After 14 Dismal Seasons...

(The author is a junior on the basketball team)

In the past, basketball seasons have been sad times for Harvard sports fans. Seasons and games have come and gone, and year after year Harvard has ended up in the cellar. The series of disappointing losses has inspired reactions ranging from ridicule to apathetic yawns from Harvard students.

Maybe this year will be different. If the coach and players have anything to do with it, those sophisticated Harvard sneers may turn into cheers. There's a new spirit among the players this year: there's determination, something not too unusual in winning teams but something that hasn't been seen for a while in the Harvard locker room. And the potential basketball heroes aren't wasting any time in proving their intentions.

Since the beginning of school some twenty basketball players have been jumping over benches and slogging up and down the steps of the Indoor Athletic Building in an unprecedented effort to get ready for the regular season practice. These daily unofficial workouts, with Captain Bob Kanuth supervising, have aimed at preparing the team for the physical and mental discipline necessary to pull Harvard out of its basketball doldrums. "The workouts have developed a spirit and enthusiasm," Kanuth says, "which we feel this new situation warrants."

The "new situation" that Kanuth and all the others players are constantly aware of is the new Harvard coaching staff. Varsity Coach Bob Harrison is beginning his first year in charge, and the difference from the last 14 years of Floyd Wilson squads is already obvious.

Harrison, a professional ballplayer for nine years, came from Kenyon College last year. At Kenyon, Harrison was accustomed to enthusiastic student backing for his team, and he's aiming for the same thing here. He has a simple plan for doing it: he wants to make his team "not just a wants to make his team "not just a winner, but Number One."

That, of course, may be easier to say than do--especially in the light of past Crimson performances. Harrison plans to pull off the miracle by introducing a style of playing that's fun for the spectator and successful for the team.

"My philosophy of the game," Harrison said last month, "is the result of many years both as player and a coach. What I've tried to do is take the things I've enjoyed doing most as a player and blend them with the things that worked best for me--and against me--as a coach."

At Kenyon, "what worked best" for Harrison was a fast break offense. Harrison also tailored his strategy to the individual talents of his players, and he hopes that the same kind of well-planned power offense will give the Crimson an impressive scoring punch.

Harrison's defensive plans are just as aggressive. His team will run into such basketball Goliaths as Ohio State and University of San Francisco this year, and Harrison hopes to give the Crimson a little better chance by using a mix of full-court and half-court presses. In regular Ivy competition, the presses may surprise teams like Columbia and Princeton.

Harrison's plans have made an instant hit with the players--even though they haven't had much chance to show it in the past few years, they do like to score. But the changed Harvard basketball approach may be even more popular with the 4785 undergraduates who aren't on the team. "Fans like to see scoring," said one disgruntled junior, "and I'm not going to that IAB to see any more of these half-assed teams. When our teams start winning, we'll go to see 'em."

It's been a humble few years for Harvard ballplayers, and one of Harrison's most miraculous achievements has been the re-establishment of a spirit of pride on the once-embarrassed team. Harrison's contagious determination has also reached out to the Athletic Department, which has finally purchased a set of new uniforms and balls for the team.

Talk of winning is easy early in the season--easy for coaches and fans. But lurking behind the October optimism is the realistic knowledge that the hiring of one coach--even an enthusiastic and energetic coach--will not magically cure Harvard's basketball ills. At least not in one season. Harrison knows this, and one of his major concerns is about the fan's understanding of the long rebuilding job the team faces.

Harrison wants to introduce an entirely new style of basketball--and that may not be easy if the fans don't see instant results. But Harrison--and his players--realize that a steady building process is starting this year, and starting with many of the players that IAB mini-crowds have sneered at in the past. But the building will keep on, and, as Kanuth says, "it seems that a new era of Harvard basketball may be only 6 weeks away."