NIT Committee Considers Tourney Bid for Harvard

With less than a week to go before bids are extended, the Harvard men's basketball team Jocks like a candidate for the Cinderella story on the 1984 National Invitational Tournament (NIT).

Only last weekend, the Crimson watched its Ivy League title hopes evaporate once again, as Princeton took the crown--and the accompanying NCAA tournament berth.

But Harvard did pull out a tie with Cornell for second place, matching its best-ever finish (9-5 Ivy, 15-11 overall). And the strength of Crimson's showing in the season's second hall, along with strong performances during the regular season, have left Coach Frank McLaughlin and his troops with a chance for post-season action.

On Sunday, the NCAA will issue tourney invitations to a record 53 teams, and those squads will automatically become intelligible for NIT competition. The very next day, the NIT will extend 32 bids of its own.

The tournament's executive committee, which meets year-round, has stepped up actives recently, members said yesterday, and Harvard's name has certainly been mentioned.

"They were considered, along with many other second and third-place teams," said ECAC Commissioner Scotty Whitelaw, the committee's secretary.

"The possibility of having a team like Harvard in the NIT is always a reality," added Manhattan College Athletic Director John Powers a committee member.

The group has already set up tentative selections based on likely NCAA participants. Powers said, but he added, "there are always situations where you can have an upset in one of these playoffs."

The selection process, according to wagner basketball Coach Neil Kennett, another committee member, is "not easy--it's not like you pull 32 names out of a hat."

The committee will consider not only the Schools overall records-the NCAA's main criterion-but also the difficulty of their schedules and injuries that might have accounted for inconsistent play, he added, saying. "There's a little more human aspect to [the NIT's selection]."

That selection, should it materialize, would mean Harvard would almost definitely be playing on the road in the opening contest of the prestigious tournament whose final rounds are held in New York's Madison Square Garden But learning to win away from home is just one of many changes Harvard has made this year, duction of junior standout Joe Carrabino--back this year after recuperation from the back injury that kept him out nearly all of last season. Then sophomore Arne Duncan broke into the starting lineup. After all the adjustments and a little confidence-building, the team played progressively stronger ball over the course of the season.

But Powers saw the squad while it was still getting its bearings, in a pathetic 79-57 loss in Manhattan in late December. "That was a pretty quiet game," he recalled of the appearance of the entire Harvard bench against the Jaspers.

Six weeks later, though, the Crimson came within three points of toppling ACC power Duke, in an 89.86 performance that has not escaped the NIT committee's attention. That demonstration was one of only four losses--three of them by three points or less--in Harvard's last 14 games, and the Crimson's power down the stretch came despite a mid-February injury to Bob Ferry's foot that kept the star junior guard on the bench for two games and limping for four more.

Citing "a certain amount of interest" in the Ivy League teams in general and Harvard specifically because of the caliber of Carrabino and Ferry. Duke Assistant Coach Bob Bender said, "I think everybody's looking for a school like Harvard--there's a certain appeal Harvard would have."

Asked how he felt the Crimson would line up against NIT squads. Bender responded. "It how they played against us was indicative, they'd be a very worthy competitor."