harvard swimming and diving program as an assistant coach. Meyer notched a 10th place finish in the 10k in London.

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